Literature in English, North America Commons^™

Trauma Begetting Trauma: Fukú, Masks, And Implicit Forgiveness In The Works Of Junot Díaz, Jacob Vanwormer

English (MA) Theses

This essay began as an examination of Junot Díaz’s combination of “low” and “high” culture art and literature in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.In the wake of Díaz publishing “The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma,” and the subsequent accusations of abuse against him, it seemed irresponsible to examine the text in such a way without considering this new information. It was both more topical and relevant to re-examine the portrayal of Díaz’s recurring tragic playboy narrator through two short story collections and a novel, making note of the character’s proximity to Díaz’s own life story as presented …