Julia Alvarez & Junot Diaz: the formation of boundaries in creating a new Dominican-American identity

This essay will explore the concept of ethnicity in the stories and through the characters in the writings of Junot Di­az and Julia Alvarez. In particular, I will examine their critically acclaimed novels, Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), and how the authors' personal lives are reflected in these novels. Through the novels, I will examine the acculturation of Dominicans immigrating to the United States and consider how their narratives relate to the idea of a new Dominican-American identity. I will analyze how displacement, economics, and national expectations affect the characters' behaviors as they search for a new identity. Finally, I will evaluate, and corroborate with scholarship, the aspects of immigrants' former lives, and how their past and present ethnic identities have transformed with their attempt to balance both cultures, and establish an understanding of the immigrant and ethnic experience.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Vanessa Colema