The novel, The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao, crosses the boundaries between truth and fantasy. Junot Díaz takes the reader through a complex story told in multiple voices, providing him with many facts and references, but also incorporating magic and myth to the point where the reader begins to question and wonder what is real and what is not. One such storyteller who often blurred the line between reality and myth was Yunior. Yunior often used a specific figure to distort our concept of reality, and this figure was a Golden Mongoose. The Golden Mongoose is a being who blurs the line between fiction and fantasy. This figure comes at times when no one can really identify what it is, whether it is a dream, a moment of intoxication, or when one is on the brink of death. Whenever the Golden Mongoose comes into contact with a character in the novel, he is not fully aware of normal reality, allowing Yunior to further disseminate and amplify the combination of magic and real life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Over the course of the novel we learn that although Yunior seems like the nice macho boy who gets all the girls, he also has an obsession or fixation with history and fantasy. He drops reference after reference from Marvel comics, Lord of the Rings, and can even read elves, while at the same time lecturing us on the history of the Dominican Republic. With this in mind it is no wonder why Yunior would want to put a supernatural spin on his narrative of the De Leon family's lives. We see Yunior twist fact from fiction for the first time as he tells Beli's story. Yunior depicts the Mongoose as a sort of guardian angel who tries to protect and save the members of the De Leon family. After Beli is kidnapped, beaten to the brink of death and left for dead in the cane fields, she comes into contact with the Golden Mongoose. Here is the description of their meeting. “So, as Beli drifted in and out of life, there appeared at her side a creature that would have been a lovable mongoose but for its golden eyes and black fur… you must arise. My little girl, Beli, was crying. My dear darling. Hypatia, your child is dead... You must get up now or you will never have your son or daughter. Which son? She moaned. Which daughter? Those who wait…you must follow.”(149). This passage is really interesting because Yunior allows the Mongoose to have a full conversation with Beli, making it difficult to describe whether the Mongoose is real or not since Beli spoke to her, and this helped save her life. The Mongoose is definitely not an evil or malignant figure because he gives Beli hope to fight and survive so that she can continue to live and eventually have her children. If the Mongoose had not shown up, Beli may not have had the hope and willpower to carry on since she was in so much pain, her baby had died, and her lover had abandoned her. What I found interesting was that the Mongoose knew the future. The Mongoose told Beli that she would never have her son and daughter if she were not resurrected, furthering the implication that the Mongoose has supernatural powers. The Mongoose continues to help Beli by leading her out of the cane fields to a road where she is eventually picked up and saved by a band of musicians. “But before Beli lost hope, he heard the voice of the creature. She (because she had a feminine cadence) was singing! In an accent he couldn't place MaybeVenezuelan, Maybe Colombian. Sueno, sueno, sueno, como tú te llamas... Sometimes he saw the creature's chabine eyes flash through the stems. Yo me llamo sueno de la madrugada.”(150). This passage made me think about where and when the Mongoose appears. The Mongoose kept repeating the word sueno, which is Spanish for dream or sleep. This reconnected me to how Yunior only allows this figure to exist in a dreamlike trance where you're caught in the middle, rather than in normal consciousness. In this next test, Yunior did something that I didn't quite understand. Oscar had fallen in love with La Jablesse but began dating another boy and their relationship soon ended. Oscar got really depressed and ended up getting really drunk with Yunior. Yunior eventually leaves but Oscar continues to drink and becomes careless, leaving his dorm and heading towards the train tracks. With the jump from the bridge and the train tracks in mind, Oscar meets the Mongoose. “He closed his eyes (or maybe not) and when he opened them again there was something straight out of Ursula Le Guin standing next to him. Later, when he described her, he would call her the Golden Mongoose, but even he knew that wasn't what she really was. It was very quiet, very beautiful. Gold-rimmed eyes piercing through you, not so much in judgment or reproach, but in something far more frightening. They stared at each other - he serene as a Buddhist, he in utter disbelief - and then the whistle blew again and his eyes snapped open (or closed) and he was no longer there.” (190) . This passage is very different from the first in the sense of the interaction between the Mongoose and in this case Oscar. The Mongoose said nothing to save Oscar from his suicide attempt. The Mongoose reveals itself to Oscar only for a moment, long enough for him to observe it, but not long enough for him to analyze it. In Beli's encounter with the Mongoose, the two actually have a conversation and the Mongoose seems to have a rather simple reason for saving Beli. With Oscar the Mongoose the motivations are not entirely clear and this intrigued me. Further reflection reconnected me with Yunior and his role in making the Mongoose so mysterious. In an interview between Edwidge Danticat and Junot Diaz, Diaz states that “dictators, no matter what part of the globe they come from, tend to recognize the power of the magicians of the word, which is why they so carefully seek to control, deny or exterminate the narrative competition” (Diaz). If Yunior had incorporated the Mongoose's voice, he would not have had control of the dream and therefore no control of the reader. If it had a conversation between Oscar and the Mongoose, it wouldn't have resonated as loudly because the reader would still be wondering if this being is real or just some kind of magic. By keeping the encounter short and silent, Yunior pushes the reader's mind beyond the edge of reality for just a moment. Another aspect that I found really interesting was the fact that Oscar, like when his mother met the Mongoose, was also in a dreamlike trance as he was under the influence of alcohol. His eyes were open (or closed), which makes me think of when people try to keep their eyes open but they close them, then open them again, then close, which is as close as you can get to "dreaming " while you are awake. I think Yunior gave the reader the idea of ​​Oscar's eyes being open (or closed) to leave the details he is providing up to interpretation. To say that Oscar's eyes could have been opened, or closed, means that he is not sure that what he is saying is one hundred percent accurate, that perhaps some parts need to be interpreted and that is where Yunior cleverly finds a way to sneak into his love of fantasy. In.