1. Group B--mpetersen27

In my book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, the characters constantly struggle with the idea of what if, wondering how different their lives could have been if circumstances were different. They are controlled by the regime, family, trauma, violence, and a curse, which makes them obsess over the path they didn't take. The book follows three primary characters: Oscar, a Dominican American nerd, who struggles with what-ifs by imagining romantic situations that never happened. Lola, his sister, who wonders what her life would be like if her mother weren't so controlling, and Beli, the mother, whose childhood is filled with what-if moments, such as what if Jack had married her, what if the gangster weren't married, and what if she hadn't gotten pregnant. Oscar, Lola, and Beli were all under a curse called the Fuku. The Fuku is an ancient curse from Africa that has affected the Dominicans. 

Oscar doesn’t choose to be isolated and feels out of place. Oscar constantly struggles with what ifs, such as what if he had stayed confident, what if he hadn't gained weight, what if girls actually liked him back. Once he hit puberty, he gained weight, developed acne, struggled with being able to impress the girl, and being the Dominican man that his culture expects him to be. Instead of dealing with these failures, Oscar escapes into sci-fi, where he can imagine a different version of his life. This is all caused by the curse of the Fuku that hangs over his family. Lola tries to rebel, become a punk, and runs away. The narrator explains that “each of these attempts to assert her identity failed since, for Lola, the primary goal was less to find herself and more to spite her mother.” (Diaz 89) Lola deals with what ifs by acting out and rebelling; she shaves her head, becomes a punk, and runs away as if changing herself will change her fate. For Lola, the Fuku shows up as a witchy feeling she gets before major negative events that affect her family. Lola's witchy feeling all began when she found a lump on her mother’s breast; the sicker her mom got, the more nasty she got, and the more Lola decided to rebel. Beli, in her childhood, tries to take control of her life when she begins working at Palacio Peking, a Chinese restaurant. Beli constantly asks herself what if she could escape her past. Rather than dealing with her trauma, she leaves the country haunted by all her what-ifs. All part of the Fuku destructive pattern. 

This connects to Anna Crowe's TED Talk, The Power of an Immigrant Mindset, about immigrants “Around us, people like you and me living, working, picking up their kids from preschool, cramming for their next exam, all while caring with them the invisible weight of reinvention of being uprooted and replanted in unfamiliar soil, often without knowing the language.” All three characters struggle with what if because they carry the invisible weight of the Fuke. The Fuke makes it harder for them to move forward because they're constantly haunted by what-ifs wondering how their lives could be different.

The novel “The Sun Is Also A Star” by Nicola Yoon shows how two teenagers experience the first stages of “love at first sight” in their own unique ways. Daniel is a lot more spiritual than Natasha in the fact that he believes in fate and love. Poetry is one of the things he loves which his parents think is basically a waste of time. He is fairly different from the rest of his family, his older brother goes to Harvard and he feels the need to be like “the perfect son” and his parents are being pushy for him to go to Yale while he tries to follow in his brother’s footsteps but also trying to make his own decisions. Especially when Natasha comes into his life. Natasha is a “keep to herself” kind of person. She is scheduled to be deported back to Jamaica, but she’s nervous to go back to her old life that she’s already left behind. Being deported is not her decision, it’s the government’s decision because she is an illegal immigrant, with a false social security number, which is also not her decision. Unfortunately the day that she is set to meet about the deportation she, literally, bumps into Daniel, or “Red Tie” and starts to fall for him.

The majority of this novel is based on the “what if” statement. Both Daniel and Natasha, as well as most of the side characters, are asking themselves “what if?” Natasha is worried about her meeting and being deported back to Jamaica but she keeps finding herself thinking about Daniel and what would have happened if this or that did or did not happen, “I wish I’d been nicer to him. I wish I’d gotten his phone number. What if this immigration nonsense resolves itself? If I get to stay, how will I find him again? Because no matter how much I pretend it didn’t exist, there was something between us. Something big” (Yoon 115). She likes Daniel, but she doesn’t want herself to because she will probably never see him again. Before they leave each other, they have a very awkward interaction with each other, they were both thinking the same thing. They didn’t want to leave each other and Daniel, he can’t help but try to hold her and Natasha is in sort of a fight or flight mode, but her feelings take over her and she lets him hug her eventually. 

In my book Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian Tom Bouchard is a great student, a good soccer player, and a bad decision maker. One night he and his best friend went to the Maquoit school and wrote “you suck Maquoit” on their school rock. He gets in big trouble with the school and has to do like 100 hours of community service so he can walk at graduation. 

Saeed came from playing soccer in Kenya, in Kenya they do not use cleats when they play soccer. So Saeed had to find some cleats and shinguards so he could play soccer. He also has to learn to speak English to communicate with everyone. “Yeah, in Kenya? He don’t wear shoes”(Padian 82).

What do you think would have happened if she was nicer? Or she’d gotten his phone number? What would have happened if the immigration nonsense did actually resolve itself? Did it? Do you think she’ll find him again?

If Beli had married Jack, what do you think would have been different? Would they still have been under the curse?

What would have happened if he never vandalized that rock? Do you think he’ll complete the hours in time? Is he able to communicate easily with English or is he struggling with making connections?

If Beli had married Jack, Oscar's family would still have the curse. They would still have the curse because the fuke has been with Oscar's family throughout generations. The fuku is a curse that originated in Africa and was said to have been brought over to the Caribbean by the traumas of the slaves. The fuku curse is said to affect all Caribbean people, including Oscar's family, who are from the Dominican Republic. Legends say the curse is passed down from generation to generation.  If Beli had married Jack, Jack's family could have been cursed by the fuku. The curse would have affected any of Beli and Jack’s children and possibly their lives.

Jgreenwood27, What if Tom did not get into trouble with the school? How do you think the book would change? Does he get bullied for doing community service?