The Sadness Collector: A Critical Analysis
Allona Beatrice Panal

The author presents his main theme of fate by bringing the reader’s to a question how migration of a person affects his/her family or also called Diaspora (Bobis). The tale reflects the significance of each of the members of a Filipino family's specific roles. It is clear that in a Filipino family, a mother and a father tend to play a very distant role in the household. The father should be the breadwinner while the mother will take care of the children at home.

         

         In the story “The Sadness Collector”, the author features Rica as the central character. Her character is evidently presented in the story as the little girl who helps the sadness collector prevent herself from bursting. Her character is noticeable shown when she longs for her mother’s love and her father keep on telling her the story of the Big Lady who eats sadness (Bobis). Filipino family’s tradition is that the father is the breadwinner and the mother stayed at home looking for the children. But the story breaks the tradition, wherein the mother went to Paris to work as a domestic helper and the father, although still working, stayed at home. In the Filipino perspective, the mother is the best person who can look out for the welfare of the children was represented in the story Rica as a confused and disturbed child because her mom is not on her side (Gatdula,2019).

        "The Sadness Collector" seems to be the typical story of a Filipino family at first glance, one of which we see on films. The mother goes to a foreign country, leaving behind her children and taking care of the child of a stranger with the intention of giving the family a comfortable life (Gatdula, 2019). What seems to be the typical story, however, could be categorized as a "daily tragedy," Merlinda Bobis described the corroding of what is said to be the heart of a Filipino family, "Close Knitted Family Bonds." Young girls usually step in their mother's shadows, but Rica doesn't like other girls in her growing years lost the chance.

       

       Suffering a great loss from the mother's physical distance from Paris to the father's subsequent emotional distance, which refuses to read a letter from her mother and answer the baby pictures questions. It is now clear in this story that the consequences are based on Rica, a symbol of every Filipino child who has never forgotten the feeling of their mothers ' caring contact. The father was so difficult to connect with Rica because it was difficult for him to accept the fact that he had to stay with his dad, which is not his real role for him (Bobis).

Not only does Merlinda Bobis "The Sadness Collector" revolve around the theme of the diaspora and Rica's lack of affection for her parents, criticized by many authors. But instead you can also criticize some literary principles like plot, genre, characters, and even the structure I'm criticizing in the novel. My only point is that the author has to change her style by using words, particularly words that have a deep meaning that other readers don't know. I felt that this story could teach us a lot of moral lessons, particularly for the kids to understand the OFW parents ' circumstances and reasons. And the author must use words that can be easily understood at first reading to do this. But still, there was a great and beautiful story made by Merlinda Bobis that had a lot of message to the readers.

The Bougainvillea: A Critical Analysis 
 Cybille Charriz Icoy

“We need ghost stories because we in fact are ghosts”, a quote by Stephen King which is an undeniably true. Therefore, to the people who believes in ghosts and are interested to their stories but does not want to be brought far from reality, “The Bougainvillea” will be worth to read. “The Bougainvillea”, a short story authored by Maria Elena Paulma, gives realistic details and a mysterious and suspense-filled plot that will surely interest readers. It is written in a first-person perspective which magnifies the narrative effect of the story (Reed, 2019). Foremost, the story showcases the beliefs and respect of Butuanons towards the dili ingon ato’s existence, possessions, substance abuse, and sexual abuse.

The story is all about the mystery of the bougainvillea. It was during summer; the author introduced the existence of the bougainvillea that surrounds their fence. It was her mother’s pride and the flower leaves everyone in awe of its beauty. However, the mystery of the bougainvillea eventually replacing the fondness to fear. In the story, the mystery of the bougainvillea first started when his uncle visited them and was asked by her mother to trim the bougainvillea and later at that night, that uncle was brought to the hospital and almost lost his finger after being greatly swollen. Everyone suspected that the bougainvillea caused the almost tragic, unfortunate event. After the incident, the neighborhood continued living their daily routine until Bansing, whom the author’s friend, was possessed. The author’s mother and Bansing’s tiya made rituals that is believed to drive away spirits possessing the human body. In that event, everyone suspected that the spirit from the bougainvillea possessed Bansing. Month after Bansing’s possession, the author’s other friend, Elsa began acting strangely and the rumors of the bougainvillea having its new victim. Years later, they had known that everything was not caused by spirits. Bansing confessed that the night before she was possessed, her cousin crawled to the mat where she lays and as to Elsa, she was just under the influence of marijuana. 

“The Bougainvillea” is a short story that highly reflects not just the Butuanons but the Filipinos belief to the creatures that are not like us and despite the lack of evidences, still respect them as one of us that lives in this world. Filipinos belief towards spirits and their capacity to possess can be justified through Ancient Filipinos being animists and because of religion (Carpio, 2019). Animism is the idea that all things—animate and inanimate—possess a spirit or an essence (Perkins, 2019). This belief of the ancient Filipinos was eventually demonized by Catholic friars (Carpio, 2019). Nonetheless, in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Matthew 8: 28 – 34 which talks about the spirit world in which the pigs were possessed by demons sent by Satan to challenge Jesus. Thus, the Filipinos believing spirits and possessing things and people seems reasonable.

On the other hand, as it was discussed in the story, Bansing’s statement about her cousin crawling to the mat where she lays suggests that there is a probability that she was sexually abused basing from her actions the other day when she was believed to be possessed. Researchers have found that  in many of the areas of the world where beliefs about spirit possession are widely held, beliefs  are a standard consequence of psychological trauma and may be a way of explaining the dissociative symptoms that often accompany intense traumatic experiences (Neuner et. Al, 2012). Moreover, in Elsa’s case, she was undoubtedly caused by marijuana because according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, people who have taken marijuana may experience an acute psychosis, which includes hallucinations, delusions, and a loss of the sense of personal identity which explains her strange actions.

In conclusion, “The Bougainvillea” by Maria Elena Paulma is one great literature. It does not merely give goosebumps upon reading it but also the lesson that there is a reality that every person must deal with behind those superstitious beliefs. Well, the only downside of the story is it being lengthy, and the author was too descriptive. Nonetheless, the story is a real treasure worth keeping in your library.

Childhood in the Path of Typhoons: A Critical Analysis

Angelie Andilab

         The story “Childhood in the Path of Typhoons” is all about the Typhoon Yolanda that hit in our coutry and greatly affected a lot of people causing them to lose their homes, livelihood and even  lives.

        The story talks about a young girl’s experince during the Typhoon Yolando hit their place. Filipinos being used to typhoonsbecause  more than 20 typhoons whip through the Philippines in a year. I could smell the rain when it was coming. I knew that if the moon had a ring around it, there would be rain the next day. I knew that the excited twittering of birds also meant rain was coming. At a young age, I could gauge just how strong the typhoon was, not only based on the storm signal warnings, but on how thick and dark the clouds were, how heavy the rain fell, how strong the wind blew. It became instinctive to know how dangerous a storm was.

      

        The typhoon Yolanda was one of history’s strongest recorded typhoons, shattering coastal communities in central Philippine islands of Visayas and completely inundating local government units (LGU) in places such as Tacloban City. As stated by C. Brainard, "It has been painful to see images of villages destroyed, of people wandering around in the midst of all the rubble, of survivors holding up signs begging for food and water". In the Childhood in the Path of Typhoons by Cecilia Brainard, she discussed about how she grew up and lived in the midst of the typhoons. Moreover, she also talked about what happened in typhoon Yolanda and the aftermath. But, what really went wrong? What should be the better plan for the government that could reduce the destruction of typhoon Yolanda?

           As I have read the story, it signifies the us, Filipinos despite any calamities that had us fall down, we are still able to keep smiling and learn to stand again and start all over when there is calamity we can see how people help one another especially those who are in need. 

Fatima, The War Nurse : A Critical Analysis

Kristopher Ian Aberca

The author presented the poem when a nurse who’s suddenly in a war that who wants to helped injured people. Fatima, which was the main character, experienced some rejection for she was wearing a veil that literally means that she was a Muslim. This poem basically talks about to a persona who wants peace. In the poem, there are certain issues and conflict like war which is really happening in our today’s generation. People nowadays, are the one whose making conflict because everyone has own different perspective. Everyone has their own view point because of freedom but not all of it was good in the minds of others that may lead to conflict. The main character of the poem which is Fatima, just like us, she only wants peace and what is good for everyone.

           

           In summary, the story only talks about to a woman who’s currently in war for she was a nurse that is obliged to do her duty. A woman who cares for the people who’s in trouble in facing those challenges.

     In the poem, the writing style presented by the author is understandable to the readers.The poem is not all about the war itself, thus, it talks about a woman who has great courage to go through any danger that she may encounter.  A woman who is willing to help others. It is more likely women empowerment. The poem gives more emphasis to the main character which is Fatima. In this contemporary setting, women are still labeled by the society. Women have the low potential in everyone’s perspective. That’s why this poem proves that even though you have been discriminated by the whole world, it is not and will never be a barrier for you to help others.

          

          To sum it up, people may think that women are weak but those negativity in their mind will not grow and foster anymore (Gray, 2018) as this story proved that how society labeled women was wrong (Tunzi, 2019). It gives the moral that we should have faith and keep in mind that  despite the challenges, we still can help others in our own beautiful way.