Jeffrey Fisher
Final Paper
Eng 102
Professor Peterson

Trujillo and the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not a happy book. The Author, Junot Diaz, does a great job fooling the reader into believing the story is about the De Leon family, specifically Oscar who is an over weight nerd trying to find the love of his life, but due to a family “fuku” or curse Oscar is having a lot of trouble doing so. Instead, the story actually portrays the dark history of the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Upon reading the stories of Oscar’s relatives the reader feels a powerful message of fear and oppression due to the actions of the Trujillo regime. Even after the demise of …show more content…

Know one knew who worked for the secret police. In Abelard’s story it actually turned out that his neighbor, who he trusted, was actually the one who turned on him and went to Trujillo with information. Any wrongdoing by a Dominican can make one feel the wrath of Trujillo. Trujillo used an array of means to instill fear among Dominicans. He projected a supernatural capacity to inflict harm on his enemies, not only physical, but also, through his association with witchcraft and the Catholic Church, spiritual and psychological. Rumors spoke of Trujillo’s association with demonic powers, and while unsubstantiated, he would go to the wildest of extremes. In 1937, for example, Trujillo ordered the massacre of several thousand Haitians who lived illegally in the Dominican Republic (Wells 3). Trujillo was assassinated on May 30, 1961, yet his principals and theories would live on. The people of the Dominican Republic were so accustomed to the lifestyle they were forced to live under the Trujillo regime; it felt like all people with power especially the police, acted as their own dictator. Lola, Oscar’s sister said it best her self “Ten million Trujillos is all we are” (Diaz Oscar Wao 324). This quote represents the evil ways of Trujillo was embedded in everyone who lived through the dictatorship. Everyone with some form of power was able to get away with anything they wanted thus being a recreation of Trujillo himself. As Oscar’s life was becoming quite pitiful,