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The Man with No Face represents the “fukú” curse at work in the world. Many times when a character undergoes hardship or tragedy, they see a man with no face. Beli thinks she sees a man with no face as her relationship with the Gangster falls apart, and then has nightmares of a faceless man after she is beaten by the Trujillato. Abelard’s wife dreams of a man with no face before Trujillo targets the Cabral family. Oscar too sees the man with no face as one of his attackers in the cane field, and Yunior has nightmares of faceless men after Oscar’s death. Many characters’s faces go “blank” right before they commit an act of cruelty or violence. The man with no face is a subhuman creature that has no compassion, representing the worst side of mankind.
The Mongoose, chief agent of “zafa” (the blessing or counter-spell to the fukú), is a symbol of good at work in the world. Based on the real animal, which is culturally significant in India and much of Africa, the Mongoose represents a warrior for justice with a surprising exterior. Though the mongoose is small, it is fierce – a mongoose in the wild can easily take on a cobra. But its size is not all that is surprising about its appearance. The Mongoose’s fur is deeply, beautifully black, and therefore reclaims the power of blackness by insisting that a black being can be a hero — something usually denied by the racist culture of both America and the DR. The Mongoose appears to save both Beli and Oscar when they are on the brink of death in the cane field, helping them to realize what is truly important, to focus on their family and loved ones, and offering invaluable insight on the journey to self-actualization. The Mongoose is a natural being that is better than humanity, and represents the best that humanity has to offer.
The Mongoose and the Man with No Face Quotes in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Mongoose and the Man with No Face. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 1, Preface
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It's perfectly fine if you don’t believe in these "superstitions." In fact, it's better than fine—it's perfect. Because no matter what you believe, fukú believes in you.
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Book 2, Chapter 6
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Oscar remembers having a dream where a mongoose was chatting with him. Except the mongoose was the Mongoose. What will it be, muchacho? it demanded. More or less? And for a moment he almost said less. So tired, and so much pain – Less! Less! Less! – but then in the back of his head he remembered his family... More, he croaked. --- --- --- said the Mongoose, and then the wind swept him back into darkness.
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Book 3, Epilogue
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Behold the girl: the beautiful muchachita: Lola's daughter. Dark and blindingly fast: in her great-grandmother La Inca’s words: una jurona. Could have been my daughter if I'd been smart, if I'd been ---. Makes her no less precious. She climbs trees, she rubs her butt against doorjambs, she practices malapalabras when she thinks nobody is listening. Speaks Spanish and English. Neither Captain Marvel nor Billy Batson, but the lightning.
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The Mongoose and the Man with No Face Symbol Timeline in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Mongoose and the Man with No Face appears in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 3: The Three Heartbreaks of Belicia Cabral (1955-1962)
...way home. She eventually catches a ride in an old Chevy, and thinks she sees a man with no face in front of one of the shacks they pass. She gets back to La Inca’s...
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...the baby. Beli, terrified out of her mind, thinks that the thug holding her is a man with no face . It is clear that the Gangster’s wife means to execute Beli. Luckily, Beli sees...
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...for dead, but the narrator says that, in the strangest part of his tale, a Mongoose appears to save the young girl. The Mongoose tells her that she has miscarried, but...
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Book 1, Chapter 4: Sentimental Education (1988-1992)
...towards Oscar, but Oscar closes his eyes. When he opens them, he sees a Golden Mongoose and throws himself over the side of the bridge. Yunior describes the suicide letters that...
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Book 2, Chapter 5: Poor Abelard (1944-1946)
...go to the party. Jacquelyn is incredibly excited, but Socorro starts having terrible dreams of a man with no face .
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...(and two weeks after the US bombed Japan, as Yunior informs us), Socorro dreams of the man with no face standing over her husband, and the next night she sees him standing over their children.
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Book 2, Chapter 6: Land of the Lost (1992-1995)
...science-fiction fantasy quartet that will make him the next Tolkien. Sometimes he dreams about the Mongoose. But these high points are erased when he realizes that the new generation of nerds...
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...to escape in the back seat. He looks out the window and thinks he sees a man with no face . The police officers walk Oscar into the cane field and Oscar has an intense...
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Close Encounters of the Caribbean Kind. Oscar remembers dreaming about the Mongoose while he was unconscious. The Mongoose asks Oscar if he wants less or more. Thinking...
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Book 3, Chapter 7: The Final Voyage
...and Oscar imagines he sees his whole family getting on a bus driven by the Mongoose, with the man with no face acting as bus conductor.
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Book 3, Chapter 8: The End of the Story
...Oscar shows Yunior a blank book and his eyes are smiling. Other times, Oscar has no face at all and Yunior wakes up screaming.
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Book 3, Epilogue
...taken, Yunior knows that Isis will eventually encounter fukú in the world and dream of the man with no face . When that happens, Isis will come to Yunior looking for answers. Yunior predicts that...
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