Dead Stars by Paz Marquez

7/30/2019 Dead Stars by Paz Marquez

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Dead Stars by Paz Marquez-Benitez

Synopsis

Alfredo Salazar was betrothed to Esperanza, his girlfriend for four years. The start of their

relationship was relatively warm, with Alfredo wooing Esperanza like a man in dire

lovesickness. But as the years went by, the warm loves fire slowly flickered. And it was because

of Julia Salas.

She was charming and gleeful. He shared moments of light but sometimes deep conversations

with her when the lawyer Alfredo visited Julias brother-in-law, who was a judge. He always

went there with his father and since it was his father who needed to talk to the judge, he was

always left to Julias company. He never told her he was engaged. At first he didnt notice that a

change in his heart was taking form. But then he started keeping details of his activities to his

fiance and then the guilty feeling crept in. when he found out that Julia was about to head

back to her distant hometown, he felt blue and frightened.

He met her in church after the Holy Thursday procession, although he knew that Esperanza was

already waiting for him. He approached her and she conversed with him with an expression

that told him she finally knew. She congratulated him and said she will be at his wedding. Then

they parted.

When he visited Esperanza in her house, he overheard her talking to another woman about

infidelity and immorality, to which he reasoned in favor of the condemned. The statement

caused an intense fury to Esperanza and she told him that she knew. She dared Alfredo to

abandon her, along with morality and reason and her dignity as a woman as well as her image

before the society all for the sake of his being fair to himself.

Eventually the wedding took place. And after several years, Alfredo was sent to a distant village

due to a legal assignment. It bothered him so much because it was near Julias hometown. But

he still found himself making his way to her house despite of himself. And he found her there,

just as how and where he expected her to be. She never married. And he wondered how life


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would be if he ended up with her. But all was too late and he could never bring things back. He

also noticed that Julia lost something, albeit the fact that he didnt know what that is youth,

love, luster? And when he looked at her he doubted if she ever cared for him, if he has

mistaken the past light in her eyes as manifestations of a possible romance. But now theyre all

gone. And so, it was indeed all done.

Analysis

Paz Marquez had shown the readers about how human can be so irrational and irresponsible at times.

He had a good picture of how we can be careless at choosing relationships. We choose a person so

quickly without analyzing if we really love them and will be happy with them for the rest of our lives.

Then we see that time is running so fast and we are being left behind. Colors of the past will fade and we

could not do anything to repaint it. We will wish that we could bring back our youth but we realize that

we only have one life to spend.

I imagined myself as Esperanza, as I have been in a long relationship just like her. I admire how Paz had

described her character. Its as if I could see myself in her shoes. I wonder if I were her Would I do the

same? Probably yes, but if I could see that the man Ill be marrying is not going tobe happy with me, Ill

set him free.

Pazs short story showed some Filipino traits like marrying at a certain age. In the first part of the story,

his sister and father was talking about Alfredo who has not married yet at his age of 30. Its as if he

should be bothered a lot if hes not yet marrying at his age. In the Philippines, as I could see, a lot of

people marry at a young age. A Filipino or Filipina should marry and have children before turning 30

years old. While in western countries, 30 is the start of their best years, just like what the movie 13

going on 30 had shown. It does not matter if they still dont have fianc at the age of 30. It doesnt

bother them a lot if they have not married yet. It also showed also some Filipino traditions like

celebration of the Holy week. Paz showed how families spend time together in the church.

The story was written in the year 1925, when people less accepted broken engagement, marriages and

families. In my opinion, the reason why Alfredo did not choose to go after Julia was because it was

unacceptable at his time. In the 20th century, Filipinos have already learned to accept broken marriages

or engagements; and I think if Paz had written this story in the 20th century, he would have written a

different ending, and perhaps with a different title.

I was wondering why the title is Dead Stars. In the end, I realized its significance. It was entitled as such

to symbolize memories of our youth.

Dead Stars means memories of the past flying in our heaven of thoughts. We sometimes look at them


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for a while and realize that it has already passed away already dead. We could not bring back the real

shine to.

How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife by ManuelE. ArguillaSynopsis

Baldo and his older brother Leon were both waiting for the arrival of their visitor riding the carretela.

Seeing his brother's wife, Baldo was easily taken away by the beauty of the woman from city as he

narrates their journey to Nagrebcan. The idea of meeting with Leon's parents for the first time made

Maria a bit anxious. But along their way home, Maria discovered the peculiarities of the life in

Nagrebcan as opposed to their life in the city where she met and fell in love with Leon.

Analysis

This story pictures the life of the people living in the rural areas which is their main source of living is

farming and their best friend is carabao. Even if they are suffering from poverty, still they are sending

their son in college and support him, give him all he wants, but what happen is that their son simply

wants to be married. This is very realistic because this happens in some of the students who study far

away from their parents. I am wondering why there are lots of teenagers who do not think about the

situation of their parents know that there is a tendency that we the teenagers will follow what Noel did.

This will be big problems of our parents. This story gives me lesson, realization and inspiration not to

follow the steps of Noel because it is not easy to accept for the people who sacrifices most just for us to

go to school.

a. Character

1. Maria

= Tall and lovely lady with a long nail but not painted and look so fragrant like a morning

when papayas are in bloom.

= the beautiful and stunning wife of Leon from Manila.

2. Baldo

= He is the younger brother of Leon

= The one who fetched Leon and Maria from the road to Nagrebcan.

= He has a secret feeling to the wife of Leon.3. Leon

= Sometimes called as Noel because of his look.

= He is the older brother of Baldo who studied in Manila.

= The lovable husband of Maria.

4. Labang

= The Bull whom Baldo consider as his pet.


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= Served as the transportation of Leon, Maria and Baldo because of his cart at its back.

5. Norman Tabios

=Maria's ex-boyfriend who happened to be a loro.

6. Churita

=Labang's girlfriend/fiance

The Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio

Synopsis

The story started with a married couple, Awiyao and Lumnay, who were separating for the

reason that they could not have a baby even if they have been married for so long. Awiyao, the

husband, has to marry another woman despite the fact that he is still in love with his wife,

Lumnay. It is because of their tribes tradition that if a couple could not bear a child together,

they need to separate in order for the man to find a woman who could bear him a son that

could continue his lineage in his tribe for a child is considered as a sign of manhood in their

tribe. Lumnay, despite being inlove to her husband agreed to divorce with her husband in order

for him to find his own happiness with the woman who can possibly bear him a child. On the

eve of the wedding of Awiyao to the other woman, while the gangsas are beating and the

women are dancing together, Awiyao decided to go back home because he couldn't findLumnay among the dancers in his wedding when in fact, Lumnay was one of the greatest

dancers in their tribe. He found Lumnay in the darkest part of their house. Both of them talked

with each other, talking and reminiscing the times when they were once a couple, finding it

hard to finally let go of the other for they still loved each other deeply. Lumnay then decided to

go to the chief of the tribe and question the unwritten tradition. That gave her the courage to

go to the place where the wedding dance was held. But before reaching the exact place, she

stopped her tracks and admitting her defeat, for she realized that she loved Awiyao very muchand that she would rather lose him and see him happy than to keep him and see him miserable

for not being able to have a baby.

He is however; insensitive believing the answer to Lumnay's sorrow would be to join the other

women at the wedding dance. Little regard for her feelings and the willingness to abandon her


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seem to be the predominate thoughts in the author's mind. She seems to obsess over the

necklace of his grandmother which he had given her. Towards the end of the story I had the

feeling she contemplated suicide but in the end changed her mind.

Analysis

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.)

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 is revealed that both of them still love each

other, but because of their tribes custom, they have to separate.

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.


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How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife

Analysis

This short story entitled , How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife , is one of the

story written by a professional and famous author named Manuel E. Arguilla . This short story

focused on how the brother of Baldo or simply Leon brought home his wife named Maria. The

story happened at the Nargrebcan, La Union where the author also born and lived. This is a kind

of story that is very typical here in the Philippines especially in some rural areas. This story also

wants to give us knowledge about some other places who keep their tradition. The other thing

is to give lesson on how to taking care your relationship to those people you love and to realize

the importance of friendship in everyones life.

The story, like most of Arguillas prose, transpires in Barrio Nagrebcan in La Union, the

birthplace of Manuel E. Arguilla himself. Youll immediately realize how the writer loves his

hometown by the vivid imagery and sensuality that he offers on the plate. From the shapes and

the sounds to even the scent of the air, Arguilla spares no detail to prove that beauty exists in

Nagrebcan.From the title, you can surmise what type of story this is and how it could develop

as it goes along. Leon is actually the big brother of the main protagonist, the wielder of the

mystic point-of-view, but his wife takes to him as Noel as the latter coinage is presumably a

modern twist of Leon though obviously it is an inversion of the word. Baldo is the little brother

and Maria, Baldo taking traditional names into mind as he hears her name for the first time, is

the wife whom Leon/Noel brought back home.

Maria is actually city bred and Leon/Noel and Baldo are blatantly townsfolk. Theres the

culture clash that serves to be the conflict, though only between the father and the oblivious

Maria. Since Leon/Noel brought Maria to Nagrebcan, it can be presumed that theyll be staying

there. As a precaution, unbeknownst to even Leon/Noel and Baldo, their father have asked the


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younger son to do certain things out of the norm just to see if the wife can really adjust to her

new setting the barrio and the family.

In its entirety, How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife focuses on the

aforementioned culture clash or the setting shift when someone from the barrio or the city is

transported to the other. The concept is distinctly Filipino but essentially global.

Documents

Dead Stars by Paz Marquez