Trujillo’s Children, One and All

            One of the main questions I could not shake while reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is of the female characters’ peculiar behavior. Each female in the novel is portrayed as extraordinarily strong and confident, until a man comes along and suddenly all of her power and self-possession is lost. I kept thinking while reading: why does Beli go from ruthlessly attacking a man for touching her arm to allowing him to screw her over repeatedly without putting up a fight (Díaz 114)? Why does Lola, who seems to me the smartest and sturdiest female in the book, return to Yunior when she knows he cheats on her regularly (169)? Why does Ybón, who is independent and strong-willed, allow the Captain to control her (291)?

            Then I realized, the answer is because every one of Díaz’s characters is a product of the Trujillo regime -- including the women. We’ve discussed the impact that the Trujillato had on the male characters, teaching them that male machismo and the degradation of women is the only way to be a man. However, I think the era shaped women just as much. The only way to explain why female characters as powerful as Beli and Lola allow themselves to succumb to the wickedness of disrespectful men is the time period they grew up in; they were taught that this is simply the way life works. Trujillo’s regime taught girls that, if they were attractive,  they were automatically  fair game for rape by their country’s leader (229). Imagine living under these presumed rules, and somehow supposing that standards should change and that women should be respected by men? It doesn’t sound too plausible.

            Thus, the wicked cycle continues, trickling down through the generations. Lola sees a mother who allowed three different men to mistreat her, and lets that mindset affect her own dating life (although fortunately she does, in the end, escape from Yunior and find what we assume is a more respectable man). Ybón, despite also not living immediately under Trujillo’s regime, experiences its aftereffects years later and allows them to dictate her relationship with the Captain. Every female character, no matter how robust she seems in daily life, is ultimately weak and allows herself to be subordinated to men repeatedly. Díaz is not arguing that women are weak.; he is demonstrating the power that the Trujillo era had to weaken them. All of his characters are truly Trujillo’s children.