In reading The
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao we have discussed, argued, and questioned
the idea of Fuku. My original thought was that this was some type of self-fulfilling
prophecy that the characters brought into their lives with their negativity. If
that is the case it makes me wonder what Yunior was doing towards the end of
the novel when he imagines that someday Lola’s daughter will need his help, “One
day, though the circle will fail. As Circles always do. And for the first time
she will hear the word fuku. And she will have a dream of the No Face Man.”
(330). This moment really makes me wonder what Yunior believes and through him
what we as the readers are supposed to believe. Is it the idea that through cultural
identity Isis will come to know Fuku and fear it? Is Yunior worried about
depression that runs in the family and suspects that what overtook Oscar may
also take her? Or by the end of the novel are we, along with Yunior supposed to
utterly believe in Fuku and Zafa? I’m not sure how I feel about these
possibilities. I would probably say I personally lean closer to the first two
that I mentioned, but there is a part of me that wants to believe in the magic.
Magic is after all an escape from the everyday life, something these characters
may have needed.
I think the circle is a metaphor for kharma and the idea that what goes around comes around. We touched on the idea of kharma earlier when we were discussing fuku but I really do believe that fuku is just a way of saying that everyone's poor decision making will catch up to them in the end.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best insight we receive for the meaning of fuku is Lola calling it life. We discussed fuku being an excuse for not fighting against the set-backs that everyone faces throughout their lifetime. Lola's refusal to believe in fuku made her a strong, admirable character. Instead she accepted that life was going to be a challenge. I believe that "the circle" was a metaphor for the protection that Isis received from her family and her necklace, but regardless of the protection that her family would be able to provide her, one day she was going to face life, and life has us all searching for answers. As for the no face man, I am still unclear on what this is meant to symbolize. I have considered the possibility of the no face man representing evil, since in the beginning of the book the no face man was mentioned often with Trujillo. I assumed that perhaps the lack of a face showed the conformation that those people had made, refusing to fight back of question the evil ways of the dictator, and therefore losing all sense of themselves. Perhaps the no face man later on in the text was meant to symbolize a loss to the battle against fuku, since Trujillo was often associated with fuku.
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