It is said that "children suffer the sins of their parents". In a more literal sense, many people believe that it is the parents' fault for any defects the child possesses, not a literal "sin." People blame parents for the child's development, be it good or bad, and immediately point the finger at the child's guardian before blaming the child himself. Is it really the parents' fault if a child has a difficult upbringing, and does this really affect the child as a whole? This point can be further explored in Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Diaz's novel introduces us to an immigrant Dominican family living in Patterson, New Jersey. We are introduced to the De Leon family consisting of Oscar, the overweight nerd eager to fit in, Lola, his rebellious sister, and Belicia, their immigrant mother who grew up in the Dominican Republic. All three characters deal with a lot of issues through their narratives, and both Oscar and his sister suffer from being singled out and different from their peers. The two outcasts face an immense amount of pain in the book, but why? We wonder if Belcia's mother's upbringing, trauma, and a possible fukú, or curse, have anything to do with it. Do these children really suffer the "sins" of their parents? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To examine this, we must first understand Belcia's background and life before Oscar and Lola. Belicia was the daughter of two hard-working parents, Abelard Cabral, a doctor and Socorro, her mother, a nurse. His family lived during Trujillo's dictation in the Dominican Republic, which occurred from February 1930 to May 1961. Nicknamed El Jefe, or "The Boss," Rafael Trujillo was one of the most brutal dictators seen in Americans. Trujillo shaped an era of personality cult and bloodshed. He took whatever he wanted from anyone, and if there was any sign of regression, he would make him pay for his disloyalty in blood. Trujillo's government caused the deaths of over 50,000 people. Trujillo was well known for his sexual appetite and when he wanted a woman, he took her; Trujillo couldn't be said no. It is here that we witness the fall of Father Abelard of Belicia. Trying to protect one of her daughters from Trujillo and having to sleep with him, she brazenly lies to him about having attractive offspring. When Trujillo invites the family to an event including his daughter, and they fail to show up, Trujillo angrily takes Abelard away to punish him for his betrayal. She never returns home, and in further tragedy, Belicia loses both her parents and her sister and is left an orphan. It is at this point in Abelard's misfortune that the Cabral family fortune declines. They believed that, due to Trujillo's terror, a “Fukú” had been imposed on their family. A fukú is a curse of bad luck. “They say it came first from Africa, carried by the screams of slaves; that it was the mortal doom of the Taino, pronounced just as one world died and another was born; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the door of nightmare that had been thrown open in the Antilles. Fukú americanus, or more colloquially, fukú: generally a curse or sentence of some kind; particularly the curse and ruin of the New World. (1,Diaz) Dominicans believed that fukú arrived in the Dominican Republic thanks to Trujillo. From this moment on, Abelard's lineage will suffer infinite misfortune. “Most people you talk to prefer the story with a super natural feel. They believe that not onlyTrujillo wanted Abelard's daughter, but not being able to kidnap her, out of spite he put a fukú on the family's ass. That's why all the terrible things that happened happened. ” (243, Diaz) Knowing the parental background, we can now explore Belicia as an individual and as a parent. Belicia, still living in the DominicanRepublic, was adopted by her aunt La Inca after massive abuse by her previous adoptive parents. It is during her time with La Inca Belli faces the changes and pressure of growing up as a young woman in her country Belicia faces bad luck growing up. She is shunned by her peers at school, goes unnoticed and without friends; .Once she reaches puberty, Belli gains enough confidence in her physical appearance to crawl out of her shell and get closer to the only boy she fantasized about, Jack Pujols. Jack ended up being the son of a dictator's colonel, also involving Belli in a mess. After they are caught having sex at school, she refuses to go back; Her second trauma regarding the fukú Finally, the hardest trauma that Belicia faces and which ends up getting her kicked out of the Dominican Republic is when she meets "The Gangster". The gangster becomes one of Belli's love interests in her later years and, after a yo-yo romance with him, she later discovers, after becoming pregnant with his child, that he is married to Trujillo's sister. After word of the pregnancy spreads, the sister sends servants to find Belli where they kidnap her, beat her nearly to death in a cane field, and kill her unborn child. It is after all this trauma that La Inca sends Belli to America for his safety. Belli has faced nothing but trauma her entire life, from early childhood to young adulthood. She and her family believed that this was all due to the fukú curse placed on her father. “There are still many, on and off the Isle, who offer Beli's near-fatal beating as irrefutable proof that the House of Cabral was indeed the victim of a high-level fukú, the local version of House Atreus. Two Truji-líos in one lifetime: what else could be carajo [fuck]? But others question this logic, arguing that Beli's survival must be proof to the contrary. Cursed people, after all, tend not to drag themselves out of the reeds with a frightening list of injuries and then happen to be picked up by a van of sympathetic musicians in the middle of the night who promptly transport them home to a "mother". " with crazy contacts in the medical community. If these serendipities mean anything, these heads say, it's that our Beli has been blessed. (152, Diaz) The misfortune that Belli faced was not only unfortunate, but also almost brought to her death in the early years of her life. After her immigration, she gave birth to her two children Oscar and Lola. Her relationship with the two children is extremely sporadic emotionally and can almost seem too harsh and little loving. Because of the traumas he faced caused by fukú, he has difficulty building a normal relationship with his children, and even more difficult to help them overcome their problems. Belli's misfortunes do not end in the Dominican Republic either; she lives with cancer. The trauma she faced in her country has substantially shaped her personality and, because of it, has made it impossible for her to have a normal relationship with her children. Lola, Belicia's eldest daughter a courageous and rebellious character. She is a unique and passionate girl who often clashes with her mother. Lola and Beli have a conflicting relationship. We see them clash often throughout the novel. “You're afraid ofconversations with your mother. Those one-sided reproaches. You thought he should call you to give you another chat about your diet. (52, Diaz) Lola's relationship with her mother is toxic and extremely judgmental by the end of Beli. It doesn't have the warm, peaceful relationship you might imagine a mother and son having. Due to the constant arguments and disapprovals from Beli we see Lola rebelling a lot. She takes on a "punk girl" persona in which she dresses all in black and shaves her head. Shaping her physical appearance to attract him as someone "different", also places her in the outcast category, resulting in her having a minimal number of friends and abnormal relationships with men. Her mother becomes extremely disappointed in her and hurls nothing but anger and disapproval at Lola for her physical appearance and individual personality. In a way Lola does it because her mother hates it. Lola also runs away from home in Wildwood to live with a boyfriend. It seems that Lola's actions are designed to upset her mother. We clearly see the situation between the two when Belicia announces her cancer to her children at the dinner table. Instead of any sympathy, Lola literally dismisses her mother's announcement and looks at her and says "Can you pass me the salt, please?" (63, Diaz) Then goes on to say “This time I hope you die from this.” (63, Diaz) Beli's lack of affection and attention towards her daughter pushed Lola to act. In acting he sought every sort of attention possible from his mother, even if negative. It makes you wonder if the way Beli behaves towards Lola has created hatred in Lola. Is this Lola's personality or Belicia's influence? Then we have Belicia's son, Oscar De Leon. Oscar is the textbook definition of “nerd.” He is constantly involved in video games and fantasy worlds, distancing himself from reality every chance he gets. Not only is Oscar a nerd, but he is severely overweight and almost completely devoid of any social skills. “The guy wore his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his lightsaber or a Lensman his lens. He couldn't have passed for Normal if he wanted to” (23, Diaz) we see Oscar face so many problems when it comes to fitting in. Initially he has two friends, who are barely friends, and ultimately not a part of his life, and he has no idea how to deal with women. As we follow Oscar throughout the novel, we see the tortures he faces from a young age to his adult life. He is teased, picked on, and overall marginalized. We see him deal with the same issues throughout high school and college. Overall, his displacement leads him to depression and he tries to kill himself by throwing himself off a bridge. Oscar survives and, after recovering, continues where we left off. He also has adult problems in his job. Even when he was a master teacher, kids still found ways to tease him. “His heart wasn't in it, and boys of all ranks and dispositions shit on him effusively. Students laughed when they saw him in the hallways. They pretended to hide their sandwiches." (264, Diaz) Oscar longs to fit in, to be normal, to be loved. He has never had any of these things in his entire life, and towards the end of the work we see Oscar finally feeling these things when he meets Ybon; a prostitute he falls in love with while visiting the Dominican Republic. He wants a normal life so much, he ignores all the problems that have come with Ybon: her profession, her Trujillo-inspired ex-boyfriend and all the drama that comes her way. he is tied.The hunger for a normal life is so great in Oscar that it will ultimately lead to his downfall.Rejecting the idea of ​​loving someone other than Ybon ruins him.