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.