The Pretenders by F. Sionil Jose

This novel, "The Pretenders" made by F. Sionil Jose for me at first was very boring because it got lots of pages and small fonts. But as I encourage myself to read it, I find it interesting when I started to read the choragus. It started from the end where Antonio Samson is already dead and then the beginning where Antonio Samson was still studying.

Why Did Antonio Samson committed Suicide?

The story in the novel is a typical Filipino story, wherein I believe Antonio Samson is a resourceful and smart man. Although he is poor, he has the potential of becoming a rich man, because he got the guts to be one. Antonio Samson was engaged and married to Carmen Villa who belonged to the elite class. In the story, you can see a typical rich family where there is a mother who looks down on people especially the poor and the father who's always away and usually kind. We can see here that the elite people use their money and luxuries to get what they want. They can even buy people and tell their price. Antonio was becoming a rich man already, he's always with Don Manuel and he is somewhat influenced by him. Antonio knew that he and Don Manuel have different perspectives especially in being rich and poor. But he ignores his thoughts trying to believe Don Manuel's thoughts to be expected and be a part of the Villa family. He became a dummy of the elite class and forgot all about the poor people.

But when all things got rumbled up, and he can not go back to the past, his mind can't settle in a decision. "The beginning of knowledge, after all, lay not in the land that he has traveled but in the dark and anonymous folds of his own mind."(Jose, F. Sionil, 161)He got confused and frustrated in his life, until the only thing he could think of to escape all of these was DEATH.

Death: Root of Human Insecurity

In this paper, I will attempt to dig deeply into the minds of Antonio Samson, Charlie and Godo about their insecurities in life, and how Death became a theme in the story.

“We are all insecure. There is no one who is secure in life.We all die—and that is the root of our insecurity.”(Jose 119)This is the line said by Tony in his dialogue with Charlie and Godo. Tony is a smart and intelligent man, he got friends who is Charlie, who doesn’t want to marry because he doesn’t want to go to hardships in life and Godo, who is insecure and thinks that immortality does not mean security. ” but security for me does not mean immortality.”(Jose 119) Godo is insecure because he worries too much for his family. Godo is saying that the rich people is a big hindrance for the country to be secured. He said that people here in the Philippines could die poor. “We are all committing suicide. And we can’t stop it because of the uncertainty that hovers above us all.“ (Jose 119)Godo is saying that people is doing anything just to live. It’s like dying to make a living. Why would you make a living, if you are willing to die for you to make one. Because Tony is so much influenced by Don Manuel, and he has shut his eyes closed to the truth, he refuses to believe what Charlie and Godo was saying. Tony said that for you to commit suicide, you must have an incurable sickness. “No man—unless he is sick, takes his own life. There must be sickness, an incurable one, and it must have been there since birth, secretly growing until that time when it has consumed the love for life and then becomes nothing else but hate.”(Jose 119)

Woohh beybehh!!HUM014/A14

Humanities014? What's that? What does it have to do with me? I was thinking, what would Philippine Literature connect to my engineering course? Before, I don't like Literature that much especially when it's made by Filipinos. At first, I thought Hum014 is sooooooo boring!! I didn't it like the thought of needing to study for HUM014 and pass it. Although I have many friends there, I really thought it was boring.

At the first meeting, I didn't like the course as I expected because when Ma'am Eduarte was discussing the syllabus. All I here was poems, short stories and many more. I didn't like it more when Ma'am mentioned about the drama. I hated drama so much! And I hated doing group presentations, especially if I don't know my group members.But as days goes by, I was enjoying the course a little by little. Thanks to Ma'am who always encourages us to love the subject and it's not boring. Eventually, I already loved the course and my section. I got more friends and I learned to appreciate the Philippine Literature a little^^(sorry ma'am I really don't like literature that much, although you changed my view about it,a little..).

I liked the tanaga making, although I wasn't good in making one. And all tanagas I can think of is all about is being emo.(hehe) I also liked it when we made drawings or any kind of art to interpret our tanagas.

But the best part in this course, is when we made a play. Wherein everybody participates and everyone got something to do. At first, of course because I don't like drama very much, I didn't like it. But when the practice came..It became fun..hehe..I get to know more friends and something to "chismis" about..ahah.I enjoyed pulling barbed wires to pull the so-called horse of our cochero "Anghel"ahaha..saya maghila ee.. I liked what happened in the play, we git awards and we got moe bonding moments.haha.I liked everything that happened that day, from the time I "nakasakay " Lea and Jordan in the jeepney..until the time we got home very late(around 930)[may badjao pa kmeng ksama,may dala syang batya]. It was so fun.

Now, I'm ending my blog.. I want to thank Ma'am Eduarte because she made the course HUM014 an enjoying one. I liked it Ma'am. Also thank you for giving me the postcard with a violet electric guitar in it."I was really surprised when Lara gave it to me, and said that you gave it to me".hehe..Thank You!!

And to my classmates, thank you sa lahat ng kasiyahan..ahah.magkikita pa naman tayo sa school and maybe we'll still be classmates..^^

Tanaga

TEARS

Would you come home if I cried
Black colored tears with great pain?
Or stay there, until it dried
And left me hanging again

Analysis on Maningning Miclat's Laughter

Laughter

He left me
when he could
no longer stand the laughter

that I gave him
while he begged me not
to keep memories

alive in poems
to hurt myself
and make those
who read

sad. I laughed
when he shared
his life with me
while holding him

to make it easier
and maybe
less painful
to live on.

Laugh! I told
him, but
could not get
his attention.

Laugh! I asked
him, but
he left in
anger.

And left
before he understood
the courage
that held my laughter.

I love the poem. Although it's not about happiness. Even if we see the words laugh and laughter, it contradicts Maningning Miclat's feelings.The irony of the word laughter means her sadness and sorrow. I think her only way to forget her sorrows is laughter. Because in the poem I laughed when he shared his life with me while holding him to make it easier and maybe less painful to live on.I think her laughter here is the man. But since the man don't understand and left her, she really is sorrowful.

Reaction on Estrella Alfon's Servant Girl

__________I think Estrella Alfon's Sevant Girl is ok. I don't see it very interesting. The protagonist here is the servant named Rosa. She's living in the house of her mistress. The mistress here is very moody, because it was said that if she's in a good mood she won't mind Rosa even if she's singing. But if not in the good mood she would scold Rosa. I don't like Sancho in the story. He is not a gentleman. I find the cochero mysterious at first. I think Rosa is in love with the cochero named Pedro. At the first part of the story, we can see Rosa here is very patient. Even if her mistress is always scolding her she still serves there. But in the middle of the story, we can see that she can't take the things her misterss is doing to her. She even attempted to leave the house and never come back. But everything changed when she saw the cochero again, and decided not to leave the house.


__________I think the lesson here is every person has their own limit. But every circumstances in our lives depends on our decisions.

Francis Macansantos

English, Literature, Philippine and Comparative Literature are the subjects that he is teaching for being a professor at MSU, SU and UP Baguio.He also taught Literature at Graduate school of Baguio Colleges Foundation (University of Cordilleras). G. Macansantos is a panelist in Dumaguete Writers Workshop where in he became a fellow on year 1972.He also became Local Fellow for Poetry at UP ICW at year 1999. He is a proud member of PLAC. His poems are consecutively getting awards at Palanca Literary Awards.

Because of his epic Womb of Water, Breasts of Earth, he won the Writers Prize from NCCA. His poems can be read in anthologies like A Habit of Shores, Kamao and Versus. His poems were also featured as a personal and critical essay at Flippin’ Filipinos published in U.S.,at Bulawan of NCCA and in most of the Philippine magazines.

(Source: Panitikan.com.ph: Your Portal to Philippine Literature. 2005. Web. 22 June 2009. <http://panitikan.com.ph/authors/m/fmacansantos.htm>.)

ESTRELLA ALFON

Estrella Alfon is a well-known storywriter, playwright and journalist; and though a Cebuana, she wrote almost exclusively in English. She became a member of the U. P. Writers Club and was given the privileged post of National Fellowship in Fiction post at the U. P. Creative Writing Center. Her first story, Grey Confetti, was published in graphic in 1935. She was the only female member of the Veronicans, an avant garde group of writers in the 1930s led by Francisco Arcellana and H.R. Ocampo, she was also regarded as their muse.

She is also reportedly the most prolific Filipina writer prior to World War II. She was a regular contributor to Manila-based national magazines; she had several stories cited in Jose Garcia Villa’s annual honor rolls. She also served on the Philippine Board of Tourism in the 1970s. A collection of her early short stories, “Dear Esmeralda,” (1940) won Honorable Mention in the Commonwealth Literary Award. Four of her one-act plays won all the prizes in the Arena Theater Play Writing Contest: (1961-1962) “Losers Keepers” (first prize), “Strangers” (second prize), “Rice” (third prize), and “Beggar” (fourth prize). Won top prize in the Palanca Contest for “With Patches of Many Hues.”Second place Palanca Award for her short story, "The White Dress"(1974). National Fellowship in Fiction post at the U.P. Creative Writing Center at 1979.

Palanca Awards:

Forever Witches, One-act Play (Third place, 1960), With Patches of Many Hues, One-act Play (First place, 1962), Tubig, One-act Play (Second place, 1963), The Knitting Straw, One-act Play, (Third place, 1968), The White Dress, Short Story (Second place, 1974)

(: Panitikan.com.ph: Your Portal to Philippine Literature. 2005. Web. 22 June 2009. <http://panitikan.com.ph/authors/a/estrellaalfon.html>.)