Friday, April 17, 2015
Yunior & Oscar's Friendship
After reading Chloe’s blog posted entitled,
“Yunior is a Nerd,” I began to think about how bad of a friend Yunior truly is
to Oscar. He is quick to call him a nerd and make fun of him, but Yunior and
Oscar were similar because they both possessed a nerdiness, but Yunior was
afraid to show his because he believed he was a ladies’ man. He constantly
bragged about how big of a jock he was, and he even bragged that he could bench
press 340 pounds, (Diaz 170) which is more than Oscar weighs, which is 245 pounds
(Diaz 19). Yunior makes references to nerdy things, such as The Fantastic Four
and The Lord of the Rings, which shows that he is equally as nerdy as his “best
friend,” but he’s scared to show it. Yunior is also quick to point out that
Oscar does not have sex, while he brags about all of the girls he gets. Do you
all believe that Yunior is scared to show his inner geek side because he is
afraid that it will affect his sex life, or do you think there is another reason that he puts Oscar down for being different, when in reality they are similar in many ways?
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I think we talked about this a bit in class once, but I definitely agree with what you are saying. I think Yunior sees a lot of himself in Oscar, especially qualities that would emasculate Yunior or make him feel like less of a Dominican man. This thought process must come into play for younger aged Yunior, especially in reference to his sex life. I also believe Yunior is incredibly influenced by the people he hangs out with, especially in college. While his friends are present he has no problem with making fun of Oscar, and when they are alone finds himself trying to explain his actions. In a way I think Oscar sees the nerd in Yunior and it is one of the reasons why he is not intimidated by him. He accepts the side of Yunior that Yuinor himself cannot accept, and that is why Oscar is so important to Yunior.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think Yunior has some inner nerd, but he is too cool to act like he's as nerdy as Oscar. In many ways Yunior seems to throw his insecurities through insults to Oscar.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree; Yunior definitely uses Oscar to avoid his own insecurities. Near the end of the book I also stopped to think that Yunior may have described Oscar's lack of women and charm so harshly so the reader could understand the sadness that Oscar felt. Oscar's suicide attempt, and his death at the end of the novel, raised questions about Oscar's strength. His attempted suicide at the hands of another driver, which would have ruined that driver's life, was also controversial. Although Yunior was not always kind to Oscar it is clear that he cared about Oscar, therefore he would have wanted to ensure the reader understood Oscar's struggle.
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