英语论文网

In the novel Oscar Wao,the repeated appearance of canefields is symbolic.Thesugarcane field in the novel is the original place of violence against African slaves,Haitian laborers,Dominicans and immigrants.Whether the plainclothes police tortureOscar or Trujillo’s men beat Beli,the author arranges it in this specific geographicalspace:

They parked the car on the edge of the road and marched her into the cane.They walked until the cane was roaring so loud around them it sounded as ifthey were in the middle of a storm.(Díaz 147)

The violence against Oscar also happens in the sugarcane field,which makes readers have an illusion that yesterday comes back again.Such plot design shows theuniversality,frequency and repetition of violence in sugarcane fields.At the sametime,the violence Oscar and Beli suffer in the sugar cane field arouses the collectivememory of the Dominican Republic on the history of slavery,colonialism andimperialism.

Conclusion

The novel Oscar Wao demonstrates Díaz’s comprehensive exploration ofDominican political life,his active involvement in political issues and his keenpolitical awareness.The Dominican nationality of fragmentation,division,radicalization and hegemony is the result of intercultural encounters and multiplepolitical systems.In order to establish a concrete link between political factors and theimmigrant experience,this thesis chooses to examine the root of immigrant families’cultural identity crisis from a post-colonial perspective.The centrality of politics inthis thesis helps to explain the counter-cultural expressions of Dominican identity,thatis,the rejection and resistance to the enduring and far-reaching negative effects of thedictatorship,colonial ideology and the empire on the nation.

The political haze that lingers over the island throughout the novel includes thetyranny of Trujillo,the colonial legacy of Spanish rule,and the machinations of theEmpire.And Díaz has also displayed the consequences of the political nightmares onthe island,including the all-powerful and ever-present dictator,colonial exploitation,racial hatred,imperialist plunder and cultural hegemony.

Fukú(curse)is a symbol for domestic dictatorial oppression and Trujillo is theagent of Fukúin the Dominican Republic and the centralized embodiment ofauthoritarianism.Dominican masculinity is a legacy of male supremacy anddictatorship.Trujillo’s hyper-masculinity promotes the socialization of gender norms,and the lack of masculinity forces Oscar to lose his masculine identity and nationalidentity.This thesis also finds out that the violence suffered by Oscar and his familyin the novel is universal,coherent and in a vicious cycle.The dictator,elites and otherhegemonic males seize legitimate power and consolidate their position throughnetworks of violence,while some of the oppressed also gain limited power bybecoming agents of patriarchy through the internalization and circulation of violence.Of course,social surveillance and self-surveillance are also catalysts for theinternalization of violence.

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