Life of Oscar Wao: A Reflection of the Past Being a black nerd is difficult, but being a black Dominican immigrant nerd is practically hopeless. Oscar lives in a world that reflects the history of his country. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the use of historical references is important to the book as a whole in understanding Oscar's life today. Although the book is about Oscar, the majority of the novel tells the story of the de León family and their life under the curse of the fukú. For Oscar's family, being an immigrant was difficult because of how history affected the family. Living in the Dominican Republic during the time of a horrible dictatorship was not an easy life for Oscar's mother, Belicia. The way she was treated and her family was treated reflects the way Oscar's identity was shaped. Because Oscar, being a Dominican immigrant, experiences one struggle after another to prove to others how Dominican he truly is, despite what others think. While people think he's the exact opposite of a masculine Dominican, Oscar tries to prove them wrong. Her struggle to find love and have a stable relationship also reflects how her family's romantic history is characterized by consistently failed relationships. All the incidents, events and inevitable conflicts in Oscar's life are a direct representation of his family's past history. Cultural, political, and family history explains the similarities between past and present that ultimately lead Oscar to his inevitable fate. Oscar's story revolves heavily around the family curse and how everyone who lived in the Caribbean lived with a curse. One of the story roles in the book is… the center of the paper… life when he finally decides to pursue the woman of his dreams, despite the consequences. In history, history really tends to repeat itself for Oscar. What happened to Oscar is closely related to what happened to Belicia in the past, from getting into unhealthy relationships to getting beaten up in the cane fields because of those relationships. The role of the story tends to act as a vehicle to foreshadow future events in Oscar's life. If the story hadn't gone the way it did, with Trujillo's terror spreading, Oscar and Lola wouldn't have had a life in New Jersey to escape evil. If Oscar had never left the Dominican Republic, his fragile self-esteem would have been in a worse situation than it is now. Although his family had a chance to escape to New Jersey, Oscar's escape attempt was unsuccessful as his life ended exactly where it began.