Davila Benabe, Luis E.

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Dungeons and dragons as the absent father in Stranger Things and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
(2021-12-09) Davila Benabe, Luis E.; Chansky, Ricia A.; College of Arts and Sciences - Art; Romaguera, Gabriel; Lamore, Eric D.; Department of English; Rodriguez, Grisell
In this thesis project, the tabletop roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons, is analyzed as a metaphor for alternate forms of male role models for early adolescent boys in the Duffer brothers’s television series, Stranger Things, and the novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. The purpose of this analysis is to criticize how there is a lack of modern-day adult male figures to look up to in the US. In this alternate male role model, which the game presents, the characters can develop a masculine gender performance, in contexts that have absent parental figures. In analyzing these texts, I utilize a focus on gender studies, with a combination of class theory from the works of Marx and Foucault and Borderlands theory from the work of Anzaldua. Each text provides characters who must face obstacles, related to these theoretical approaches, and the project focuses on how they must face these without a male role model to guide them. The tabletop role playing game provides a fantasy space that allows for the adolescent boys in these two texts, to experience heroic action, and have a model to become men.