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Close Reading on Identity: Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao focuses on the identity of Oscar Wao, a character who struggles to be Dominican enough, to be American enough, and to be masculine enough. Because of his ethnic, family, and personal backgrounds, Oscar attempts a hybrid identity for himself, one that allows him to bring different backgrounds and interests together in a unified person. Arguably, though, Oscar ends up with a fractured identity. From The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, choose a passage that you think stands out as the most important passage for the theme of identity and write an analysis in which you explain why this passage gives important insights into the whole novel’s treatment of the concept of identity. Begin by typing the passage (probably more than a sentence but shorter than half a page). Craft an argumentative thesis that maps out your critical reading of the passage and then move to analyzing what the passage itself says. Work to read it closely and interpret its imagery, language, and meaning. After you have developed a close analysis of the passage, you should expand to the whole novel, explaining and analyzing how your chosen passage is representative of the whole work. Analyze the passage as a synecdoche that helps you think about the plot, conflicts, and contexts of the novel. This prompt asks you to work on close reading skills, to cite and quote from the novel, and to interpret the meaning of the text. Make sure to start with an argumentative claim (your thesis) about your passage. Please note that you do not necessarily have to write about Oscar; you can choose another character to focus on, if you so choose. You might choose to focus on one or more of the following in your analysis:

Oscar’s family background and the role of the curse on his family

race, ethnicity, and national identity

pressures to act a certain way (masculine or hypersexual, for instance)

the role of love and sex on shaping identity

the effects of trauma on identity

Oscar’s interest in genre, science fiction, and fantasy

injuries and harm to the body

physical appearance

nationalisms and the effects of imperial intervention and political regimes on identity

language

diaspora