philippine literatures reviewer

8/11/2019 Philippine Literatures Reviewer

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Unit 1: Imaging the Filipino Man

Patriarchy

o Has institutionalized masculinity as the bedrock structure that defines power,

language & perception

o According to feminists, patriarchy acts as the mode of culture which dominates

and denigrates women

o Basing from psychologys definition, patriarchy creates caricatures which are

damaging to both men (perennial conquerors) & women (perpetually

conquered)

The selections clustered under this theme situate the multifarious domains the

Filipino man occupies

Mill of the Gods Estrella Alfon

Radical depiction of the Filipino man as an ignoble father and husband

Foregrounds the plenitude of literature in exploring how culture and politics

emblematize the patriarchal figure

Patriarchy (theme)

o Pio as the antagonistic husband, father and womanizer

o The man who left Martha for another woman

o The doctor who had a wife and secretly had an affair with Martha

Images/Symbols

o Pigtails: youth

o Knife/Gun: power, violence, bloodshed

o Window: freedom or lack thereof

o Flowers: beauty, gentleness, admiration or death

o Darkness: evil, ignorance, danger

o Saliva: disgust, hatredo Mill of the Gods: retribution or punishment (slow but certain)

o Crucifix: justice

Figurative Speech

o Simile:

life must seem like a road given us to travel

life seems like an old-fashioned melodrama


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o Hyperbole: both of them struggled and panted and had almost no breath left

for words.

o Irony: Even in play, there was some part of her that never managed to take too

great a partshe was so content if they always made her it in a game of tag, if

only they would let her play if only they would only include her in the

fascinating games she could not play alone.

Point of Views

o Omniscient

Point of view if the story is all-knowing

o Dramatic

Like a play; dialogues

Biblical allusion, Mythological allusion, Legendary allusion

Characterso Engracia

Flat character

o Martha

Dramatic/ round character

Espeleta

o Community

12 years old

o Received a first scar from the gods

Mga tauhan

o Martha - Isang maganda at tahimik na babae na dati ay huli sa kanyang pag-

aaral. May matinding galit siya sa kanyang ama.

o Ina - Siya ang nanay ni Martha na mapagtimpi sa panlolokong ginagawa ng

kanyang asawa.

o Ama - Ang tatay ni Martha na may kabit. Namatay siya sa huli pagkatapos

barilin ng asawa ng kanyang kabit.

o Espeleta - Ito ang mga kapitbahay at ang lipunan na kinabibilangan ng pamilya

ni Martha. Sila ang nakasaksi sa bawat pangyayari ng buhay nila Martha.

Mga Paksa at Tema

o Patriarchal na lipunan - Hindi nabigyan ng parusa ang ama ni Martha kahit na

alam ng lahat ang pangangaliwa nito. Sa halip ay tinanggap pa rin siya ng

kanyang asawa.


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o Paghihiganti - Piniling maging kabit si Martha upang mapunan ang galit niya sa

ginawa ng ama.

o Pambababae bilang madalas ngunit patagong gawain - Halos lahat ng lalaki sa

kuwento ay nangaliwa.

Buod

o Matha, the daughter of Pio and Engracia, was 12 years old and was lagged

behind others of her age, whether in study or in play. One night, she heard her

parents arguing and struggling in terrible fury with each other. Martha

immediately got out of her room when she heard her mothers voice and she

saw that they were struggling for the knife. Her father had commanded her to

take the knife away from her mothers hand and so she didand threw it out of

the window. Engracia wordlessly slapped her husband a couple of times as soon

as he released her. She clutched at Martha and told her words that wereunfamiliar to her; words that were only half-understood. But despite of this,

Martha was crying. Her father went out and was gone after her mother spat on

him, and Marthas mother directed her to find him but she could not. She went

back to the room and cried with her mother.

o When Martha was 18, she fully understood the night that had been a blur to her

when she was still 12. She fell in love with a guy not older than herself, and her

seriousness with love hindered things such as play or game. Martha asked him

about their marriage and he just laughed at her. She realized his excuses meant

that he did not want to marry her. He married another woman and Martha,

taking in reality, knew that she had learned her lesson. That night came back to

her and made her hate her father and regret about throwing the knife.

o Martha turned religious and Espeleta approved because they did not know what

she prayed for. Marthas parents are still together even after that night but

between them there was silence. After she had fallen in love, when she started

hating her father, she also started to hate her mother. Martha graduated with

high honors in high school at the age of 18 and everyone, including her mother

and father, was proud of her. Martha studied nursing and started to have

visitors this time they were doctors in the house again. But out of all the

other doctors, Martha chose someone slightly older than the rest. Between him

and her, there had been a quick lifting of the pulse and quickening of the

breath. But for the very first time they talked to each other, he told her he was


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married and if ever hell have an affair with another woman, it should be

hidden. Martha found in herself the deep abiding secret against her father and

the laws of man and the church. It seemed like her mothers burden was passed

on to her unwilling shoulders.

o One day at the hospital, Martha was in the emergency room and saw a man who

had been shot. She imagined that the man was his father. The doctor she loved

was in charge and she was shocked when he returned her gaze with a look of

pain on his face. She then realized that the man who had been shot was really

his father, and as she walked out of the room she saw her mother crying. She

wanted to cry to ease the tightness in her chest but instead she felt the cruel

justness of things. When they got home, there was a crowd who waited for

them. There was also an unfamiliar group called Colon and they were the

witnesses to her fathers death. They told Martha that the one who shot herfather was the husband of the woman whom Marthas father had an affair with.

And after hearing all these, she went to her father, looking at his face that

seemed to be in peace and free from pain. She went to her room and there

hung a crucifix. She prayed and thanked that justice was repaid at last.

o Labindawalang taon pa lang si Martha nang masaksihan niya ang matinding

pag-aaway ng kaniyang mga magulang at malaman ang pambababae ng

kanyang ama. Noong labing-walong taong gulang na si Martha, naging

karelasyon niya ang isang lalaki ngunit niloko lamang siya nito at ipinagpalit sa

iba. Pagkatapos magluksa ni Martha, nasaksihan ng Espeleta ang pagiging

relihiyosa niya. Nagtapos si Martha ng high school at kumuha siya ng kursong

nursing. Marami siyang mga manliligaw na doktor ngunit ang pinili niya ay

isang doktor na may asawa. Isang araw sa kanyang trabaho, nakita niyang

duguan sa mga tama ng bala ang kaniyang ama. Namatay ang ama ni Martha at

nakita niyang umiyak ang kanyang ina nang makita ang katawan ng ama,

ngunit wala pa rin siyang maramdamang kalungkutan. Ikinuwento ng mga tiga-

Colon na binaril ang ama ni Martha ng asawa ng babae nito nang mahuli sila sa

bahay ng mag-asawa. Nagpasalamat si Martha sa Diyos sa nangyari.

Estrella Alfon

o Born on 1917 in Cebu City

o Died on December 28, 1983

o Storywriter, playwright & journalist


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o Well-known author who wrote almost exclusively in English

o Most prolific Filipina writer prior to WWII

o Only female member of the Veronicans

o Associate of Arts degree (UP)

o Supposed to study Medicine buy was mistakenly diagnosed of Tuberculosis and

because of that, she stop from her medical course

o Died from heart attack (suffered on-stage during Awards night of the Manila

Film Festival) at the age of 66

o Writing, Literary Styles & Technique

Straight forward quality in her stories

Her characters are mostly part of the lower middle-class

Strongly expresses a sense of community in her writings

Her fictional world is defined by family relationships between: Parents (especially the mother) and children

Wife and husband

Women and lovers

Women and their female friends

Draws inspiration from her real-life experiences

The protagonists in her stories are usually women portrayed as objects

and not as subjects. They are examples of a woman as damaged culture

The questions lurk within her stories, but she never allowed them to

surface

Pagkat Lalaki a Michael Coroza

Explores how historical and social institutions develop a masculinist unconscious

perspective of supremacy and suggests how this can be fundamentally effaced

Michael Coroza clearly depicts how culture is shaped to favor the masculine model in

his work, Pagkat Lalaki Ka

o Specifying concrete examples of how society fosters the patriarchal capitalist

culture & consequently exploit and pathologize the feminization of ideology

He claims that history may have determined to propagate masculinity as the

prototype

Nakasanayan na natin na ang lahat ng mga kalalakihan ang may hawak ng

kapangyarihan at ang mga kababaihan naman ay dapat manatili lang sa mga tahanan.


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Ngunit pinapakita sa tula na hindi mali na ipakita ng mga kalalakihan ang kanilang

mga kahinaan.

Pinapakita sa unang bahagi ng tula na ayos lang umiyak at magsisi. Ang luha sa

unang bahagi ay sumisimbolo sa mga kamaliang nagawa ng isang tao. Ang lahat nga

mga naging kasalanan ay may kaakibat na pagsisisi. At para sa mga lalaki, mahirap

tumanggap ng pagkakamali. Subalit ayon sa tula, ang pagsisisi sa mga kamaliang

nagawa ay isang instrumento upang maging isang maka-tao.

Madaming nagawang mga imprasktraktura ang mga kalalakihan tulad ng Tore ng

Babel, Piramide, Koliseo at iba pa. Dahil dito, mas binigyan ng pansin ang kalakasan

ng mga kalalakihan kaysa sa mga kababaihan. Ngunit ang mga kalalakihan din ang

nag-umpisa ng paggamit ng karahasan sa pakikitungo at pamumuno sa kanilang

mga nasasakupan. Dito nagsimula ang mababang pagtingin sa mga kababaihan.

Ang salitang iluha ay ginamit naman bilang emosyon ng awa ng isang lalaki para samga kababaihang nasaktan. Inako ng lalake sa tula ang pagsisisi sa mga nagawang

marahas ng mga kalalakihan ng sinaunang panahon sa mga kababaihan.

Ang babae ang nagluluwal ng bagong buhay sa mundo. Ang babae ay nagiging ina

kapag nagluwal siya ng buhay sa mundo. Inaalagaan, pinapalaki at minumulat ang

buhay na iyon sa mundo. Sa kanya nagsisimula at sa kanya rin nagtatapos. Ngunit,

dahil sa huwad na pananaw, nawalan ng lugar ang mga kababaihan sa libro ng

kasaysayan. Hindi binigyan pansin ng mga tao lalo na ng mga kalalakihan ang hirap

at pagsasakripisyo ng mga kababaihan.

Sa huling bahagi ng tula, pinapapatay, pinadudurog at pinapalibing ng awtor ang

huwad na pananaw na namamagitan sa mga kalalakihan at mga kababaihan. Dapat na

matanggal ang kinagisnang kultura, tradisyon o paniniwala na iyon sa ating mga sarili

upang mas maintindihan ang panig ng dalawang magkaibang grupo ng lipunan. Sa

pangyayaring mawala ang kamalayang ito sa lipunan, mababago ang pananaw ng

mga tao sa kanilang mga buhay na dapat bigyan ng halaga at respeto ang mga

kababaihan.

Michael M. Coroza

o A multi-awarded poet, essayist, translator, editor, and educator

o Though his parents were from Majayjay and Liliw, Laguna, he was born in

Ermita, Manila on August 26, 1969

o He spent his early childhood in San Pablo City, Laguna

o His family transferred to Parang, Marikina in 1978


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o He married Jeanette M. Job, current principal of Maria Asuncion R. Tiga High

School, in 1994

o They have three children: Miko Idyanale, Jeanne Haraya and Miguel Bulawan

o They have been residents of Nangka, Marikina City since 2005

o He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Filipino, School of

Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University, handling graduate and undergraduate

courses in Filipino Literature (History and Criticism), Creative Writing (Poetry in

Filipino), Literary Translation (Theory and Practice), and Language Studies

o Michael M. Coroza finished his elementary education at Parang Elementary

School in 1982 and his secondary education at the Marikina Institute of Science

and Technology in 1986

o He obtained

His Bachelor of Arts (AB) Major in Philosophy from the University of SantoTomas in 1990

His Master of Arts (M.A.) in Filipino Literature from the Ateneo de Manila

University in 2001

His Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Filipino from the University of the

Philippines-Diliman in 2010

Male Myth in Mass Media: Masculinizing the Majority Model

Binary

o Are oppositions

Gender myths

o Generally influence lives as they stem from the differences between the

biological basis of sex and the cultural category of gender

o Sex

An individualsbirthright

o Gender

An individuals construct in performing appropriate roles in society

Films, televisions and print media have been identified as forms of mass culture

Men

o Gaze (terrestrial beholders)

o Time: actualizing their desires

o Endeavors to be strong


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Women

o Gazed upon (enchanting exemplars)

o Time: being object of desire

o Persists to be beautiful

Literary pieces that bolster the myriad possibilities of interpreting the Filipino man as text

and as a decentered object of desire: To the Man I Married& The Spouse

To the Man I Married Angela Manalang-Gloria

Romantic poem which delineates the man as the beloved

Romanticizes man as her love object in the poem

Presents a specific value judgment for a womans man lover, protector, provider,

elemental

Metaphor:

o You are my earth and all that earth implies

the land that stills my cries

o you are my provider

To The Man I Married is not wholly a poem regarding the love of a wife to his

husband. On the contrary, it describes more in detail the limitations placed by the

husband to his wife: the domestication of women. He gives everything she needs and

because of this, the wife became dependent on the husband ("The air I breathe...

whose orbit marks my way And sets my north and south...").

The poem depicts a woman, now accustomed and limited to the reality of marriage,

telling her husband how she loves him in the most realistic description as possible:

earthly and mortal. She tells him how, even when he has provided everything for her,

she still longs for the ambitions she needed to abandon and how, even when she

needs her dreams, this does not lessen her love for him.

Part Io In the octave, the speaker makes the bold claim addressing the man she

married: You are my earth and all that earth implies. The speakers claim

alerts the reader to a metaphorical comparison: the addressee is her earth.

o And just what does earth imply? Because the person is her earth, he supplies

her necessities for life: gravity that ballasts me in space, air that she

breathes, the fertile soil where her food is grown. He gives her direction by his


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orbit that marks [her] way / And sets [her] north and south, [her] east and

west.

o The speakers final point of comparison is both startling yet quite logical: her

husband is like the earth, in that he is the final, elemental clay / The driven

heart must turn to for its rest. While he actsas a force for life as the earth

does, he also provides a place for death also as the earth does.

o While the octave implies a very close and sustaining relationship between the

speaker and her husband, the sestet asserts that that closeness does not

completely satisfy all of the needs of the speaker as an individual: If in your

arms that hold me now so near / I lift my keening thoughts to another one.

o Even as she acknowledges her close, nurturing relationship with her husband,

she finds that she needs another one, because of her keening thoughts. And

then she metaphorically compares herself to a tree whose roots though longrooted to the earth raise their leaves and flowers to the sun.

o She needs the earth, but she also needs the sky, just as the earth does, just as

trees need the sun. That does not diminish her love for and attachment to her

husband, who is her earth. The speaker wants to make that fact quite clear so

she repeats her claim: You who are earth, O never doubt that I / Need you no

less because I need the sky.

Part II

o Part II of To the Man I Married consists of two quatrains, in which the speaker

asserts that she does not want to overstate her case about her love for her

husband, and she even backtracks somewhat.

o Although he is metaphorically her earth, she really cannot compare her love for

him to the ocean, because no such love / And no such ocean can ever be. But

she can love him in a finite way, like the waves that keep crashing against the

shore; after all, those waves do reflect The blue of everlasting skies.

Angela Caridad Legaspi Manalang-Gloria

o Born on August 2, 1907 in Guagua, Pampanga

o She died in 1995

o Studied at St. Agnes Academy in Legaspi, where she graduated valedictorian in

elementary

o In her senior year, she moved to St. Scholastica's College in Malate,

Manila,where her writing started to get noticed


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o Angela Manalang was among the first generation female students at the

University of the Philippines. Angela initiallyenrolled in law, as suggested by her

father. However, with the advice of her professor C.V. Wickers, who also

becameher mentor, she eventually transferred to literature.

o Is versatile; lyric poet, pianist and editor

o Poems

First and only pre-war anthology of poetry in English by a Filipino Woman

o Rival of Jose Garcia Villa

o An idealist turned pragmatist

o Her parents were Felipe Dizon-Manalang & Tomasa Tolosa-Legaspi

o They are from Pampanga but they settled in Albay, Bicol Region

o Angela Manalang was a graduate of the University of the Philippines, an

esteemed university known for shaping strong, critical and ambitious men andwomen. As such, it is no wonder that she would describe her love for her

husband in a way that contradicts many poems depicting love for a man as a

perfect, everlasting concept; her love is imperfect and so is her relationship

with him ("I can not love you with a love That outcompares the boundless sea...

as no such love... can ever be."). Yes, she loves him, but as a woman and as a

person, she too has her own ambitions and dreams. However, she can no

longer reach these dreams as she is now committed and accustomed to her life

as a wife and mother; she can only look on and try to reach out ("If in your arms

that hold me now so near... As trees long rooted to the earth uprear..."). She

speaks of her love as limited, only going as far as the earth may provide ("As

finite as the wave that dies...") and tells the husband that his love is not the

only one she seeks but also her ambition for greater things, though it does not

hinder her love for him ("Need you no less because I need the sky!").

The Spouse Luis Dato

Explication of the young wife as the lover

Love

o Abstract in the view of the human

Her hair disheveled in the night of passion

o Manifestation of love

Oedipus


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o The only one who was able to answer the mystery

Sender: To the Man I Married (The Spouse)

Addresser: Wife (observer)

Addressee: Husband (earth) (reader)

Characteristics of man: Provider & Hardworking

Characteristics of woman: Realistic & Dissatisfied

This poem is spoken by a third person. It is about a woman who is not satisfied with

her life. She is crying because after their night of passion, when she woke up her

husband is already gone plowing the fields. Isnt that makes you feel alone? Just when

you expect youll see his face the moment you open your eyes after a passionate

night, but you only see a rose a compromise. But she cannot do anything about it.

She is just a woman. And she believe she has no other life but other than this. In the

end, it questions: Will there ever be a change? Will she get the love she deserved?

Luis Guevarra Dato

o Date of Birth : July 4, 1906

o Place of Birth : Baao, Camarines Sur

o Parents :

Eugenio Dato y Esplana

Barbara Guevarra y Imperial

o Paternal Grandparents :

Damaso Dato

Nicolasa Esplana

o Maternal Grandparents :

Ludivico Guevara

Higina Imperial

o Brothers and Sisters :

Rodolfo Dato

Francisca D. Flores

Soledad H. Hidalgo

Pablo Dato (2nd Nuptials)

o Schools Attended :


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Naga Central School, (1914 - 1917)

Tabuco Primary School, (1917 1918)

San Vicente de Paul Seminary (1918 1919)

Naga Elementary School, (1919 1920)

Camarines Sur High School, (1920 1923)

U.P. High School, (1923 1924)

U.P. College of Liberal Arts (1924 1928)

U.P. College of Law (1928 1933)

Southern Luzon College (1947 1949)

University of Nueva Caceres (1949 1951)

St. Anthony College (1971 1972)

o Degrees :

Associate in Arts, U.P., 1926 B.S.E., Southern Luzon College, 1949

Bachelor of Laws, University of Nueva Caceres, 1951

Master of Arts, (30 units) University of Nueva Caceres, St. Anthony

College

The Nature of Hermeneutics: Man as a Cultural Construct

Hermeneutics

o The study and the act of discovering meaning and interpretation

Interest are affixed as opinions and the values of the individuals who espouse them,

determine their own perceptions or world-view

Value Systems

o Determine our world-view

Nature of interpretation is measured by the nature of the interpreter himself,

determined by the culture he is part of

People construct their own social realities because they are a product of these

realities

Our projection of meaning is inflected by our own truths, prejudices and value

judgments


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Unit 2: Imaging the Filipino Woman

Vanity, thy name is woman

Significant One or the inessential Other

Venus and Mariang Makiling

o The muse of love, nature and inspiration

Medusa and Mangkukulam

o Demonic entity casting evil spells and inflicting plagues on otherwise orderly

society

o Trademarks: mystery & ambiguity

Luna (the moon)

o Deliberately feminized as a result of her variegated phases

Typhoons & hurricanes

o Predominately carry female names, evidenced by their erratic shifting fluxions

Nature

o Characterized as an entity which can be preserved, cultivated, or destroyed

o Bears a mother label

Mater Dolorosa

o The silent, grieving mother whose agony and tears foreground her equally

agonizing Child

Femme fatale

o Whose sly and provocative schemes lure her men of prey to their doom

TungkungLangit and Alunsina adapted by F. Landa Jocano

Ang kwentong inyong maririnig ay nagmula sa mga Panay, sa isla ng Visayas. Ito y

isang kwentona naglalarawan kung pano nabuo ang mundo dahil sa pag-ibig

Panay Visayan Folktale

One of the most striking depictions of how early Filipino folk conjure hypothetical

answers to their seemingly problematic questions about the origin of sky, rain, and

thunder


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Glosses over the dichotomy of gender politics, as represented by the two gods:

Tungkung Langit(active male) and Alunsina (passive female)

Tungkung Langit (Pillar of the Sky)

Alunsina (TheUnmarried One)

Earth and sea

o trees and flowers

o necklace to star

o comb to moon

o crown to sun

Tungkung Langits tears = rain; his sobbing = thunder

F. Landa Jocano

o Born in Cabatuan Iloilo City, February 5, 1930, the son of a farmer Eusibio

Jocano and Anastacia Landa. Pepe as his family calls him is the 9th of elevenchildren. In his childhood he attended local public school. He finished his

secondary education at Arellano High School, Manila. He then returned to Iloilo

to pursue his college studies at Central Philippine University, Iloilo City as a

work student, Dr. Jocano has engaged in field researches on various Philippine

linguistic groups. Dr. Jocano is married to Adria Payad and they have 2 children,

Felipe Jr. and Elizabeth.

o Dr.Jocanos experienceas a writer, started in 1947,when he became a staff

member of Manila Chronicle. He was a columnist of Veritas (A Catholic weekly

paper)in 1955-58; a contributing editor of Philippine Geographical Journal

(Manila),1969; editorial representative(advisory council) Sociological Abstract

(New York),1968 and correspondent, International Social Science Journal(Paris,

UNESCO),1971.He has published numerous articles in professional journals and

among his books are: The Sulod Society, EPIC OF PANAY

HINILAWOD:ADVENTURES OF HUMADAPNON (TARANGBAN I)& THE EPIC OF

LABAW DONGGON, Filipino Cultural Heritage(ed.),Outline Philippine Mythology,

Growing Up in the Phil. Barrio and Our Living Past.

Myth as Metaphor Symbol and Archetype

Myths

o have always been regarded as significant prototypes in endorsing concrete

perspectives guided by customs and traditions


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Carl Jungs archetype

o Pictured as an image, symbol, or metaphor bearing a universal understanding

from people regardless of time, place, and backgrounds

o Are inherently universal

o Bear effects on the collective unconscious

o Evoke a representation of our existing culture, no matter how invariably diverse

they are in scope and essence, from the affixed symbol

Northrop Frye Mythic Archetypes

o as realism is an act of implicit simile, myth is an act of metaphorical identity

Classical West: Pygmalion & Galatea and Samson & Delilah

Our own folk literature: Malakas & Maganda and Makusog and Daragang Magayon

Myths are frequently retold and revised in modern cultures and societies

o a living proof is their permanence and relevance Myths variantly showcase super and supra-realities determined in such a way as to

highlight, appropriate or event distort universally-construed ideas and narratives

Ang Babaing Nangangarap nang Gising Virgilio Almario

The life of a typical Filipina who has experienced a lot of hardships in life. Despite the

challenges and struggles she's been through, she still hopes a better life with her

husband. She dreams of a peaceful and happy married life. She wants to escape these

disappointments and she does it by day-dreaming. She wishes a happy life; she

doesnt want to experience any more pain. Shes been hurt so many times. She wants

a perfect life, she may not achieve it in reality but through day dreaming, it gives her

the blissful feeling. Shes a strong Filipina who possesses the quality of being patient

and martyr.

"I think that the poem was written at a time when the country was still on the verge of

industrialization and living in the city was at its peak. The woman in the story

symbolizes a typical person living in the province that is blinded by the fast life and

possibly a better future in the city. This was her ambition. Simply put, to live in the

city means to live in prosperity. Now reality struck her, she got married to a drunkard

husband in a home with few to eat. Amidst all these, still she closes her eyes and

dreams a life with violins playing and with sweet care from her husband."

Para sa akin, ang ibig sabhin ng tulang ito ay, may isang babaeng mahirap at lumaki

sa malansa at bukid na basa sa isang liblib na nayon, siya'y nangarap na sanay


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makatagpo sya ng isang prinsipe na maaaring makapagpaganda ng kanyang buhay at

mamuhay na parang prinsesa, kaya lunsod ay kanyang tinungo, subalit ang babaeng

ito ay bigo sapagkat nilamon sya sa tukso ng lungsod at kanyang natagpuan ay

lalaking lasenggero lamang, ang lahat ng kanyang pangarap ay naglaho at ang

kanyang mga nais na matupad sa buhay ay hanggang sa pangarap na lamang.

May isang babaeng probinsyana na nangarap umahon sa kahirapan. Siya ay

nakipagsapalaran sa lungsod ngunit sa hindi inaasahang pangyayari, siya ay nadala

ng tukso o makamundong pagnanasa. Dahil sa pangyayaring ito, naglaho ang

kanyang pangarap. Ngayon, siya na lamang ay nangangarap ng gising. Dahil sa

kahirapan at pagkaligaw ng landas, siya ay napilitang gumawa ng masama. Hindi rin

maganda ang naging buhay niya sa kanyang asawa. Sa tuwing ang lalaki ay darating,

siya ay pipikit at magpapanggap na siya ay sasalubong sa prinsipe niyang lasing at

mangangarap ng gising na ang bawat himas ng asaway kaginha-ginhawa. Lumalabasna siya ay itinuturing na laruan lamang ng asawang lasing.

Virgilio Almario (Rio Alma)

o Isinilang si Almario sa Camias, San Miguel de Mayumo, Bulakan noong 9 Marso

1944. Lumaki siyang kasama ang mahihirap sa panahon ng pag-aalsa ng

Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (HUKBALAHAP) noong dekada singkuwenta.

Nagtapos siya ng A.B Political Science sa University of the East noong 1963 at

agad nagturo sa San Miguel High School at St. Paul College, Bulakan. Inilaan

niya ang kaniyang mga unang taon sa pagtatrabaho sa pagtuturo ng Araling

Panlipunan sa mga paaralang ito.

Babae Akong Namumuhay nang Mag-isa Joi Barrios

Deflects the tension afforded by the male gaze in constituting the woman, thereby

rescuing her from the commodification and stereotyping brought about by patriarchal

idioms

Reader encounters a different kind of woman beset with a different kind of

oppression

A woman not only denouncing the subjectivity ascribed to her by her biological

nature, but the multiple binds of being a Third World woman marginalized in terms of

her gender, race, and class

The poem speaks of the past of an old woman. Binansagan siya ng sari saring

pangalan. And the past still haunts her but that doesn't stop her from proving her


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worth in the society. Lahat ng mga napagdaanan niya ay may mga dahilan na kapag

ibinahagi niya sa lipunan mali pa rin o masama para sa kanila. Maaaring sa hirap ng

buhay napilitan siyang pumasok sa isang trabahong kinailangang walang malisya o

pakikiapid sa iba. Gumamit ng tao para sa kanyang kaginhawahan. Hindi naging

maganda ang propesyon o ibang aspeto ng kanyang pamumuhay. Pinili niya ang

landas na ito maaari dahil sa kagipitan o kawalan na ng paraan. Inisip niya na

kinailangan niyang makasurvive sa hamon ng buhay. Pero kapalit nun ay ang tingin

ng tao sa kanya. Gusto niyang pabayaan na siya ng tao at wag ng pagisipan pa ng

ibang bagay dahil buhay naman niya ito at siya ang pangunahing aktor ng bawat

kabanata. Para sa kanya anong alam ng tao sa totoong istorya ng naging buhay niya.

Ipaliwanag man niya may posibilidad ba na mabago ang pagtingin sa kanya?Nakadikit

sa kanya ang kanyang prinsipyo. maaring ito ay ang prinsipyo ng pakikipagsapalaran

sa buhay na hindi malinaw ang direksyon. Isang babaeng piniling mamuhay ng mag-isa. Sa pasyang ito, marami ang humusga

sa kanyang pagkatao. Marahil ay hindi naging maganda ang kinagisnang pamumuhay

o ang kanyang nakaraan kayat ganoon na lamang ang pagkutya sa kanyang

katauhan. Marami na siyang pagsubok na pinagdaanan na tumimbang at sumuri sa

kanyang katauhan. Ang pag-iisa o pagpili sa kalayaan ay bumuo ng paghuhusga sa

kanya ng lipunan. Hindi niya tinalikuran ang pag-ibig, pananagutan, pangarap at

pag-asa. Ninais niya lamng na magkaroon ng kalayaan na patakbuhin sa kanyang

sariling puso at isipan ang kanyang buhay. Ninais niyang mailayo ang katauhan sa

pangalang ikinabit sa kanya. Ninais niyang maging malaya at mamuhay ng walang

humuhusga sa kanya.

The character in this poem is bitter with her life. She doesnt want to blame anybody

with the life she has right now, its her choice, and its her decision. All that she is

asking is that she doesnt want to be judge and let her live her own life, a peaceful

and normal life. Shes been thru a lot of things but she keeps herself strong and she

continues the fight of her life. Maybe, in a way, shes also asking for forgiveness in all

her wrong actions of the past. She doesnt want to be alone, its not her decision but

being alone in life is the best thing she can think for herself.

It was about a girl who is not liked by the society because of her social status and the

kind of work she had. But then the poem gives us the message that sometimes, it's ok

to live alone, without anyone, away from everyone that to live with criticizing people

around you. The woman here proved that she is strong even if she failed a couple of


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times before. That she can live away from all the negative reactions of the people. It's

not that she is weak that's why she opted to love alone, but because she just got tired

of the people around her who has nothing good to say about her. This time, she

wants to live her life on her own, without anybody free from the people.

Joi Barrios

o Maria Josephine Barrios, popularly known as Joi Barrios, is a poet, activist,

scriptwriter, actress, translator and teacher. Born in 1962, she completed her

Ph.D. in Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines (UP). She taught

at the University and also served as an Associate for Fiction at the UP Likhaan:

Creative Writing Center. She has won various honors and awards, including the

Palanca Award, the most prestigious literary award in the Philippines. During

the Marcos dictatorship and the tumultuous years that followed, she became

well-known as a freedom activist and rally poet. She has taught in Korea, Japan,and is currently working as a visiting Professor at the University of California,

Irvine.

o Virgilio Almario, one of the best recognized literary critics and a scholar of

Filipino poetry, has stated that Barrios is one of only four recognizable women

poets in Philippine literature.

Woman with Horns Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

"Woman With Horns is a short story written by Filipino writer Cecilia Manguerra

Brainard. The story was first published in Focus Philippines in 1984 and is part of the

author's first short story collection, Woman With Horns and Other Stories (New Day

Publishers, 1987). Woman With Horns is centered around two personalities, two

extremely opposite personalities: Agustina, the so called Woman with Horns and

Gerald, an American doctor in the Philippines at the turn of the century;

The title refers to a fictional character named Agustina Macaraig, an Ubecan widow,

rumored to have horns. Brainard's character was inspired by fanciful folklore from

Cebu, Philippines,where she grew up in and which inspired her to create the setting of

many of her stories - Ubec, which is Cebu backwards.

The story is set in 1903 a year after the tumultuous Philippine-American War. America

was busy sending American administrators to their newly acquired colony in the

Pacific. One of those who went to the "Islands" and who ended up in Ubec was a New

York doctor and widower, Gerald McAllister. As the Public Health Director of Ubec, he


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carries on with his duties of establishing a vaccination program to stop a cholera

epidemic. His initial meeting of the beautiful and sensual widow, Agustina Macaraig,

disturbs and irritates the doctor. It is his assistant, Dr. Jaime Laurel, who reminds him

that life is more than work: "Friend, you don't know how to enjoy life. Look at the sun

turning red, getting ready to set spectacularly. It is a wonderful afternoon, you walk

with a friend, you talk about beautiful women, about life..."

It is Agustina Macaraig who eventually teaches Gerald McAllister to love and live once

more."

Gerald is losing his drive to life, he comes to the Philippines to forget the loss of his

wife to cancer; this loss is compounded by his transgression with the nurse who took

care of his sick wife, the wife discovers the affair before she dies - With loss and guilt,

Gerald is drying like a twig, losing his battle with depression... then comes thisAgustina, this woman full of life, a woman who was recently widowed herself, and her

appearance starts to rattle the guarded foundation of Gerald

Agustina is nobler than the rest, her every flirtation, every persistence, every way of

being radical and suggestive and aggressive towards Gerald was her natural way of

saving him; Agustina becomes the doctor and Gerald the patient.

So that, when she joins him in the river to fulfill their desires, she is not a woman with

horns but a goddess of love and compassion as she saves the man she loves.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

o Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (born 1947) grew up Cebu City, Philippines, the

youngest of four children to Concepcion Cuenco Manguerra and Mariano F.

Manguerra. The death of her father when she was nine prompted her to start

writing, first in journals, then essays and fiction. She attended St. Theresa's

College and Maryknoll College in the Philippines; and she did graduate work at

UCLA.

Unit 3: Representing the Filipino Family

Mats Francisco Arcellana

SETTINGS:

o Place: Nana Emilias House


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o Time: The time setting for the action is in the afternoon. This storyhappened

somewhat between 1950s up to the present time. There is nospecific season

for the said story but the story evolves in the evening.

"The Mats" is set somewhere before World War II. It was in the time when

people did not sleep in beds but slept on mats. As the story opens Mr.

Angeles, head of a large family, has just returned from one of his periodic

inspection tours on the familys farm lands in the Marivales in the

province of Bataan. Students of WWII history will know of the Bataan

Death March.

CHARACTERS:

o Protagonist: Mr. Angeles

o Antagonist: Himself

PLOT:o Exposition: The story is started by Mr. Angeles who is coming home for his

periodic inspection trip. Then he had written in Mariveles to Nana Emilia that he

has a surprise to him that he bought mats that are made by an artistic

craftsman at this area. These mats have colorful designs with their own

distinguish weaves, design, and colors. He is excited to give it to them all.

o Rising Action: The rising action is when Mr. Angeles is giving his surprised gift

to the whole family. And the siblings were very excited to get their gifts. And

one by one, on the lighted area of the house, he gave the mats with distinguish

names and symbolism on it.

o Climax: The highest part of the story is wherein they all get the mats but there

are 3 remaining mats that must be unfolded. And Mr. Angeles unfold it one by

one and he speaks in a loud voice that he offers this simple mats to his 3 dead

siblings which are Josefina, Victoria, and Concepcion.

o Falling Action: The falling action of the story is where Nana Emilia and Mr.

Angeles argues about this sensitive issue that they must forget already because

they are dead but Mr. Angeles is so stubborn that he emphasized that these

children must not be taken for granted

o Denouement: The denouement of this story is when the cihildren heard theword

exploding in the silence. They wanted to turn away and not to see the face of

their father and also when Nana Emila shivered once and twice, bowed her

head, gripped her clasped hands between her thighs.


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o Ending: At the end of the story there was a total silence on the house. Then the

mats were unfolded and each name was slowly revealed. And the mats for the 3

dead siblings were described.

CONFLICT:

o Man vs. Himself

Because Mr. Angeles wants to commemorate his 3 siblings and he was so

emotional that this sensitive issue must not be talked about and also the

emotion was look before in himself and he find the way out to burst that

emotion by offering mats to the 3 siblings

THEME:

o We must not forget and take forgranted the people whom passed away

because they contributed to our life and we must respect them bycommemorati

ng them.Francisco Arcellana

o Francisco "Franz" Arcellana (Zacarias Eugene Francisco Quino Arcellana) was a

Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He was born in aka

Frank V. Sta. Cruz, Manila.

o He is the fourth of 18 children of Jose Arcellana y Cabaneiro and Epifanio

Quino. He was married to Emerenciana Yuvienco with whom he has six children,

one of whom, Juaniyo is an essayist, poet and fictionist. He received his first

schooling in Tondo. The idea of writing occurred to him at the Tondo

Intermediate School but it was at the Manila West High School (later Torres High

School) that he took up writing actively as staff member of The Torres Torch,

the school organ.

o In 1932 Arcellana entered the University of the Philippines (UP) as a pre-

medicine student and graduated in 1939 with a bachelor of philosophy in

degree. In his junior year, mainly because of the publication of his trilogy of

the turtles in the Literary Apprentice, Arcellana was invited to join the UP

Writers Club by Manuel Arguilla who at that time was already a campus

literary figure. In 1934, he edited and published Expression, a quarterly of

experimental writing. It caught the attention of Jose Garcia Villa who started a

correspondence with Arcellana. It also spawned the Veronicans, a group of 13

pre-WWII who rebelled against traditional forms and themes in Philippine

literature.


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o Arcellana went on to medical school after receiving his bachelor's degree while

holding jobs in Herald Midweek Magazine, where his weekly column Art and

Life (later retitled Life and Letters) appeared, and in Philcross, the publication

of the Philippine Red Cross. The war stopped his schooling. After the war, he

continued working in media and publishing and began a career in the academe.

He was manager of the International News Service and the editor of This Week.

He joined the UP Department of English and Comparative Literature and served

as adviser of the Philippine Collegian and director of the UP Creative Writing

Center, 1979- 1982. Under a Rockefeller Foundation grant he became a fellow

in creative writing, 1956- 1957, at the University of Iowa and Breadloaf Writers'

Conference.

o In 1932 Arcellana published his first story. The Man Who Could Be Poe in

Graphic while still a student at Torres High School. The following year two ofhis short stories, Death is a Factory and Lina, were included in Jose Garcia

Villa's honor roll. During the 1930's, which he calls his most productive period,

he wrote his most significant stories including, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

cited in 1938 by Villa as the year's best. He also began writing poetry at this

time, many of them appearing in Philippine Collegian, Graphic and Herald

Midweek Magazine.

o He is considered an important progenitor of the modern Filipino short story in

English. Arcellana pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical

prose-poetic form within Filipino literature. His works are now often taught in

tertiary-level-syllabi in the Philippines.

o Some of his works have been translated into Tagalog, Malaysian, Italian,

German and Russian, and many have been anthologized. Two major collections

of his works are: Selected Stories, 1962, and The Francisco Arcellana Sampler,

1990. He also edited the Philippine PEN Anthology of Short Stories, 1962, and

Fifteen Stories: Story Masters 5, 1973. Arcellana credits Erskine Caldwell and

Whit Burnett as influences. From 1928 to 1939, 14 of his short stories were

included in Jose Garcia Villa's honor roll. His short story The Flowers of May

won second prize in 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature.

Another short story, Wing of Madness, placed second in the Philippines Free

Press literary contest in 1953, He also received the first award in art criticism

from the Art Association of the Philippines in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at


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Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in 1981, and the Gawad

Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mga

Manunulat sa Pilipino (UMPIL) in 1988. He was conferred a doctorate in humane

letters, honoris causa, by the UP in 1989. He was proclaimed National Artist in

Literature in 1990 L.R. Lacuesta and R.C. Lucero

The Sadness Collector Merlinda Bobis

Theme

o Dislocation

o Diaspora

o Displacement

Figures of Speech

o

Apostrophe Big Ladyo Hyperbole So she can be saved from bursting

o Hyperbole and Metonymy She only comes to eat your sadness (sadness =

tears)

o Metaphor She likes sadness, its food.

o Simile Shes sad, like her meals

Symbolisms

o The sadness collector/ Bedtime Story

Our Source of Comfort

Separating reality from fantasy

o She cant take you away from me

Referring to custody

The story represents the importance of the specific roles played by each of the

members of a Filipino family. It is evident that a mother and a father in a Filipino

family tend to have a very distant role to perform in the household. The father should

be the bread-winner while the mother should stay at home taking care of the kids. In

the story The Sadness Collector they have seemed to break tradition. The mother

went to Paris to work and actually be the bread winner, while the father, although still

working, stayed at home with Rica. In the absence of the mother, the Filipino

perspective that the mother is the best person who can look out for the welfare of her

child/children was represented in the story seeing Rica as a confused and disturbed

child because her mom is not by her side. The father was so hard to connect with Rica


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because of the reason that it was hard for him to accept the fact that he had to stay

with his child which, for him, is not his real role. Seeing this situation, I can say that a

Filipino family tends to be more patriarchal and breaking this tradition seemed to be,

for the many, ruining of the family. What is also evident here in this selection is the

perspective of the very big role played by the mother in the Filipino family; they keep

family ties and a child without a mother by his/her side tends to grow out of the way,

being an incomplete person inside.

At first glance "The Sadness Collector" seems to be your typical story of a Filipino

family, one of which we see on movies. The mother goes to a foreign country, leaving

her children behind, while taking care of a stranger's child with the intent to give a

comfortable living for the family. However, what seems to be the typical story may be

classified as a "daily tragedy", Merlinda Bobis depicted the corroding of what is said to

be the essence of a Filipino family, "Close Knitted Family Bonds". Young girls usuallysteps within the shadows of their mother, but Rica not like most girls, lost the chance

in her growing years. Suffering a great loss from the physical distance of the mother

from Paris, to the eventual emotional distance of the father, who refuses to read her

mother's letter and answer the questions about the baby pictures. In this story it is

now obvious that the effects is focused on Rica, a model of every Filipino child that

never/forgot feeling of the loving touch of their mothers. In Merlinda Bobis' "poetic"

short story leaves an alarming message, a child who lost the joy of being her mother's

daughter, Filipino family seized of its very essence - what do we do now?

It is a common situation in many families today. Husband and child remain at home

while wife works as a domestic helper in a foreign country. Rica, now five years old,

was just three when her mother left. Her father works in a factory and attends to her

only in the evenings. Sometimes she watches TV and plays with the pretty little things

sent by her mother. Early this year a picture of her employer's baby was included in

the packages sent.

Father and daughter Rica are signs each distinct from the other. Sometimes Rica does

not like to eat supper and father resorts to scolding, cajoling or telling stories. She

likes especially the story of Big Lady who comes in the evenings to eat the sadness

she has gathered from the homes. Filled with images about the Big Lady, Rica whiles

away the time by drawing stick figures ofher with a tummy that grows bigger every

day. She knows that it will eventually burst and she waits for that moment.


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That evening her father comes home late as usual to avoid answering her questions

about the baby in the picture. But he is drunk and shouts. That whore! (In reference

to his wife who has decided to stay for another year in Paris) as he kicks the pots and

pans in the kitchen that fall cluttering on the floor. Rica screams and collapses as he

takes her in his arms. The father, both in anger and remorse tries to assuage and

comfort Rica who believes it is the Big Lady who has come back. For venting his anger

at his wife he realizes that the havoc he created has caused his daughters fears sohe

assures her of his love without telling his real feelings; he even hides his closed fists

behind her back as she tells about the Big Lady while the father curses his wife. That

Rica does not understand her fathers pain is for her good.

Clearly, the father is the signifier which means sadness, the signified. Rica, also a

signifier, and the father have had enoughtwo years to suffer the absence of the

mother. Each tries hard to keep sane, each a paradigm complementing the other. It isthe fathers outburst that draws a syntagmatic whole and gives meaning to the

narrative.

o Actually, the notion of a Big Lady who comes at night to eat the uneaten food of

children who refuse to eat supper is a Bikol folk custom. I remember that as a

child, 1 used to be told about the Big Lady by the family help when I would

refuse to eat supper or even finish the food on my plate. l see this now as a

preconstructed articulation connected to hidden spirits which Bikols use to

threaten children who can be difficult at times

Merlinda Bobis

o (November 25, 1959 present)

o Her main interest was painting, but at age 10 she began writing poetry because

painting with words was cheaper

o Writer, performer, academic

o Born in Tabaco, Albay

o Completed her BA at Aquinas University (Legaspi City) [Summa cum Laude]

o Got her post-graduate degree in (Master of Arts in Literature) University of

Santo Tomas and (Doctorate of Creative Arts) University of Wollongong

(Australia)

o Senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong

Breaking Through Myrna Pea Reyes


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Characters

o The Persona and its father.

Theme: Filial Love

The poem Breaking Through written by Myrna Pea-Reyes is very profound in terms

of its appeal to the reader. The poem is all about the filial relationship between a

son/daughter and a father.

The poem basically revolves around the father and his son/daughter. The plot of the

poem tells the reader that a certain persona in the first stanza receives a parcel that

came during that morning. The persona lamely opened the small box and it takes for

him/her a short labor to undo the tie. Although the box is just small, it is being tied

skillfully and very well. It is not stated in the first stanza where the package does

came from but lately, it is being mentioned that its from the personas father. The

package box came all the way across 10, 000 miles of ocean. While opening the box,the persona can feel the love of his/her father that binds them together.

Breaking Through if examined could be the literal meaning of breaking through or the

undoing of the strong thread of two or three strands that are being twisted together

tied around the package box received by the persona from his/her father. The title

itself could be the connotation of the applied effort of a certain persona in the poem

in executing a little labor by untying the box. This effort of the persona in the poem is

very present from line 1 to 7 of the first stanza. It says that, Haltingly I undo the

knots around your parcel that came this morning. A small box should require little

labor, but youve always been thorough, tying things tight and well. The twine

lengthens, curls beside the box.

The title Breaking Through is the metaphorical representation of the filial devotion of

the persona to his/her father. The title could be the denotation of the persona in the

poem of the lessons that he/she had learned from his/her father. It could also mean

love as supported from the last two lines of the second stanza. The line says that

my father, this undoing is what binds us. Although its not directly mentioned that

love is the breaking through, it is showed indirectly through subliminal meaning of

the phrase this undoing is what binds us. What makes the father and the persona

bind? The clear and not vague answer is love, nothing more.

The author also used symbols in the poem. The first symbol is the box. As an

assertion, the box highly symbolizes the love of the father to the persona that is

being away from him. It is distant because the author mentioned in the last lines of


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the first stanza. It says that the package box came across 10, 000 miles of ocean. The

box also represents the longing of the father to his son/daughter that is away from

him for a long time. Through the box, the father extends his warm filial love to his

son/daughter.

The knots around the parcel also represents that the fathers love is true and fair to

the persona. The love that is true and fair can be supported by lines from 6-7 of

stanza 1 that says but youve always been thorough, tying things tight and well. The

twine lengthens and lines from 11-12 of stanza 1 that says you hoped the package

would hold its shape across 10, 000 miles of ocean. In those lines, the father of the

persona tied the knots thoroughly to keep the package in its original shape from the

fathers home until it reaches the personas hand. It only signifies that he wanted that

his best regards and love would remain intact after journeying across 10, 000 miles

across the ocean. The knots also symbolized of how patient the personas father, itdefinitely reflects he tied the box.

In the poem, there is a mention of belt in the 10th line of first stanza. It says, Once

your belt slapped sharply against my skin, it is being enclosed in the parenthesis for

further emphasis. The belt that the author projects in line 10 only symbolizes that the

personas father is a man of discipline. He slaps the persona sometime in his/her

childhood to discipline him/her. Through the belt, it shaped the persona for he/she

know through the fathers slapping, the persona learned things between bad and

good, and right or wrong. The belt also symbolizes display or the manifestation of

power. It only shows that during childhood of the persona, he/she exists in the

patriarchal world. Indeed, during the personas childhood, he/she exists in the

patriarchal society for he/she experienced being beaten by the father.

Not using the scissors in cutting could also mean a lot in the poem. As an assertion,

the persona did not use the scissors to unravel the tight knots of the box because the

persona wanted to savor the moment of unraveling with love. If the person uses the

scissors, it will project that the persona is non-appreciative of the love of the father.

Not using the scissors could also mean that the persona prolonged the excitement by

opening it very lamely. It also means that the persona had learned the craft of

patience from his/her father.

The author had also left its readers the dramatic impact by not revealing what is

inside the box. It poses questions of what is inside the box. Is it a food? Books?

Dress? Bag or anything that is liquid? The reader cant figure out for its not revealed.


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A strong assertion is that, no matter whats inside the box, it surely resembles the

love of the father to the persona of the poem.

In a contemporary setting, if the author is mentioning about across 10, 000 miles of

oceans, the first that comes into the mind of the reader is that, the persona is

situated abroad or in states. If being assumed that the father is in Philippines, maybe

the persona is in West Asia, America, Europe, Australia and others. The reader does

not also know if the persona is working abroad, married, touring and etc. because its

not directly stated. What is very vivid in the context is that they are away from each

other and they havent seen each other for a long period of time.

The tone of the poem is about longing and sadness. In the first part of the poem, the

persona undoes the box haltingly. Haltingly in other words could mean lamely. In this

thought alone, an assertion came in that the persona is sad because it made him/her

feel home sick as the box arrives. The tone of longing could also be sensed. As thepersona is undoing the knots of the box, the persona reminisce his/her father-his

teaching, disciplinary actions and love. Through the presence of the box, the persona

can imagine his/her home that heightened his/her sadness and longing.

Characterization of the father in the poem is also very effective. In the context, the

father is portrayed as caring for he sends the persona a package box although its

very far. Unlike other father figure, the father in the poem is very mild-not ruthless

and cruel. Though there is a use of belt slapping in the poem, it is being done to

discipline his child. The father did do it for a good purpose, for the benefit of the

child when he/she grew up but not in the abusive manner. The father figure in here is

perhaps a gentle and amiable father.

The author also used strong images to convey the meaning of the poem. The delivery

is very suggestive images like the undoing of the box; the scene is very vivid and

understandable. Through this clear description, it brought the reader the catharsis of

emotions or eliminating its complexity, the author effectively carried out the essence

and meaning of the poem.

In terms of form and structure, the author unconsciously celebrated the form over the

content. Like T. S. Eliot, she has done it for she chose to write in free verse or blank

verse. She does not follow rhymes and meters, what she did is the total deviation of

the traditional metered poems. The style is very contemporary, or maybe it belongs to

the Romantics.


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In general, the Breaking Through is a superb poem. It tackles a rarely touched theme

in poetry, filial love. Through this theme, it makes the poem unique and notable.

Myrna Pea Reyes

o She was born in the year 1938 to schoolteacher parents in Cagayan de Oro,

Misamis Oriental.

o Her family spent the WWII years in the jungles of Mindanao where her mother

passed away when she was only four years old.

o After the war, her family moved to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental where

she completed her elementary, high school, and college education.

o She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon where she

met her husband, poet William T. Sweet.

o For several years, she was on the faculty of the Department of English and

Literature at Silliman University and the Silliman National Writers Workshop.o In Eugene, Oregon, where she and her husband now reside, she has taught

college classes; was co-owner of a grocery store and a bookstore; worked in an

office supply shop; and is presently a book buyer for a bookstore.[From River

Singing Stone]

o Two of her acclaimed works are The River Singing Stone, published in

1994,and Almost Home, published in 2004.

o Her style: free verse and contemporary

Bringing the Dolls Merlie Alunan

The poem Bringing the Dollswritten by Merlie Alunan is about a mothers realization

that in ones moving on, one need not bring only those considered important.

The predominant image of the poem is the dolls. It can initially be found in the first 3

lines, which describe the dolls as mangled:

Two dolls in rags and tatters,

One missing an arm and a leg,

The other blind in one eye

The dolls image appears again in line 18, wherein the persona sees thedeliberately

left dollsrags, tatters and all. In both appearances, the persona tries to reinforce

the idea that the dolls are unsightly, and as the lines move along to reveal the

dramatic situation, this reinforcement suggests the representation of the hideous past


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which, like the ugly dolls set side by side against the neat trim packs (line 19), the

persona rule[s] to leave behind (line 20).

We can see that the poems dramatic situation is the struggle of the mother, as she

and daughter move to a new home, never to take/what must be left behind (lines

13-14): the past. The poems title vividly presents the dilemma that if the mother

concedes to her daughters bringing the dolls, the mother will be hounded by the

past; if the mother does pack only the barest need:/no room for sentiment or

memory (lines 8-9), she will most probably break her daughters heart. The dramatic

situation is very important because the persona detailing the dramatic situation soon

realizes a truth that her child has unwittingly taught her: to keep her faith, even if

things seem trivial. This she discovers only later because she denies herself the luxury

of being sentimental for a while: a smart wind blowing dry/the stealthy tears [she

can] not wipe (lines 16-17). The persona in the poem is a mother who tries to escape from the past by leaving the

seemingly unimportant (and essentially harsh) reminders of it. She is the one putting

in detail the dramatic situation; thus, she is integral to the poems progress. It is

through her that the truth about keeping ones faith is revealed, amid her attempt to

have a stern resolve (line 11) to erase the past through the only way she knows: her

own way. The child, however, insisted in bringing the dolls along (lines 18-20), a

defiance: her clean white years unlived /and paid [her mothers] price (lines 24-

25).

In lines 21-23, the persona tries to tell us that the child understands what her mother

is going through. She feels empathy as supported by the following lines:

Her silence should have warned me

she knew her burdens

as I knew mine:

The mother now knows that her child is not oblivious of her problem. Ultimately, her

child teaches her a lesson. The main point of the poem unravels in the last four lines:

when whats at stake

is loyalty or love,

hers are the true rights.

Her own faith she must keep, not I.

The child has the discretion of what is most important to her, and the mother has no

right to insist upon what she deems vital for her child, in this case the childs bringing


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the dolls, which the child loves and is loyal to. Her daughters keeping the faith

eventually teaches the mother that memories, even those one will rather forget, serve

a function or two, in her case a learning point as mother and child go on in life. This

realization of an old truth fulfills the promise of the material used in the poem, that

the daughter and her rag dolls have a lesson to tell to the too-practical mother, in

which case the poem succeeds in projecting the universal theme of keeping the faith.

Classified as one of the experience poems, Bringing the Dolls (for Anya) is a recount

of an actual experience of Alunan when they, as a family, had to move from Cebu to

Tacloban, her present residence.

While this first interpretation is a kind of inference by this researcher- the analyses of

the poem seem to agree with this inference.

Bringing the Dolls (For Anya)

First, the most striking feature or dramatic quality of this monologue is the persona

(who defines the poems speaking voice, its point of view). The basic storyline of the

poem is told through the persona (the mother) in the form of a monologue. The

mother has decided to move her family to another place, and tells her young daughter

to leave her two threadbare dolls behind. The mother thinks to herself that this is the

correct thing to do, since she wants to teach her daughter some lesson. On the boat

the mother tries to hold back her tears when she sees the dolls tucked away among

the packs; it is at this point that the mother realizes the reason behind her daughters

silence: the daughter knew all along what she needed to do, which was to keep her

own faiths and stay loyal to the dolls whom she loves.

Here we find that a good poem is more than its images or its theme; rather it is

mainly its words:

Bringing the Dolls Paraphrase

Each tight luggage - I was economical in my packing

I had packed - I didnt bring

Only for the barest need - unnecessary objects

No room for sentiment or Memory.

To clutter with loose ends


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And so the boat turned seaward, - Then the boat sailed out to the sea

A smart wind blowing dry - the tears I didnt want to shed

The stealthy tears I could not wipe tears were blown away by the strong wind

The last three lines dramatize an emotion (one of sadness) in a painfully understated

way (a smart wind blowing dry/ the stealthy tears I could not wipe)

Paraphrased to mean; the wind wipes away the tears for her; in other words,

she cannot even admit to herself that she is crying.

While this poem of Alunan is distinctly clear in telling the theme, making it one easy

poem to teach-it contains its own set of ambivalence or even ambiguity; though its

purpose is intentional. Certain lines do invite ambivalent interpretations, like thefollowing five lines in the fourth stanza:

Her silence should have warned me

She knew her burdens

As I knew mine:

Her clean white years unlived-

And paid my price.

Whose burdens are referred here- the mother persona or the daughter character in

the poem? Moreover, is it correct to assume that her clean white years refer to the

daughters than it is, of the mothers- because she is younger and still has a long way

to go and several experiences likely to have. Finally, who is paying the mothers

price- the mother or the daughter? In all these, this particular syntax is definitely not

a random occurrence. The poet decided on it precisely to heighten the tragedy of her

personas realization- that she must respect her daughters choice too in bringing the

dolls. She knew all along what she needed to do, which was to keep her own faiths

and stay loyal to the dolls whom she loves.

Merlie Alunan

o Merlie M. Alunan (born December 14, 1943 Dingle, Iloilo is a Filipina poet. She

graduated Silliman University with an MA in Creative Writing in 1974. She


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teaches at the Creative Writing Center, University of the Philippines Visayas

Tacloban College. She lives in Tacloban City.

Unit 4: Exploring Filipino Traditions

The God Stealer Francisco Sionil Jose

A short story by Filipino National Artist F. Sionil Jos. It is Jos's most anthologized

work of fiction. It is not just a tale about an Ifugao stealing a religious idol, but also

about the friendship that developed between a Filipino and an American, a

representation of the relationship that developed between the "colonized" and the

"colonizer". The story was a first prize winner during the 1959 awards in the

Philippines. It is included in the book by Jos with a similar title, The God Stealer and

Other Stories

Sam Christie and Philip Latak were best of friends and that was possible because they

worked in the same office.On one December dawn, Sam Christie was on his way to

Ifugao with his native assistant. It was his last month in the Philippines and in a

matter of days he would return to Boston for that leave which he had not had in years.

During their journey, they talked about the grandfather of Philip and the different

views in the Ifugao. Philip encountered an acquaintance that he did not want to

recognize because the latter called him by his native name. When they had arrived on

the village of Philip Latak, they met Sadek, Philips brother. From there, Philip told

Sam how his brother, as well as all the others in the village, disliked him. After staying

for quite some time in the house of Sadek, they went to Philips grandfather; but only

Philip went inside to meet and talk to the elder.

They visited the Mission the following day after having hiked to the villages. And

there Reverend Doone invited them for lunch. He told them how he reminisced San

Francisco and how he feels like home.

Going down the hill, Sam told Philip that he would not leave Ifugao without a godbecause its more than a souvenir and it would remind him of Philip. Philip then told

Sam that he would steal a god for him since he made the vacation and the raise

possible.

They hiked to the village and this time it was not as difficult as it had been the

previous day. When they reached the village, they went to the grandfather of Philip.

Sam was pleased with the prospect of being inside a native Ifugao house for the first


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time. He was able to see the Ifugao god for the first time, and he witnessed the rite

wherein the blood of the slaughtered pig was poured on the head of the idol, and was

returned to where it was kept.

The feast began. For some time, Sam Christie was entertained by the dances and the

songs, but soon he was bored. He told Philip that he would like to return to the

boarding house.

Philip Latak went to the boarding house past midnight carrying his grandfathers idol

and he handed it to Sam Christie. They argued if it was better that Philip returned the

bloodstained god back to his grandfather. When Sam Christie woke up it was already

daylight. It was Philip Latak who had stirred him, his voice shrill and grating. H told

Sam that his grandfather is dying. The next day, Sam was told by Sadek that their

grandfather is dead and that Philip would not return with Sam to Manila

Philip told Sam that he would not be going back to Manila and that he was the reasonhis grandfather is dead. From that moment, their friendship was broken. Philip Latak

did not, even once, face Sam. He seemed completely absorbed in his work. Sam knew

then that Philip was determined to stay and break his bonds with Sam. Sam realized

that Philip was carving a new god to replace the one he stole from his grandfather.

Elements of the Short Story

o Characters

Philip Latak A lso known as Ip-pig, is an Ifugao who became a Christian

and lived in Manila. By becoming a city dweller, Philip became less

sentimental with his cultural identity, beliefs, and customs. His name was

derived from the word Philippines.

Sam Cristie Was an American who wanted to view the rice terraces of

the Mountain Province (also known as the Cordilleras). He was also

interested in purchasing an original figurine of an Ifugao god. His name

was derived from Uncle Sam, a representation of the United States.

Sadek Embraces his culture

Grandfather Symbolizes time, the old days, past story.

o Setting

After World War 2

Manila

Baguio

Rice Terraces


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o Plot

Philip and Sam went to Baguio City. During a feast honoring Philip for his

return, Philip and Sam were because of the unwillingness of the Ifugao

people to sell any Ifugao statue. Philip plans to steal his grandfather's

god in return for the salary raise given to him by Sam. After finding out

that his god was missing, Philip's grandfather dies. Because of his

grandfather's death, Philip decides not to return to Manila with Sam as a

form of repentance. Philip transforms himself back into an Ifugao attired

in traditional clothing that was in the process of replacing the old Ifugao

idol by chiseling a new one.

o Theme

Lost Filipinos Culture and Identity

Colonial mentality of the Filipino people Filipino is rich in cultural heritage

Francisco Sionil Jose

o F. Sionil Jos or in full Francisco Sionil Jos (born December 3, 1924) is one of

the most widely read Filipino writers in the English language. His novels and

short stories depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism

in Filipino society. Jos's works - written in English - have been translated into

22 languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Czech, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian

and Dutch.

o Childhood

Jos was born in Rosales, Pangasinan, the setting of many of his stories.

He spent his childhood in Barrio Cabugawan, Rosales, where he first

began to write. Jos was of Ilocano descent whose family had migrated to

Pangasinan before his birth. Fleeing poverty, his forefathers traveled from

Ilocos towards Cagayan Valley through the Santa Fe Trail. Like many

migrant families, they brought their lifetime possessions with them,

including uprooted molave posts of their old houses and their alsong, a

stone mortar for pounding rice.

One of the greatest influences to Jos was his industrious mother who

went out of her way to get him the books he loved to read, while making

sure her family did not go hungry despite poverty and landlessness. Jos

started writing in grade school, at the time he started reading. In the fifth


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grade, one of Joss teachers opened the school library to her students,

which is how Jos managed to read the novels of Jos Rizal, Willa Cathers

My Antonia, Faulkner and Steinbeck. Reading about Basilio and Crispin in

Rizals Noli Me Tangere made the young Jos cry, because injustice was

not an alien thing to him. When Jos was five years old, his grandfather

who was a soldier during the Philippine revolution, had once tearfully

showed him the land their family had once tilled but was taken away by

rich mestizo landlords who knew how to work the system against

illiterates like his grandfather.

o Life as a writer

Jos attended the University of Santo Tomas after World War II, but

dropped out and plunged into writing and journalism in Manila. In

subsequent years, he edited various literary and journalistic publications,started a publishing house, and founded the Philippine branch of PEN, an

international organization for writers. Jos received numerous awards for

his work. The Pretenders is his most popular novel, which is the story of

one man's alienation from his poor background and the decadence of his

wife's wealthy family.

Jos Rizal's life and writings profoundly influenced Jos's work. The five

volume Rosales Saga, in particular, employs and interrogates themes and

characters from Rizal's work.

Throughout his career, Jos's writings espouse social justice and change

to better the lives of average Filipino families. He is one of the most

critically acclaimed Filipino authors internationally, although much

underrated in his own country because of his authentic Filipino English

and his anti-elite views.

"Authors like myself choose the city as a setting for their fiction

because the city itself illustrates the progress or the sophistication

that a particular country has achieved. Or, on the other hand, it

might also reflect the kind of decay, both social and perhaps moral

that has come upon a particular people."-F. Sionil Jos, BBC.com,

July 30, 2003

Sionil Jos also owns Solidaridad Bookshop, which is on Padre Faura

Street in Ermita, Manila. The bookshop offers mostly hard-to-find books


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and Filipiniana reading materials. It is said to be one of the favorite

haunts of many local writers.

In his regular column, Hindsight, in The Philippine Star, dated September

12, 2011, he wrote "Why we are shallow," blaming the decline of Filipino

intellectual and cultural standards on a variety of modern amenities,

including media, the education systemparticularly the loss of emphasis

on classic literature and the study of Greek and Latin--, and the

abundance and immediacy of information on the internet.

The Wedding Dance Amador T. Daguio

The Wedding Dance is a story of Lumnay and Awiyao, who as members of a tribe in

Cordillera, have to conform to the dictates of their culture. After seven harvests,

Lumnay and Awiyao are still childless. Not habing a child creates a problem withthem. Lumnay, as a woman is expected to be suspected as infertile. Awiyao has to

look for another wife even if he loves Lumnay so much. At the day of Awiyaos

wedding to Madulimay he paid visit to Lumnay for the last time and invited her to

come to his wedding. They are both wretched. Lumnay tried to fight for her husband.

She wanted to defy the unwritten law of the tribe, besides, they both love each other.

During the course of their conversation Awiyao explains his opposition to his

marriage to other woman but is defeated with cultural dictates. Awiyao called by the

load sound of the gongs goes back to the ceremony. Lumnay considered breaking

into the ceremony but ends up alone in the company of bean plants. The love for their

tribe reigned over Awiyao. Lumnay becomes the image of a woman whose qualities as

a good wife and the best dancer among all the other women in their tribe mean

nothing if she cannot bear a child.

SYNOPSIS/ SUMMARY

o Awiyao and Lumnay were husband and wife for seven years, but now the

husband has to marry another woman, Madulimay, because Lumnay was not

able to give him a child. (In their culture in the mountains during those times,

having a child to follow after the husbands name was a must.)

o On the night of the wedding, Awiyao goes to his and Lumnays house to

personally invite her to the traditional wedding dance. However, Lumnay, the

best dancer in the entire tribe, refuses to go. Then, during their conversation, it


38/46

is revealed that both of them still love each other, but because of their tribes

custom, they have to separate.

o Awiyao goes back to the wedding, to the wedding dance, after being fetched by

some friends. Lumnay wants to follow, partly because of the dance, and partly

because she wants to put a stop to their tribes tradition of having to marry

another partner just to have a child.

SHORT STORY ELEMENTS

o A. CHARACTERS

1. Lumnay a woman who was left by her husband because he had to

marry another woman/ Developing

2. Awiyao- the husband stated above / Flat

3. Madulimay Awiyaos new wife / Flat

o B. PLOT Linear a) Introduction

The story opens with Awiyao entering his and Lumnays house.

b) Rising Action

Things start to heat up when Lumnay says she does not want any

other man.

c) Climax

There is more intensity when Awiyao says he does not want any

other woman.

d) Falling action

But they both have to follow their tribes tradition.

e) Denouement

Awiyao has to go back to the wedding dance.

o C. SETTING

a) place in the mountains somewhere in the Philippines

b) time- a long time ago

c) weather conditions- fine

d) social conditions- lower-class

e) mood or atmosphere- sad and tense

o D. POINT OF VIEW

The Point of View used in this short story is the Omniscient Limited - The

author tells the story in third person (using pronouns they, she, he, it,


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etc). We know only what the character knows and what the author allows

him/her to tell us. We can see the thoughts and feelings of characters if

the author chooses to reveal them to us.

o E. LITERARY DEVICES

For me, there is an extensive use of the literary device Symbolism. There

are many symbols here, and these are the darkness, the houses four

walls, the smoldering embers, and the beads. The darkness symbolizes

how the two lead characters feel. Meanwhile, the houses walls symbolize

the former couples imprisonment. The smoldering embers that become

glowing coals symbolize the love that both of them still feel towards each

other. Finally, the beads symbolize Awiyaos great love for Lumnay even if

she was not able to give him a child.

o F. THEME In my opinion, the theme True love never dies is applicable to this story.

o G. CONFLICT

The conflict here is Man vs. Society. The lead characters have to follow

their tribes custom

Amador T. Daguio

o Amador T. Daguio was a poet, novelist and teacher during the pre-war. He was

best known for his fictions and poems. He had published two volumes of

poetry, "Bataan Harvest" and "The Flaming Lyre". He served as chief editor for

the Philippine House of Representatives before he died in 1966.

o Daguio was born 8 January 1912 in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, but grew up in

Lubuagan, Mountain Province, where his father, an officer in the Philippine

Constabulary, was assigned. He was class valedictorian in 1924 at the Lubuagan

Elementary School. Then he stayed with his uncle at Fort William McKinley to

study at Rizal High School in Pasig. Those four years in high school were,

according to Daguio, the most critical in his life. I spent them literally in

poverty, extreme loneliness, and adolescent pains In my loneliness, I began

to compose verses in earnest. He was in third year high when he broke into

print in a national weekly, The Sunday Tribune Magazine (11 July 1926), with a

poem, She Came to Me. He was going to be valedictorian or salutatorian, but

his teacher in utter lack of justice put down my marks in historymy favorite


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subject. That just about broke my heart because then I would have had free

tuition at the U.P.

o Thus out of school for the first semester in 1928, he earned his tuition (P60.00)

by serving as houseboy, waiter, and caddy to officers at Fort McKinley. He

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