The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: Style 1 key example

For example, Díaz moves seamlessly between English and Spanish, replicating the way that Oscar and Yunior would engage with the world. He doesn’t translate the Spanish words or phrases, suggesting that he is not interested in making his writing easier for the non-Spanish–speaking reader. Additionally, Díaz uses slang and curse words throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. But he also uses footnotes to expound on the historical context. His formal features are more traditional, and even, in the case of footnotes, which are associated with academic stuffiness. 

By challenging the assumptions of the reader of English, these stylistic contradictions express the point that Díaz is making with The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Oscar, Yunior, and the novel’s other characters in the novel speak a blended, hard-to-categorize English. It’s full of slang and resists convention. But Díaz suggests that this doesn’t mean they can’t be a good fit for serious forms, like biography and footnotes. 

Diaz’s style in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is also entertaining and full of playfulness. For example, he often capitalizes certain words, turning them into a proper noun in order to frame them as a specific force or character, such as: “For the next three months Abelard waited for the End.” Here, the “End” takes on an identity and meaning of its own—more than it would if it weren’t capitalized. This technique adds humor and liveliness to Díaz’s writing.