The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - The Ethos of a World

In last week’s class, we discussed various questions that dived into the art of world building. Having read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, one of the questions stuck out to me:

What is the world’s ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? 

This particular question struck me as important, because the ethos of the world that Junot Diaz had spun was both very similar and very different from that of my own world. To start, the ethos of this world seemed to revolve around doing whatever is necessary for success. Masculinity, taking what is “rightfully yours” and emitting a sense of power and influence seemed to be the key elements of finding one’s ideal self. At the very least, one should try to find their place in the world, and accept it as it is. Characters were expected to conform to society’s expectations – and when they broke out of those boundaries, bad things followed.

Find a girl. Man up. Don’t associate with those that are undesirable (Ybon). Do as your told. Don’t attempt to stand up to those that are more dangerous than you (Trujillo).  Conform, conform, conform. It’s a strange balancing act of acting tough enough to assert yourself and submitting enough to keep yourself out of harm’s way.

It is the conformity that I find doesn’t fit into my current world’s ethos. Here, people are prized for sticking out and doing everything that they can to differentiate themselves as artists. In Junot Diaz’s world, sticking out meant being lonely, getting sent to prison, being beaten and of course, getting murdered.

Oscar did not fit into the masculine and outgoing standard that his world had set for him, and thus he was out of place, and therein the story lies. Beli chose to be involved with men who were no good for her rather than heeding the warnings of La Inca, and thus she experienced suffering for her own inability to conform.

What I can relate to is the need to find one’s “proper” place. Past conforming to society standards out of fear of repercussions, or trying your hardest to stick out for the sake of the spotlight, at the end of the day both Diaz’s world and my own expect you to settle down and find your place in the world that is the path of least resistance. 

Lola was shunned for taking chances, traveling and making “questionable” decisions. No good was to come of Beli’s risky relationships. Had either of them made what the ethos of the world would deem reasonable, safer life choices (of which their family would have also agreed with), and found nice, honest men, didn’t bicker with or embarrass their family, and lived the lives others expected of them, their paths would have been less rocky.

The characters themselves may have their own individual ethos that they live by, but I believe that all things considered, the world as a while consists of an ethos that idealizes the things that most of the characters are not. Had this not been the case, Oscar’s far less than masculine, nerdy ways would not have brought upon him the problems he was bound to face, and the story itself would not have been able to provide the struggles that make up its very core. The characters recognize the ethos of the world. Some try to work towards it and wish they had become what the world expected them to be. Others resist, working against the grain, desperate to find themselves through the act of rebellion.