Cursed Forever

In the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the idea of fuku, or a family curse is presented.  Throughout the novel, multiple characters try running from the curse in different ways, but they can never escape it.  Reminders of the curse present themselves through the symbols of the mongoose with golden eyes, and the man without a face.  After Beli is impregnated by Gangster, she thinks that they will get married and live together, however Beli is then confronted by his wife and almost forced to the hospital to have her baby aborted.  While kidnapped, Beli sees a man without a face.  This serves as a reminder of the fuku that hangs over her family.  Just when Beli thought things were going well, the man without the face appears to remind her that she is cursed and that bad things will continue to happen to her throughout her life.  Fortunately, she escapes this kidnapping and runs home due to the help of her Palacios Peking friends.  Even after this confrontation, Beli being young and inexperienced still believed that Gangster and her would be together in the end which is why she was foolish enough to run out into the wrong car where she was again kidnapped but this time not rescued.  Beli was beaten in the car and beaten more brutally in the cane field where she was left for dead.  However, she is saved by a mongoose with golden eyes.  The footnote mentions that the mongoose is “an enemy of kingly chariots, chains, and hierarchies” which is understandable here since it is the sister of Trujillo who is responsible for Beli’s beating, and she is only capable of inflicting this beating due to her brother’s power (Diaz 151).  The mongoose serves as zafa, the only power that can counteract fuku.  While the mongoose saves Beli from death, it also keeps her under the curse fuku.  If Beli were to die, she would escape the fuku and be free from the world and its curse.  However, zafa which wards off the curse indirectly keeps the curse upon her which proves that fuku is literally inescapable.