“For Oscar, high school was the equivalent of a medieval spectacle, like being put in the stocks and forced to endure the peltings and outrages of a mob of deranged half-wits, an experience from which he supposed he should have emerged a better person, but that’s not really what happened” (pg 137)
In “The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz the character of Oscar is shown under a different light. High school is supposed to be a life-changing experience for people, it’s a place where people get a chance to emerge and it’s a transition from teenager to young adult. For Oscar, high school wasn’t what it was supposed to be, Oscar felt out of place and never really fit in anywhere. As a nerdy Dominican boy in an all Catholic High-School, he had a different view of High-School then his peers. Oscar felt as if everyone there acted like zombies and that everyone was the same. He could see that there was a clear mob mentality, everyone wanted to be cool and fit in but Oscar just enjoyed doing the things he liked like reading comic books. While everyone was trying to fit into the social norms Oscar realized that the most important thing was being an individual.
Junot Diaz realizes that many people feel like a social outcast in high school and don’t really know how to fit in and that some even feel like they’re wrong for not trying to fit in. By portraying Oscar as a nerd who is comfortable under his own skin he is sending a message to the youth that everyone is unique. The lesson of being a leader instead of a follower is also very important and plays a pivotal role in the portrayal of Oscar. He is able to point out the mob mentality of many of his peers and uses it in order to embrace his individualism.
I agree with your thought that Junot Diaz had written that phrase to show that everyone is unique. It could’ve also been that Junot wanted to mention it to show that all those who didn’t have that sense of “emerged a better person” ,or in other words to become cool, that they are not alone and Oscar himself went though it. I abide when you say that high school should be a life-changing experience but I believe not from a teenager to a young adult but rather from a child to a teenager because a lot of times students graduate from high school and still aren’t in that young adult mentality. The quote is significant to the novel because it demonstrates the same views that many people have towards high school. As the quote says its like “being put in the stocks and forces to endure the peltings” to explain how it is a time to develop yourself as a person. Overall I standby that Oscar did realize that the most important thing to him while being in high school was to be true to himself and to develop himself the way he wants to live plus it makes him that “Dominican hero” that they mention in the start of the novel.