MAY DAY EVE
Agueda and Badoy’s story began in that first
night of May. Agueda is a smart girl who seems
to mature ahead of her age. Unlike girls of her
age, she is bold and liberated. Badoy is much
older than Agueda is. He studies in Europe and
likes to play with girls as Agueda hears it from his
stories with his friends. She hates him for that.
The party that night in the house of the Monitya’s
was in honor of Badoy who just came from
Europe. The old people have ordered to stop the
dancing as it was getting late at night but Agueda
and the girls went upstairs to continue the noise.
The caretaker Natasha mentioned about the spell
which allows one to see the face of his/her lover.
The other girls were afraid but not Agueda. She
convinced Anastasha to tell her the incantation.
Alone in the middle of the dark room while
holding a candle, Agueda whispered the
incantation and there she saw the face of the
devil. Badoy and Agueda both lived through it,
thinking each other as devils. They severely hurt
each other. The tragedy is when Badoy’s heart
forgets how much he felt for Agueda. Both were
not careful enough to mend their drifting
marriage. Both Badoy and Agueda perceived
their marriage to be a taste of hell. Their prides
prevented them from admitting that they saw
each other’s face in that mirror. They continued
to claim that it was the witch or the devil they saw.
Each claimed that the devil bewitched them,
tortured them and ate their hearts. It was so
because it was how they were to each other as
husband and wife. Their contrasting attributes
brought them together to that situation they
suffered all along. They were blessed with a
daughter. But even this did not soften the hatred
each has for the other or maybe lowered each
other’s pride to admit the truth between them.
Donya Agueda succumb to death after the long
agonizing years with Don Badoy Montiya. Alone
after his wife’s death, Don Badoy painfully
recalled of the girl who had flamed so vividly in
a mirror one wild May Day midnight, long, long
ago and refreshed his memory of how she had
bitten his hand and fled which surprised his heart
in the instant of falling in love with Agueda.
Crying his heart out, Don Badoy realized that
time has healed the wounds of their relationship.
The old love that was blinded by hatred which
brought pain has now resurfaced. The tragedy is
that it is too late. Agueda is gone. She never had
the chance to know the truth that he had actually
loved her and she meant so much to her all those
times. Love didn’t go away. It was just hidden in
their proud hearts.
Morning in Nagrebcan by Manuel E. Arguilla
Morning in Nagrebcan is a slice-of-life story
(Short
featuring a dysfunctional family. It features a
Story)
-
Literary
Analysis
particular morning in the lives of Baldo, Ambo,
It's morning in the village of Nagrebcan. A boy
Nana Elang, and Tang Ciaco. I'd like to think that
named Baldo got out of their house to play with
it's a deliberate social commentary by Arguilla on
their dog's puppies. He's soon joined by his
the often ignored presence of social violence
younger brother Ambo. Ambo wanted to play
among and within families in the provinces. A lot
with one particular black-spotted puppy but
of people, especially those who grew up in urban
Baldo has claimed it as his own. He didn't allow
areas, romanticize life in the barrio. In the
Ambo to touch the puppy. An argument and a
beginning of the story, Arguilla does a bit of this
fight ensued. In the process, Ambo had his hand
romanticizing with his description of the
bit by the puppy they were fighting over. His
surroundings
hand
beautiful morning.
started
bleeding.
as
Nagrebcan
welcomes
the
Hearing the commotion outside the house, the
But just as the reader is starting to enjoy the
boys' father, Tang Ciaco looked out the window.
countryside sceneries of bluish mists hugging
He saw Ambo's bleeding hand and declared that
tobacco fields and roosters strutting around,
the puppy has gone mad. He grabbed a piece of
Arguilla hits him with a sudden wave of violence.
firewood, got out of the house, and started
Baldo and Ambo fight a proper fight. Their father
violently beating the puppy. He then turned his
beat them as if they don't deserve being his sons.
attention on his sons and started beating them as
He calls their mother a whore.
well.
Note that the story opens with an abundance of
beauty and love. There's the beautiful description
The mother of the boys, Nana Elang, came for
of the countryside. There's the mother dog being
their rescue and brought them safely inside the
a big ball of love to its small puppies. There's
house. The story ended with Nana Elang doing
Baldo playing with and kissing the puppies. The
morning chores inside the house, with Tang
second act in the story is the unfolding of
Ciaco going to work. and with the two boys
unimaginable violence. Violence that contrasts
finding the dead puppy and giving it a much-
sharply with the setting of the story. The story
needed
ends with scenes of love and beauty. Baldo and
burial.
Ambo settle their differences and went to bury the
Analysis
dead puppy. As they walk away from the
makeshift grave, Baldo wraps an arm around his
brother. The morning is warm and Nagrebcan is
student reading the story can further attempt
bathed in golden sunlight. It's as if something
to explore:
very violent and evil hasn't just transpired.
1. Tiang Ciaco treats his sons like dogs. He beat
The cycle of violence is a main theme in the story.
his sons the way he beat the puppy.
There's nothing surprising about brothers fighting
2. There's a reason why Arguilla used a motherly
because most brothers fight. But the way Baldo
dog and a litter of puppies in the story. What
and Ambo go at each other borders on
could this reason be?
uncomfortable. There's more to it than just
3. Sometimes, dogs are better than human beings.
brothers fighting. We get an answer in the next
Sometimes, dogs are better in taking care of their
scenes as they were beaten by their father. Why
offspring than humans.
are the brothers so hard on each other when they
4. At the end of the story, there are scenes of
fight? They learned from their father. Their father
beauty and love. There's Baldo wrapping an arm
is violent on them so they are violent toward each
around his brother. There's the village being
other.
bathed in warm sunlight. Is this Arguilla's way of
saying that at the end of the dark tunnel, there's
It's obvious from the story that the beating the
light? That there's hope? That there's hope for
brothers got in that particular morning has
Baldo and Ambo? That there's hope for their
occurred in the past. They've been through it
mother Nana Elang?
before. Thus their reactions of fear when their
father came down the house that morning.
Nana Elang is a main character in the story but
she is almost treated like an outsider. She is
always on the outskirts of the story - staring and
observing and unable to do anything. This might
be an indictment of the way women are treated in
some Filipino communities. Nana Elang is
without a doubt a loving mother and wife. But
here she is being called a whore by her husband
and feeling helpless as she watches her children
get
beat
up
by
their
own
father.
I'll end this analysis with a few notes that a