Women - Objects of Desire

The role of Dominican American women in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao parallels the role of Dominican women in Drown, both books showing their worth in the society represented.  Their purpose in society is very limited compared to the men with which they live.  The women in Oscar Wao are barely even looked at as people; they are objects demanded by men based on their attractiveness.  Women in the novel use their attractiveness and their bodies as power over the men.  When Beli was young, she got a job at a Chinese restaurant, Palacio Peking, and attracts two men whom she leads on and doesn’t sleep with.  This is the only power women have in this society; their opinions and actions carry no weight within their family as long as there is a male in the household.  In Drown, Mami is not respected in the household until Papi is gone and she is the one the children must obey.

Most of the female characters in the novel have boyfriends that abuse and mistreat them.  When Beli was younger, she fell in love with the Gangster, who ended up being Trujillo’s sister’s husband.  Because of that relationship, Beli ends up pregnant and beaten in a field.  Lola had a boyfriend named Aldo, with whom she ran away and had a rocky relationship with.  None of the women in Oscar Wao consider the fact that they don’t have to put up with this treatment.  None of them realize that they don’t need a man in their life if he is going to treat them so terribly.  The fact that men abuse their women isn’t something that is questioned in Dominican American society.  Friends of a woman in an abusive relationship will often ask why the woman is staying in that relationship, instead of asking why the man is doing the abusing.  In Drown, Yunior’s Tia is concerned about Mami and Papi’s relationship, but more about why Mami is staying in the relationship than why Papi is mistreating her (Fiesta 1980, 39).

In the Dominican American society, male promiscuity is also very important.  Yunior says to Oscar, “O, it’s against the laws of nature for a domincano to die without fucking at least once,” on page 207.  Getting with a girl constitutes bragging rights as seen in Drown when Yunior is giving advice on how to get with certain girls and talks about calling friends while the girl is in the bathroom to brag (How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie, 148).

Diaz gives a glimpse into the Dominican American society and the role of women in that society through The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Drown.  Women are represented as things rather than people.  They serve as desirable objects for the men within this society and they only power they possess is to use their bodies and attractiveness to manipulate and attract the men.  The women serve as a supplemental part of society, and are treated as accessories to their male counterparts.