Summary:
- Oscar's sister Lola protects her little brother
- mother Belicia is just so mean to her children and everyone around her
- fukú, a curse, has been placed on the family for centuries
- Oscar is an awkward boy, whose family is from the Dominican Republic.
- he gained a hundred pounds, and lost his skills to get the girls.
- Oscar creates "new worlds" with superheroes, and his own sci-fi collection.
- he became isolated because while friends were off with their girlfriends he was either moping about his lack of a relationship, or reading.
- Oscar’s sister Lola, basically raised Oscar and their mother Belicia.
- Belicia was a single mother, working three different jobs at a time
- one afternoon her mother calls her into the bathroom and tells her that she has breast cancer.
- For the first time Lola is sad, and feels bad for her mother.
- Belicia decides to send her children to live in the DR for six months with her mother, La Inca.
- With La Inca the children feel truly excepted and part of a family
Quote: “He told them that what they were doing was wrong, that they were going to take a great love out of the world. Love was a rare thing, easily confused with a rare thing, easily confused with a million other things, and if anybody knew this to be true it was him. He told them about Ybón and the way he loved her and how much they had risked and that they’d started to dream the same dreams and say the same words. He told them that it was only because of her that he’d been able to do the thing that he had done, the thing they could no longer stop, told them if they killed him they would probably feel nothing and their children would probably feel nothing either, not until they were old and weak or about to be struck by a car and then they would sense him waiting for them on the other side and over there he wouldn’t be no fatboy or dork or kid no girl had ever loved; over there he’d be a hero, an avenger. Because anything you can dream (he put his hand up) you can be” (Diaz 322).
Reaction: This is a powerful moment for Oscar, if not the most important. These were his final words, just before he was shot to death. You would see something like this written in history books just before someone noble dies, which is actually the way Oscar wanted to be remembered. Oscar declared then in his finally moments what his life has taught him, even though it was so short and horrible. When he referred to being “able to do the thing that he had done, the thing they could no longer stop” he was talking about being strong and dreaming. He was talking about learning to love and love and love again! He was talking about looking life in the eye and not blinking. He was talking about he had learned, and that they could never ever take that way from him, even if they killed him. Oscar to me was the strongest in this moment more than any or the point in the book. In my mind I did not envision a big nerdy guy shaking with weak knees, I saw a strong man standing straight looking his murder right in the eye, with such a power and presence. Oscar did not die a weak boy, but a valiant man.
