Blog Post 4

Females in The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, come off a lot more powerful than they do in Drown. Although masculinity is a central theme, females fight back in Oscar Wao. For example, Lola is a strong, tough young woman. Even though, “when she was in fourth grade she’d been attacked by an older acquaintance,” she didn’t let it control her life (25). In fact it made her “tougher than adamantine” (25). Lola acts as though she has some power in the relationships she has with men. She even breaks up with her boyfriend (48). A lot of the power women have over men has to do with their sexuality. Belicia uses her sexuality to have power over men, such as when she was worked at the Chinese restaurant, Palacio Peking. She would lead men on and “as you might imagine, everybody was in love with her” (107). This is very different from Drown, where women had absolutely no power.