Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

 

Postcolonial Criticism

          Okonkwo, a member of the Umuofian tribe (in Africa) is a well-known champion in their place after defeating a wrestler in the nickname of "cat" (the wrestler was famed for his name because of never landing on his back). Okonkwo is a strong and hardworking man, who always strives to not show weakness. He doesn't want to be like his father, a coward (fears of seeing blood) and improvident (towards his family) because of lending and losing money.

         Everything that he has in his time, the position that he gained and all the wealth, was because of his hardwork; he became the leader of their village and had three wives because of strong masculinity, as his father died in shame and left many unpaid debts.

          

          Okonkwo was chosen to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy that was taken by the village as a peace settlement from the other village because of his father's deed (killing a Umuofian woman). The boy was included in Okonkwo's family, nurtured and even looked up to him as his second father 

Design

by Robert Frost

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth --
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth --
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small. 

            The first and the second line tells us about the scenario of a fat, white spider holding up a moth on a white flower. A heal-all is a decumbent European perennial, usually purplish or in white color, that is ought to possess healing properties.

         The speaker sees peculiarity in this situation, since a spider is usually black and he interprets the three being brought all together for some reason, just like the weird mixing of ingredients in a witches' brew.

         The first up to the fourth line in the second part are the questions that are being made by the author upon observing the three: Why is this flower white, when it is usually blue? Why is the color of the spider also white? What made it to come into that particular flower? Why did the moth decide to flutter in the flower, when in the first place, there is a predator?

         The author then concludes that if it is "design" that brought these three all together, there must be some pretty, dark reason behind it. If we were to put it on the other side, it is not God's plan to disregard awful things to happen, even how little it is. But 'if' is being put on the last line of the poem, which states that: "What but design of darkness to appall?-- If design govern in a thing so small."

         The line is trying to tell us that what if, there is no design at all? That things are not really destined to happen because what if, they are just some sort of random circumstances? The short poem is designed to play tricks with our mind, because it leads us to the art of questioning. The reader is left with questions in his/her mind to answer his/her observations. And it takes a simple thought to make us ponder about the very nature of creation, the meaning of life, its properties and how we perceive things under it.

Moulin Rouge!

by Baz Luhrmann

Postmodern Criticism

Summary

     In 1899, a young, English poet named Christian moves to Paris to pursue his career as a writer. He then meets Toulouse Lautrec and Harold Zidler, the two members of the Bohemian movement which owns a lavish nightclub called "Moulin Rouge". Lautrec and Harold convinced Christian to make a musical show for them, so that they can find a backer who can make the 'Moulin Rouge' a proper theater. As the three arrived at the club, Christian meets Satine, the highest paid star and the city's most famous courtesan. He immediately falls in love with her, as Touluse is frequently arranging him to see Satine in her private chamber to present the work. Satine as well, fell in love with him, thinking that he was the duke. But her feelings never fade even when she discovered that Christian was just a writer.

   The club's owner, however, negotiates with a wealthy duke to help pay for the club. The Duke will only agree if he gets Satine. When the offer was confirmed, the Duke had found out about Christian and Satine's relationship. Jealous and enraged, he threatens to stop financing the show if Satine continues to meet up with him.

  As the cabaret was gradually converted into a theater, the two still continued seeing each other. Afraid for the Duke's warning, Zidler arranges Satine to dine with the Duke one evening. Satine then learns she has tuberculosis, and that her condition had caused her to become ill. She explained this to Zidler, and had him make excuses for the Duke. 

  Zidler learns that Satine cannot live longer, so he permits her to see Christian, only to tell that they must end their affair for it endangers the show. Christian insisted and developed a song instead to affirm their love.

    Satine offers the Duke to spend a night with her to divert his attention. But upon seeing Christian on the streets, she realizes that she cannot anymore go with her plans. The Duke tries to rape her, but was then saved by Le Chocolat, one of the cabaret dancers, and was reunited with Christian. 

   Their love was tested for how many times, such as when the Duke threatens again to kill Christian if he could not get Satine. Christian was banished from the Moulin Rouge and becomes depressed, even though Toulouse insists that Satine loves him. 

  On the night of the show, Christian sneaks into the Moulin Rouge and intends to pay Satine, in order to return his love just as the Duke is paying for her. They suddenly find themselves in the spotlight, as Zidler convinces the audience that Christian is the disguised sitar player. Christian denounces Satine and walks off the stage.

  When the Duke and his bodyguard attempted to kill Christian, everyone stopped them including Ziddler. The Duke then stormed out of the club, as Christian and Satine completed their song. 

   The couple affirmed their love, but only before the woman died (because of her illness). The story, though ended in tragedy, is as well mixed with contentment. Because if you really love a person, you will still remember him/her even if death sets you apart. Just as what Christian felt for Satine. He doesn't think of her death as a loss, but instead used it as an inspiration to finish his writing "A Love that will Live Forever", a tale that was driven out of their love story.

Intertextuality
          
      In the last part of the movie scene where the Duke's body guard attempted to shoot Christian when he and Satine finally meet, the scene was somewhat similar to the romantic film "Titanic" because it shows strong feelings of protest when Rose's fiance also attempted to kill Jack with a gun but was then stopped.

       Satine was like Ali in "Burlesque" wherein the spotlight was always on her, singing while performing to designate that she is the "star" of the show.

         The story is about an ordinary writer who fell in love with a popular and sophisticated woman. This links to the movie "Titanic" because of the typical scenario, only to differentiate the two men as writer (Christian) and an artist (Jack).

Pastiche

           Moulin Rouge is a jukebox-musical film similar to the "Cabaret" wherein a club has its own highly-paid star to run the show. It is where the "can-can" originated - a seductive dance by the courtesans that was then evolved as a form of entertainment today that also led to the introduction of other cabarets across the Europe. The film uses the musical setting of the Montmartre Quartre of Paris, France.

Pangako Sa 'Yo

(Marxist Analysis)

  Donya Benita wants to maintain their family's high class status so she arranged Eduardo and Claudia into marriage instead of Amor.

• "Doña Benita opposes his son and Amor's relationship since Amor was only a housemaid and she wanted Eduardo to marry Claudia Zalameda for political reasons. Doña Benita asked Eduardo's brother, Diego, who has a crush on Amor, to separate them."

   Power gives higher classes the confidence to rule because they believe that if they are much higher than the lower class, they can easily control and dominate them.

• "Doña Benita regretted forcing Eduardo to marry Claudia, as her daughter-in-law turned out to be cruel. She tried to explain on her deathbed that it was she who broke his relationship with Amor, but died before explaining."
• "Yna and Angelo fall in love, much to Claudia's chagrin. She looks down on maids, and actively makes Yna's life a living hell."

  It can be seen in the story that only a higher class can defeat another high class because of equal forces.

• "Amor Powers returns to the Philippines from the United States after making a name for herself in the business world. Amor had been all the while planning her revenge on the Buenavista family, whom she blamed for her past sufferings as well as the assumed death of her child."

Nicolle’s #BagongGandaBagongPagAsa Story

(Maxi-peel commercial)
Structuralist Analysis

           The tv ad was classified as rhetorical criticism, that fall under the theory of genres in a drama category in structuralism, for it uses a girl's past experience to make her use the product. Nicolle was bullied by her classmates when she was a teenager because of her pimples. She was encouraged to use Maxi-peel and her life was gradually changed because of its effect. Her face that was pale, cracked and was full of pimples was now totally changed and her confidence was renewed because her natural beauty finally appears. 

          The commercial has examples of binary opposition because in here, it conveys the message of good-looking vs. ugly, that you can hardly be accepted if you are not pleasing enough especially if there is something wrong with your physical appearance. You have to be beautiful in order for you to gain friends and to be fully confident with yourself , and; strong vs. weak, from being gloomy, aloof, and depressed to being cheerful, determined and full of life. It can be seen in the commercial that in order for you to be strong, you have to gain enough confidence, and that is why they are convincing the people to use maxi-peel in order for them to achieve or to retain what they really want themselves to become. Strong is the dominant between the two so we make it as our basis to achieve something as our norm.

Biag ni Lam-ang

by Pedro Bucaneg

Archetypal Analysis

           At an early age, Lam-ang already possessed extraordinary abilities. It took four people to help his mother, Namongan, to give birth and when he came out, he told her that he would be given the name Lam-ang. 

    

          Lam-ang was only nine months old when he decided to look for his father, Don Juan, after not returning home from a battle. Aware of his son's extraordinary capabilities, Namongan allowed him to go for a quest though she was sad to let him go. During his exhausting journey, Lam-ang fell asleep and dreamed of his father's head being stuck on a pole by the Igorot. Lam-ang was furious when he learned about what happened to his father and hurriedly went to the village. He killed all the people except for one, so that he could tell others about Lam-ang's greatness.

          Upon returning to Nalbuan, he was bathed by women in the Amburayan river and the dirt from his body caused the death of fishes, crabs, and shrimps in the river because of his strong odor. 

         There was a woman whom Lam-ang wanted to court, and her name is Ines Kannoyan. Ines lived in Calanutian, and upon visiting her, Lam-ang brought along with him his gray dog and white rooster. While on their journey, Lam-ang encountered one of Ines' suitors, Sumarang, which he fought later on and defeated. 

        Ines' house was surrounded by many suitors, so Lam-ang thought of something to catch her attention. He had his rooster crow, which caused a nearby house to fall. His dog barked, and suddenly, the house rose up again. This caught the attention of Ines' parents and called Lam-ang. The rooster expressed his love and finally, Ines' parents agreed to a marriage with their daughter if Lam-ang could give them a double value of their wealth. Lam-ang had no problem with this, so he and Ines got married. 

          It was a tradition for the people of Nalbuan to have a newly married man dive for a rarang fish. Unfortunately, Lam-ang was eaten by a river monster, Berkakan. His bones were recovered by Marcos, and Ines covered them with a piece of cloth. The rooster crowed and the dog barked, and gradually, the bones started to move. Upon his resurrection, Lam-ang, together with his wife, lived happily ever after with their gray dog and white rooster. 

 Biag ni Lam-ang has the usual plot of a monomyth:

* Ines Kannoyan - symbolizes the ideal woman, the good and innocent which every man in every story desires to have as their partner.

* The river in the story symbolizes purification, such as when Lam-ang was bathed by women in order to remove the dirt and odor from his body; fertility, when he asked to dive in the water for their "married man tradition" to have a healthy married life, and; birth-death-resurrection when he was eaten by the shark and was eventually recovered and resurrected with the help of Marcos and his two magical pets. 

* The shark, or the Berkakan, symbolizes danger and death, which must be avoided in order to have a peaceful and successful life, like the couple in the story experienced and had overcome. 

* The rooster and gray dog in the story symbolizes downfall, hope and resurrection, that in every situation, you must have to experience failure in order to rise up again, and hope, to never give up, especially when you know that success will always be at the end of the story; because everything happens for a reason, and if all is not well, then it's not yet the end of the story.

Hands

by Sherwood Anderson

Psychological Analysis

           The story is about a middle-aged man who suffers from a psychological trauma because of his past. He is Wing Biddlebaum, a former school teacher who lived in the outskirts of Winesburg, Ohio. 

            

         Wing is a quiet man. But when he speaks, he talks with his hands. His shyness eases whenever he is around with his friend, George. George Willard  is a reporter from Winesburg Eagle and he is the only friend of Wing. A lot of times did George wanted to ask him about his hands' movements and why does he always intend to keep them, which made Wing to recall his past. 

         Wing's actual name is Adolf Myers, taught in a school in Pennsylvania. He was driven out of town and was forced to transfer in Winesburg because of being accused that he fondles his male students at school, making him to hide his real identity. 

      Biddlebaum is innocent, and tousling the hair of his students is just his way of expressing his kindness and concern to them. His hands help him to emphasize what he is trying to say. But instead of believing him, people in the town severely beat him, leaving Wing to be psychologically traumatized. The experience made him to live in isolation, and his hands are kept hidden every time he is surrounded by everyone because he has this fear that he might get again into trouble because of his hands.


* Id:
    > He would often caress the shoulders and heads of his pupils every time he does some lectures.
    > His hands slowly stole forth and lay upon George Willard's shoulders.
     - Caressing, or even just touching someone, could already be interpreted by others as a sexual act, because it  expresses desire by getting a physical contact with other people. It can be referred to as id because it focuses on the person's pleasure-seeking part; the person gets satisfaction every time he does some physical contact with other people.

* Ego:
    >  Wing Biddlebaum talked much with his hands. The slender expressive fingers, forever active, forever striving to conceal themselves in his pockets or behind his back, came forth and became the piston rods of his machinery of expression.
    -- In reality, there are people who are really kinesthetic. They cannot fully express themselves if they do not perform several actions. Just like Wing, his hands are active because it is his way of expressing himself. Talking with his hands is his source of confidence and it makes him feel good every time he shows what he is trying to say and whenever he makes some physical contact with other people.

     > In the presence of George Willard, Wing Biddlebaum, who for twenty years had been the town mystery, lost something of his timidity, and his shadowy personality, submerged in a sea of doubts, came forth to look at the world.
     -- Sometimes, we have this attitude that we simply do not trust anyone and that we only choose whom are we going to trust. We select our friends because we have these instincts to choose whom we are comfortable with.

     > He thinks his hands are responsible for his timidity, his fear of everyone. George is right, and the narrator tells the story of Wing's hands.
      -- We all have perceptions about other people. We have lots of questions and mostly, we are the ones who investigate to find out the answers behind them. Just like George, he wanted to ask Wing about his hands and it only tells us that in every person, there is really a story behind his/her actions so we cannot just freely judge until we found out what is really the truth.

* Superego:
    > only a growing respect for Wing kept him from blurting out the questions that were often in his mind.

     -- George had several questions, and for how many times he wanted to ask Wing about his hands but he hesitated to do it because his mind is telling him that Wing might get offended if he continued asking about something he didn't even want to talk about with.

    > He would rather hide his hands, and he looks with envy upon those who have them under control.

       -- How great is it for those who can freely show their hands, but for Wing, keeping them them is the right thing to do avoid misinterpretation again from other people.