The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Chapter 2 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
But that's not what I wanted to tell you. It's about that crazy feeling that started this whole mess, the bruja [witch] feeling that comes singing out of my bones, that takes hold of me the way blood seizes cotton. The feeling that tells me that everything in my life is about to change. (1.2.1.91
One way to interpret this paragraph is to say that Lola is restless simply because she's an adolescent. It's a turbulent time for her. She's going through a lot of changes. Or you could point to the supernatural and say, "No. This isn't your everyday pubescent anxiety." It's a "bruja [witch] feeling" that comes over Lola (1.2.1.91). Right. Why call it puberty when you can call it witchcraft?
Quote 2
And then Aldo decided to be cute. I knew he was getting unhappy with us but I didn't know exactly how bad it was until one night he had his friends over. His father had gone to Atlantic City and they were all drinking and smoking and telling dumb jokes and suddenly Aldo says: do you know what Pontiac stands for? Poor Old N***** Thinks It's A Cadillac. But who was he looking at when he told his punch line? He was looking straight at me. (1.2.1.56)
Aldo is sitting with a group of (presumably) white friends, and he tells a racist joke while looking right at Lola. It's odd. Even though Lola is Aldo's girlfriend, Aldo reminds Lola that she's different. That she doesn't quite fit into his life. This is a good example of how racial differences and prejudices lurk beneath the surface in this novel—they can appear at any time, between anyone.
Quote 3
A punk chick. That's what I became. A Siouxsie and the Banshees-loving punk chick. The puertorican kids on the block couldn't stop laughing when they saw my hair, they called me Blacula, and the morenos, they didn't know what to say: they just called me devil-b****. Yo, devil-b****, yo, yo! (1.2.1.13)
Just like Oscar, Lola has a complicated identity. She's a punk chick who listens to Siouxsie and the Banshees. But she's also Dominican. What's a Dominican kid doing listening to British punk rock? The Puerto Rican kids don't know what to do with her; neither do the morenos—the dark-skinned Dominicans.
Quote 4
So much has changed these last months, in my head, my heart. Rosío has me dressing up like a "real Dominican girl." She's the one who fixed my hair and who helps me with my makeup, and sometimes when I see myself in mirrors I don't even know who I am anymore. (1.2.1.89)
Wao is, in some ways, a novel about change. Characters shift national identities, from Dominican to Dominican-American. They also shift life stages, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Here, Lola copes with these two kinds of shifts in identity at the same time. She rediscovers her Dominican roots in Santo Domingo, while also beginning to see herself as a woman. Heavy.
Quote 5
We were walking down Main and being stared at by everybody and out of nowhere I said, Karen, I want you to cut my hair. As soon as I said it I knew. The feeling in my blood, the rattle, came over me again. Karen raised her eyebrow: What about your mother? You see, it wasn't just me, everybody was scared of Belicia de León
F*** her, I said.
Karen looked at me like I was being stupid—I never cursed, but that was something else that was about to change. The next day we locked ourselves in her bathroom and downstairs her father and uncles were bellowing at some soccer game. Well, how do you want it? she asked. I looked at the girl in the mirror for a long time. All I knew was that I didn't want to see her ever again. I put the clippers in Karen's hand, turned them on, and guided her hand until it was all gone. (1.2.1.16-1.2.1.18)
All the pangs of adolescence show up this passage. You want anger? Rebellion? Confusion about who you are? Look no further than Wao.
Quote 6
And that's when it hit with the force of a hurricane. The feeling. I stood straight up, the way my mother always wanted me to stand up. My abuela was sitting there, forlorn, trying to cobble together the right words and I could not move or breathe. I felt like I always did at the last seconds of a race, when I was sure that I was going to explode. She was about to say something and I was waiting for whatever she was going to tell me. I was waiting to begin. (1.2.1.103)
Lola calls this "feeling" her "bruja" [witch] feeling. She seems to be following in the footsteps of our narrator, who seems to believe most things relate back to the supernatural. We know Lola and Yunior's relationship didn't work out, but they sure share a strong belief in the fantastic. Lola's restlessness as an adolescent isn't a stage—it's possession by witchy spirits. Freaky. We thought puberty was bad enough…
Quote 7
That night while we lay in Aldo's sweltering kitty-litter-infested room I told him: I want you to do it to me.
He started unbuttoning my pants. [Aldo:] Are you sure?
Definitely, I said grimly.
He had a long, thin dick that hurt like hell, but the whole time I just said, Oh yes, Aldo, yes, because that was what I imagined you were supposed to say while you were losing your "virginity" to some boy you thought you loved. (1.2.1.48-1.2.1.51)
When Oscar loses his virginity late in the novel, the circumstances aren't perfect either. But Oscar's experience is a lot more fulfilling than Lola's. Lola doesn't enjoy her first time at all. She only pretends to. Yikes.