Zafa & "True" Protagonists

The novel is about Oscar, but he is not featured in quite a few parts of it. He is one of the "true" protagonists of the novel, there is no rule that a novel can only have one protagonist. They each have their individual story. Yunior writes, "Even now as I write these words I wonder if this book ain't a zafa of sorts. My very own counterspell" (7). He writes the story of Oscar, Belicia and Abelard; and this book is his inadvertent attempt at a zafa. It is more important that the story is told, than that it has a singular protagonist.

After being beaten half to death, Oscar has a dream: "An old man was standing before him in a ruined bailey, holding up a book for him to read...It took a while for Oscar's eyes to focus, but then he saw that the book was blank. The book is blank" (302). He is holding a blank book, as if it could be filled or needs to be filled. Eventually, Yunior shares these dreams: "We're in some kind of ruined bailey that's filled to the rim with old dusty books...Dude is holding up a book, waving for me to take a closer look...It takes me a while before I notice that Oscar's hands are seamless and the book's pages are blank. And behind that mask his eyes are smiling. Zafa" (325). An Oscar-figure is gesturing to Yunior a blank book and is telling him that this is zafa.

As an aside of sorts, the idea of "blankness" is prevalent in the latter half of the novel. The name of Ybon's lover is always "------," and Lola's husband is named the same way, the Mongoose says "------ ------- -------" to Oscar (301) and Yunior was unable to say the words that could save his relationship with Lola, "-------- ------- -------" (327). As well as the moment of Oscar's death, Yunior writes "Oscar--" (322). I don't know if I can say what this means with any eloquence. The option to fill-in-the-blanks starts when Oscar's life begins to end, as he starts to take some initiative and gain confidence. When he returns to Santo Domingo for the second time, he writes everyday that he's there. He starts to fill blank notebooks.

From the two epigraphs, it can be said that the importance of having your own story is central to Diaz's novel. The idea that a blank book, or the opportunity to fill a blank book, could be the counterspell to a curse, also supports an individual having a story. I've strayed from the question I was answering, Oscar is one of the protagonist's of the novel, but the multiple protagonists show how each individual can have their own story.