Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa (Short
Story) - Summary, Critique, Literary Analysis
Footnote to Youth is a story by Jose Garcia Villa that was published
in 1933. The year the story was published plays an important role in
understanding the story and what it means. The situation in the
Philippines back in the 1930s is very different from today (it's 2021
as I write this). If you've read the story, then you should agree with
me when I say that it's an indictment of the common Filipino practice
of marrying young and unprepared. I'd like to think that marrying
young was way more rampant in the 1930s than in the 21st century.
The Characters
1. Dodong - A 17-year-old youth wanting to marry his sweetheart.
2. Teang - The girl whom Dodong wanted to marry.
3. Dodong's father
4. Dodong's mother
5. Lucio - A former suitor of Teang who was nine years older than
Dodong.
6. Blas - Dodong's eldest son.
7. Tona - The girlfriend of Blas.
Plot and Summary
The plot of the story is four-pronged. It has four parts that sweep
through two generations from the day Dodong decides to get married to
the day his eldest son Blas approaches him to tell him that he himself
wants to get married. Dodong was seventeen when he married Teang. They
immediatley conceived Blas sson after. Blas is eighteen when he asks
his father permission to marry his sweetheart Tona. That said, the
story covers a time span of 17 years.
Part I - On a sunny afternoon after a hard day's work in the fields,
Dodong decides to tell his father that he wants to marry his
sweetheart Teang. He's only seventeen years old. After a sumptous
dinner, he spills out his plans to his father. His proposition is met
with hesitation and discouragement. His father tells him that he's too
young to get married. But in the end, his father agrees to his wishes
and grants him the permission to marry Teang.
Part II - Nine months after their marriage, Teang gives birth to her
first son. Dodong experiences a whirlwind of conflicting emotions
during the bithing process - confusion, fear,
discomfort,embarrassment, and guilt. But when he hears the little baby
whimper and cry, he swells with happiness.
Part III - Blas is followed by six more children. Dodong didn't want
any more children but they came anyway. This makes him angry at
himself sometimes. The parade of children is also taking its toll on
Teang. She often wishes that she's not married. She sometimes wonder
if her life would've been better had she married Lucio, a former
suitor she rejected for the reason that he was nine years older than
Dodong.
Part IV - Blas is eighteen years old. One night, he tells his father
that he wants to marry his girlfriend Tona. Like his father before
him, Dodong doesn't want Blas to marry as he's too young. He knows
what's going to happen if Blas marries too early. He gives him
permission to marry anyway. But he does so with sadness in him.
Notes and Analysis / Study Guide for Students
- What is the meaning or central theme of the story? The story
highlights a problem in Philippine society - the practice of marrying
too young and suffering through the rest of the marriage. Dodong and
Teang, regardless of their love for each other and their children, are
obviously not happy with the way their lives turned out. It can also
be deduced from the first part of the story that Dodong's parents went
through the same predicament. The story puts a microscope on this
cycle of marrying young and then suffering through life.
- Is there a moral lesson in the story? It's pretty obvious. Don't
marry young just because you are in love. More often than not, it's a
recipe for disaster. Parents can also take a lesson from the story. If
your seventeen or eighteen-year-old son tells you that he's going to
marry his girlfriend, don't be afraid to say no.
- Does the saying "history repeats itself" apply to the narrative in
the story? Yes. The whole story is history repeating itself. a number
of times Dodong's parents married young and suffered. Dodong married
young and suffered. Now Dodong's son is marrying young and Dodong
knows that his son and his future wife are going to suffer.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest