The sub stories told in Oscar Wao

Bethany Douglas

Throughout The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao we as readers are focused on Oscar and those related or close to him in some way. Alongside of this, we have the footnotes that describe to us the broader side of the story. One footnote reads, "Although not essential to our tale, per se, Balaguer is essential to the Dominican one, so therefore we must mention him…" (90). This footnote then goes on to explain a history of the Dominican Republic, or at least a small portion of its history, as the majority of these footnotes do. I believe through this form the novel highlights one of its themes: the individual versus the nation. There are other ways in which the novel highlights this theme but through this form we see it very clearly. 

Another footnote that highlights this for me is about Beli's Gangster, "At age fourteen he killed his first 'comunista,' a favor for the appalling Felix Bernardino(16)… With the money he earned he bought himself a new suit and four pairs of shoes" (119-120). This quote is in the actual narrative of the story, relating the life of the Gangster. However, the footnote, number 16, is not, "Felix Wenceslao Bernardino, raised in La Romana, one of Trujillo's most sinister agents, his Witchking of Angmar. Was consul in Cuba when the exiled Dominican labor organizer Mauricio Baez was mysteriously murdered on the streets of Havana" (120). This footnote goes on to further discuss Bernardino and his role in Trujillo's government, which is a sub story running alongside the story of Beli and the Gangster. Through these footnotes we receive a greater image of the Dominican Republic and its history, whereas in the actual paragraphs of the story we get a much closer, personal reading of the characters and those around them. This is a visual representation of the theme of the individual versus the nation. It also helps to highlight for the reader that though the nation's story is not directly involved in Oscar's story, or the story of the individual that the novel is focusing on, it is still important and influential in the lives of all those who hail from that country. This form visually displays the nation and the individual as separate entities that regardless cannot be explained without each other.