Unnoticed Promises: A Passage Analysis by Victoria Carson

In Beli’s main chapter of Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, readers witness a unique “heart-to-heart” moment between Beli and the Gangster. After Beli asks him if he ever misses having a family, the Gangster replies:

“All those people have families, you can tell by their faces, they have families that depend on them and that they depend on, and for some of them this is good, and for some of them this is bad. But it all amounts to the same shit because there isn’t one of them who is free. They can’t do what they want to do or be who they should be. I might have no one in the world, but at least I’m free.” (133-134)

On the surface, Beli accepts this speech. She later tells him she wants to be like him and be free too. But what makes this conversation so interesting is that Beli clearly does not consider the implications of this belief system because if she had considered them she would see the futility of her visions of marriage and children.

Beli doesn’t seem to notice that the freedom that the Gangster claims to own does not match the situation he outwardly appears to be living in, and definitely doesn’t match the future Beli envisions. He says he is free from dependents and people to depend on, that he has “no one in the world,” even though he has a wife, a mistress, and a dictator to please. He does have people in his life, but in order to maintain his freedom, to be who he “should be,” he has distanced himself from them. This freedom that he claims shows how little emotionally invested he is in the lives and futures of those he claims to care about.   

Beli either does not understand or romanticizes this confession of distance, and is blinded to its ramifications for her future. Her excitement about her pregnancy and her belief that the Gangster would be equally excited show how she did not comprehend what the Gangster was saying (even though he basically promises her here they will never have a family) and as such she did not fully adopt his definition of freedom, at least not right away. An argument could be made that Beli’s parenting style might be based on this foundation: the belief that freedom and family are opposing forces.