My Father Goes To Court

     Title: My Father Goes To Court

     Author: Carlos Bulosan

     Author's Background: Carlos Bulosan ( 1911-1956).Carlos Bulosan was a prolific writer and poet, best remembered as the author of America Is in the Heart, a landmark semi-autobiographical story about the Filipino immigrant experience. Bulosan gained recognition in mainstream American society with the 1944 publication of Laughter of my Father, which was excerpted in the New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, and Town and Country. He immigrated to America from the Philippines in 1930, endured horrendous conditions as a laborer, became active in the labor movement, and was blacklisted along with other labor radicals during the 1950s. He spent his last years in Seattle, jobless, penniless, and in poor health.

                                             Source: http://www.historylink.org/File/5202

     Vocabulary:

        Wafted- (with reference to a scent,sound,etc.) pass or cause to pass gently through the air

         Molave- a strong tree

     Characters: The narrator - the son of the accused father

                           The Father - the one accused from stealing from the rich man

                           The narrator's siblings- his brothers and sisters

                           The Richman - the one who accused the father

                           The Judge -  The judge of the case

                            The Richman's children - his pale and skinny children

     Settings: The houses of the characters in a small town in Luzon and at the court.

     Exposition: This started in the beginning of the story when the narrator introduced himself and that he also talked about his life and his family and how the moved because of a flood that destroyed his father's farm and after they moved they had a rich neighbor.

     Rising Action: When the rich man filed a complaint against the poor family.

     Climax: When the poor family went to court because of the complaint of the richman

     Falling Action: When the father took his son's straw hat and asked change from his family and walked to the other room with the hat.

    Ending: When the father shook the hat to pay his debt and then everyone laughed and live happily.

     Symbolism: The richman's house represents his wealth and the food that his servants make represents how much luxurious food rich people have compared to the poor people.

     Theme: This story shows us that not because you have have a lot money you can harass people who have done nothing to you.

     Lesson: You should think about things before you make assumptions take your time to find some evidence to prove your point. 

                         

   


     

     

Portrait Of a Great Man

                                        Source: http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/stories/great_man.htm

                                    Title: Portrait of a Great Man
                               
                                    Author: Manuel Viray
                                 
                                    Author's Background: Manuel A. Viray (1917-1995?) has compiled poetry anthologies, essays on Philippine literature, and was editor-in-chief of Archipelago Quarterly. He worked in the foreign service corp of the Philippine government until his retirement.
                                   
                              source: http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/authors.htm#viray

                         Vocabulary: Capricious- given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour.
                 
                                            Tyrannical- exercising power in a cruel or arbitrary way. 
                               
                                                           Guile- sly or cunning intelligence

                                                   Frigidaire- Is the US consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of European parent company Electrolux.
   
                                                   Impassively- not feeling or showing emotion.

                                                   Kaywoodie-  Brand of a pipe

                                                  Alacrity-brisk and cheerful readiness.

                                                  Bureaucracy- a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

                                                 source: google search
      
                                                 Characters: Dr Rufino T. Ventanilla- Deputy Commisioner
                                                                            
                                                              Serafin- Dr. Rufino's chauffeur
    
                                                              Juan Tuviera y Sibulsibul- Assemblyman

                                                              Zabala- Dr. Rufino's Stenotypist

                                                              Eduardo Bofelho- Top notcher in the 1930 bar exam

                                                           Del Mundo and Estabillo- assistants in mechanizations

                                             Exposition: This started in the beginning of the story when it intoduced Dr Rufino with his chauffeur Serafin, as the go to the main location of the story Dr Rufino's office. The story goes on and describes the other characters and now we know that Ventanilla is grumpy to his co workers and a perfectionist he checks if there are typographical errors like the the period that should have been a semicolon and a comma that has been misplaced.

                                    Rising Action: The conflict here would start when Ventanilla enters his office and found himself barricaded by the hill of papers on his desk and the stress that he has to deal with on a day to day basis.

                                   Climax: This would be revealed when Zapala answered a phone call that was meant for Ventanilla. He then passed the phone to Ventanilla, as Ventanilla answers the phone he realizes that he was talking to his superior the Commisioner. He then fires Ventanilla and tranfers him to another department.

                                Falling Action: This would be when Perez and Marcos are having a coversation about in a restaurant and talking about how Ventanilla could have done a better job Marcos then asks Perez if the deputy commissionership were offered to him would he turn it down to which Perez  says " i don't know" "it's too much of a responsibility". And they talked about how Ventanilla could have improved the office if he had better trust in the people around him.

                             Ending: AFTER two weeks, Perez was appointed Deputy Commissioner to succeed Dr. Ventanilla.

                            Symbolisms: The first symbolism that i found out was the sun described as the intruder of sleep. This could mean that for Ventanilla that when he is asleep he does stress about his work. Ventanilla was also compared to a farmer because of how hard he works and he keeps on getting bother with minor things.

                             Theme: The theme of the story could be shown by the stress of some one who does not have trust in the people around him/her which then leads to extra work for him/her.

                            Lesson: The lesson here could be that you should be careful in choosing your career you should have a passion for the career that you have choosen. Even if the salary you receive is high it does not matter because you don't have a passion for it.