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Oscar Character Analysis

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In the same way that they are breaking and tearing up Oscar’s beloved possessions, they are attempting to do so to Oscar the human. By breaking his glasses, they remove Oscar’s sight and his ability read, integral to his function in his world. By tearing up his books, they destroy that evil force that fostered Oscar’s growth into an “other”, perhaps attempt to tamp down Oscar’s development as a threat to their norm.
However, despite it being a cause for his othering, the Genres allow Oscar a reprieve from his reality as it allows him a place within which his own monstrosity is a cause of power. In these fantasy worlds, there are people like Oscar, “magic”, and “great destinies” (21). We can see this fascination with fantasy linked to a desire for power in Yunior’s description of Oscar’s hobbies, “Could write in Elvish, could speak Chakobsa, could differentiate between a Sian, a Dorsai, and a …show more content…
He is not the monstrous villain that Paterson treats him as. Being a monster or a mutant is no longer strictly something evil to be feared. In Oscar’s fantasy world, he can be “magic[al]” (21), a monster or a mutant with a greater “destin[y]” (21) and purpose to achieve. As previously discussed, Yunior describes Oscar as “wearing his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his light saber or a Lensman her lens” (21) and this becomes a negative marker to society for Oscar as a monster. However, considering the concept that likens Oscar to a protagonist of a work of the Genres, one can see Oscar’s nerdiness become his weapon. The “light saber” and the “lens” act as weapons for the “Jedi” and the “Lensman” with both items requiring great and special skill to wield properly and with full power. For Oscar, his nerdiness is a weapon to be used against the pain and the depression of his torment, “help[ing] him get through the rough days of his youth”

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