Group 1 (Cheng, Uy, Alipio)Short Story: Wedding DancePoem: Bonsai Group 2 (Rosabal, Gocela, Gamalinda)Short Story: The White Horse of AlihPoem: Patalim Group 3 (Barlin and Castillejo)Short Story: Mayday EvePoem: Bihirang Masulat ang Kaligayahan Group 4 (De Jesus, Dela Cruz, Sioco)Short Story : My Brother’s Peculiar ChickenPoem: Poem 10 Group 5 (Chen, Uy, Qiu)Short Story: Dead StarsPoem: Gabu Group 6 (Fule, Lim, Quinzon)Short Story: The Small KeyPoem: You Can Choose Your Afterlife Group 7 (Jeanjaquet, Quiogue, Manzo)Short Story: GhostPoem: Si Lola Isyang at ang Matandang Puna ng Kaimito Group 8 (Tumulak, Brucelas, Casas)Short Story: Rice Poem: What Poetry Does Not Say Group 9 (Lopez, Gonzales, Lunaria) Short Story: Sayonara Poem: The Sorrow of Distances Group 10 (Lee, Sarmenta, Teodoro)Short Story: Bread of SaltPoem: Isang Dipang Langit Group 11 (Vardeleon, Tiu, Gabana)Short Story: The Day the Dancers CamePoem: Confessions of a Green Card Bearer Group 12 (Zabala, Batoon, Rico)Short Story: Children of the CityPoem: Filipino American Barbie Questions for Reporting Short Stories |Poems | |GROUP 1 | | |Wedding Dance |Bonsai | |What is a wedding dance? |Explain the art of bonsai. What is the significance of the title to | |Explain the conflict of the story. its theme of love? | |What tradition-old beliefs and customs did Lumnay want to rebel |Describe the persona.
| |against? |Why is there a need to compartmentalize love ( as something which can | |Characterize the main characters. ( Direct and Indirect|be folded or kept in a box or shoe)? Defend your answer. | |) |State other definitions of love and come up with your images | |Initially, Lumnay decided to go to the dance to make a mockery of the |signifying it. |tribe’s beliefs and traditions but upon seeing the bonfire, she |How does the poem relocate love in the Philippine setting even as it | |changed her mind. What did she see in it? |alludes to foreign cultures ( Japanese or Indian )? | |Discuss the ending of the story as Lumnay touched the bean pods. | | |Explain the line, “The stretching of bean pods full length from the | | |hearts of the wilting petals would go on. | | |GROUP 2 | | |White Horse of Alih |Patalim | |Why does Alih, who has brown complexion like the rest of the people in|How is love depicted in the poem? | |the town, feel like an alien and does not belong? Explain the metaphor of dagger to signify the couple’s undying love | |What are some common misconceptions about Moros? Why do you think we |for each other. | |have these misconceptions about them? |Why does the author use an edged weapon to represent love instead of | |Characterize the main characters.
( Direct and |more common representation like a rose, a heart, or a kiss? | |Indirect ) |Explain the line, “Araw-araw sinusubok naming mag-asawa ang talim n | |Describe Alih’s relationship with his brother.Omar. |gaming balaraw. ” | |Explain the title. What is the significance/ symbolism of the white |Relate this with the last line, “Ganito kami lagi sapagkat labis ang | |horse in Alih’s life? |pag-ibig naming sa isa’t-isa.
” | |What is the original plan of Omar and Alih for the 4th of July |Do you believe that true love is cut to the measure of great | |American parade? What are reasons behind it? |conflicts? Substantiate your answer. |Explain the line: “Alih, simply, did not love his white horse, as he | | |did his bouri | | |GROUP 3 | | |May Day Eve |Bihirang Masulat ang Kaligayahan | |What is the May Day Eve?Explain the tradition that people celebrate |How do you define happiness? | |during this day? |According to the poet, happiness is very difficult to write about. | |Characterize the main characters. ( Direct and |Why is this so? Do you agree with her? | |Indirect ) |Differentiate “too much sadness” and “too much happiness” according to| |How do you describe the love between Agueda and Badoy? |the poet’s perception. Do you agree with her perception? | |What is the significance of the mirror in the story as a way to |A.Explain the personifying images of “happiness” in these lines: | |explain tradition? | | |Explain the following literary devices used by Nick Joaquin in the |“Nanganak ang kaligayahan, dumaan at nagpatuloy, | |narrative: |Manaka-naka’y nagtatago, sumabay sa aking paglakad, | |The telescoping/uneven use of time frame |At nakaup na ako’y nakatayo pa ring nagbabantay. | |The depiction of dark metaphors of “witch” and “devil” to describe | | |love |B. What do these personifications reveal | |The use of lush and ornate language |about the persona and her concept of | |The parallel structure of the opening and closing paragraphs |love and happiness? |GROUP 4 | | |My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken |Poem 10: First A Poem Be Magical | |What made Kiko and his brother argue about the chicken which they |The selection contains mainly Villa’s poetics.
What does he prescribe | |caught? |in each line of the poem? | |How did each present their arguments? |What does each line mean?For instance, the sound a seagull makes is | |Characterize the main characters. ( Direct and |anything but beautiful. Why did the poet say that a poem must be | |Indirect ) |Musical as a seagull? Discuss each line. | |How did their parents, the chief and Mr.
Cruz try to settle the issue? |Explain the metaphors used by the author. | |Were they successful in resolving it or did they complicate the matter| | |further? | |What did the two boys do to know whether the chicken is a rooster or a| | |hen? What did they realize in the end? | | |Surf the net and make a list of some of the things Filipinos usually | | |do or engage in which are often deemed peculiar or exclusive only to | | |Filipinos. | |GROUP 5 | | |Dead Stars |Gabu | |What comes to your mind when you hear the word “star”? What kind of |How is the sea described in the poem? | |value do we ascribe to this particular heavenly entity? How is the sea used as a metaphor for life? | |Why is the story entitled Dead Stars? |What do the following lines mean? | |Characterize the main characters. ( Direct and | | |Indirect ) |The waste of centuries is grey and dead | |The two women in the story Julia and Esperanza represent two kinds of |And neutral where the sea has beached its brine | |love.
How did they express their love for Alfredo? |Where the split salt of its heart lies spread | |Why did Alfredo defend Calixta, the maid Esperanza said eloped with a |Among the dark habiliments of time | |married man? | | |Why didn’t Julia confront Alfredo when she learned that he was getting| | |married? What is the spiritual context of the sea pursuing a habit of shores? | |Was Alfredo insensitive when he invited Julia to attend his wedding? | | | | | |What did Alfredo realize when he saw Julia after many years? What do | | |you think is Alfredo’s biggest mistake? Explain your answer. | |GROUP 6 | | |SMALL KEY |YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR AFTERLIFE | |Using Pedro and Soledad, the main characters, as point of reference, |What are some of the common beliefs about the way people will be | |what specific gender roles are delineated in the story? judged when they die? | |Do the names of the characters have some kind of significance to their|Give a short discussion about the Tiboli tribe. | |portrayal in the story? |The Tiboli is a tribe that believes that people are not judged by the | |Characterize the main characters of the story. ( Directly and |good or evil that they do, but the kind of death they meet.
What do | |Indirectly ) |you think about the way of regarding death and judgment? |Why did Soledad think the trunk of Pedro’s dead wife is something that|According to the Tiboli, what kind of judgment awaits someone who dies| |threatens her beautiful relationship with her husband? |by the sword, of sickness, and those who kill themselves? | |Does Pedro love Soledad? If so, why does Pedro still keep the |Did the poem contradict your views about life, death and judgment? Did| |belongings of his dead wife? |it affect your religious beliefs in anyway? |Pedro discovered, towards the end of the story, what Soledad did to | | |his first wife’s things. Would this incident affect Pedro and | | |Soledad’s relationship as husband and wife? How? | | |Who do you think committed a graver mistake, Pedro ( for keeping his | | |dead wife’s things ) or Soledad ( for burning them )? | |GROUP 7 | | |GHOST |SI LOLA ISYANG AT ANG MATANDANG PUNO NG KAIMITO | |How did the major character in the story die? Is there something |What do you think of growing old? Does it bother you that all of us | |ironic about the way she died? would end up like the persona in the poem? | |Characterize the main characters of the story. ( Directly and |How do you perceive death? Is it an ending, a beginning, a spiritual | |Indirectly ) |phase, or a stage in life that must be dreaded? | |Describe how she discovered immortality? |What did persona see when she looked out the window? What is its | |What kind of relationship did she have with her lover? |significance to her situation? | |Do you agree with what she said that life is pain?Explain your | | |answer.
| | | |What is the author trying to say about Lola Isyang feeling: | | | | |How is God depicted in popular texts? What do you think of her |Ang hapdi na dala ang kurot | |description of God? Ang talukap ng kanyang mga mata’y | |What is the importance of memory in the story? |Unti-unting nag-abot? | |GROUP 8 | | |RICE |WHAT POETRY DOES NOT SAY | |Describe the deplorable conditions of the land tenants in the |What did the poet mean by “Poetry never says.It unsays? ” | |Philippines as depicted in Rice. How does your study of the |What makes “saying” in poetry problematic? | |Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program ( CARP ) in your Social Science |Why is there a need to “unsay” things in poetry? | |curriculum help you understand this problem? Discuss CARP briefly. |Poetry is composed obviously of words; a poet cannot help but use | |Characterize the main characters of the story.
( Directly and |words to say what she wants to. How is this unsaying in poetry done? |Indirectly ) |Explain the lines: | |Pablo refuses to join his colleagues in stealing a truckload of rice | | |until the end when his family cries out of hunger. How do you explain |For poetry like love also | |his decision and action? |Suffers from power outages | |Describe the level of greed exercised by the landowner in the story. In the aporia of ludic daze | |How does such level of greed translate in other domains of Filipino | | |life? | | |How effective is Arguilla’s use of impressionistic description in | | |mirroring the life of the peasantry in the story? | |GROUP 9 | | |SAYONARA |A SORROW OF DISTANCES | |The image of the guerrilla is one of the major figures depicted in |How does the persona bring out the realistic details and familiar, | |Filipino fiction in English.In some imaginative forays, the guerrilla|immediate images of his daughter to strike up a contrast brought about| |character is romanticized and the persecution he suffers is glossed |by distance? | |over instead of remembered and honored. In Edilberto Tiempo’s |As a Filipino reality, migration brings out several complex sorrows of| |“Sayona,” how are Pascual, Ladislao and Amando depicted as |distance, dislocation and disruption in Filipino family life.Would | |representative figures of the guerrilla movement against the Japanese |you be able to define “distance” as a Filipino angst, given the | |during the Second World War? How do said characters view the |sentiment expressed in the poem? | |resistance movement against the Japanese? Support your answers with |Does the persona fear emotional distance that may happen between him | |pertinent references to the texts.
|and his daughter on account of long separations? Why does he fear the | |Characterize the main characters of the story. Directly and |return of a changed daughter in the following lines: “Standing in the | |Indirectly ) |doorway, Demure as a lady, Solemn as a caryatid bearing the burden of | |How is the Japanese soldier portrayed in the story? What is the |a new world,/Your wrists weighed down by the bracelets of the years? ” | |structural and symbolic function of the character of the Japanese | | |corporal? | |There is a stirring attack on the Filipino traitors, collaborators and| | |puppet officials like the town mayor in the story. How does the | | |implied comparison between traitors and guerrillas crystallize the | | |author’s view of patriotism? | |The “American factor” is downplayed in the story. The Filipino choose | | |to rely on their spirit of patriotism and courage under the most cruel| | |circumstances.
Explain the authorial choice and emphasis. | | |The word “Sayonara” is used ironically in the story. Explain how this | | |is achieved dramatically.
| | |Take note: Discuss briefly what is irony. | |GROUP 10 | | |BREAD OF SALT |ISANG DIPANG LANGIT | |“Bread of Salt” is a story of initiation, a rite-of-passage narrative. |Amado V. Hernandez was imprisoned at Bilibid, Muntinlupa in the 1950s | |Explain how this initiation happened to the protagonist of the story. on charges of rebellion. He was then head of the Congress of Labor | |Compare the use of the rite-of-passage motif with other local and |Organization ( CLO ), a militant labor union, and was also writing | |foreign narratives you have read so far? |poetry and journalism.
The Supreme Court later ruled that the charge | |Characterize the main characters of the story. ( Directly and |hurled against Hernandez, rebellion complex with murder and arson, was| |Indirectly ) |baseless and he was freed.In the poem “Isang Dipang Langit,” | |The protagonist’s love for Aida is sweet and romantic, but class |Hernandez refers to his incarceration as a way of suppressing his | |difference gets in the way. Why does he throw away the “egg yolk |thoughts. Why does he say that while imprisonment of the body is | |things” after leaving the Buenavista house? |possible, imprisonment of the mind could never happen? | |Explain the symbolic significance of the bread of salt in intimating |Hernandez uses metaphors, synecdoche, and historical reference to | |the issue of class difference in the story? project the persona’s misery inside his cell. What are the meanings of| |When Gonzalez says toward the end that “It was not quite five, and the|the following phrases in relation to his imprisonment? | |bread was not yet ready, “how does this represent the rite-of-passage | | |theme of the story? |linsil na puno ( stanza 1 ) | |It is hinted in the story that the Buenavistas are landed and our |sandipang langit ( stanza 3 ) | |musician-protagonist belongs to a family of tenants.Why do certain |payak na yabag ( stanza 6 ) | |labor relations in the country remain feudal to this day? |habang may Bastilya’y may baying gaganti ( stanza 10 ) | |Why does Gonzalez use the “bildungsroman” ( a story of personal | | |development/ growth ) to mirror social inequities? |Take note: Discuss briefly what is metaphor and synecdoche.
|Why does he utilize references to neo-romantic literature ( Sire de | | |Maletroit’s Door ) and neo-romantic music ( Poet and Peasant ) as |How does the poem illuminate the labor unrest of the the 1950s of | |springboards to illumine Philippine realities? |which Hernandez became one of the militant leaders? How did the people| | |in power then come down to relate labor unrest to rebellion? | |Hernandez represented the labor class and used his pen to capture | | |their suffering. How did Tagalog poetry become the instrument of | | |revolt by the peasants and the laborers from the postwar until the | | |decade of nationalism in the 1950s? |GROUP 11 | | |THE DAY THE DANCERS CAME |CONFESSIONS OF A GREEN CARD BEARER | |Why does Fil cling to old memories of home through an evening with the|What do the apples represent in this poem? Explain why apples are | |dancers who came to Chicago? |chosen to compare situations in the Philippines and the U. S. A.? | |Characterize the main characters of the story. Directly and |How does the author contrast the ease of life as a green card bearer | |Indirectly ) |with the daily poverty of Filipino families in the Philippines? Or | |Why does Fil consider time and memory as villains? |between life of comfort and life of starvation? | |How does the erased recording of the dancers’ performance present a |What does America symbolize for green card bearers like the persona in| |metaphor for Fil’s feeling of exile and homesickness? the poem? | |After the encounter with the dancers from the Philippines and the |In the Philippines is in the heart, but the mind is in America ( “My | |erased recording, how would you describe Fil’s understanding of the |mind is on my worries…”), how does this singular poetic experience | |migrant’s sense of loneliness, specifically as Santos’ ends his story:|represent the dislocation or loneliness felt by migrant Filipinos | |“Biting his lips, Fil turned owards the window, startled by the first|anywhere in the world? | |light of dawn. He hadn’t realized till then the long night was over. ” |The persona’s comfort and feeling of gratitude are seemingly | |How does Bienvenido Santos picture the feeling of alienation by the |incomplete in the face of remembrances of poverty in the Philippines.
| |first generation of immigrants to America?How does it parallel or |Each coin spent is like happiness horded or taken away – with memory | |present a different picture when compared to the experience of |of souls who have less in her native country. Why is migratory | |contemporary Filipino migrants in America and anywhere in the world |happiness incomplete and how is this exemplified in the last: “And | |today? |when I finally find the friends and the time, what can we celebrate | | |with the wine? | |GROUP 12 | | |CHILDREN OF THE CITY |FILIPINO AMERICAN BARBIE | |Characterize the main characters of the story. ( Directly and |Why does the author choose the persona of a Barbie doll to represent | |Indirectly ) |the plight of third generation American-born Filipinos? |Describe the character development of Victor – from an earnest newsboy|Immigrant generation parents have brought to the United States some | |to “one of the boys” – and relate this to the moral point of the |values of Filipino family life and try to instill these in their | |story.
|American born children. Contrast the diasporic experience of | |How does the city shape the newboys, child workers, beggars, orphans, |Philippine-born immigrants to the United States and of their American | |who ply the city for a living? born children. | |Relate this story to other naturalistic depiction of Manila as the |What is the role of memory in making sense of diasporic experiences | |jungle – for instance, in films like “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag” |and inforging exilic identity by Filipino migrants? What do you think | |and “City after Dark. ” Describe the details evoked to bring out this |is their concept of home, the homeland, and the nation? | |impression. | |The last paragraph presents the city of Manila as metaphor for a moral| | |universe of contemporary Filipino life. What ironies were used to | | |present Victor becoming a prey in a jungle called survival? | | Format for the Reporting: ( Appetizer ) Part I.
Author’s background A. Family background B.Academic background C.
Accomplishments D. Photo of the author ( Main Course ) Part II. A. Short Story Analysis ( questions will be given ) B. Poem Analysis ( questions will be given ) ( Dessert ) Part III. Reflection Discuss the following: A. Values learned B.
Significant experience/s related to the theme of the selections C. Realizations Take Note! • Please submit a hard copy of your report on the day of your presentation. ( short bond paper, computerized, black ink, font size 11, Arial, 1. 5 spacing ) • Please present a well-prepared powerpoint presentation during the day of your reporting.
