Every early morning, a young boy of fourteen has already got used to his routine of
buying pan de sal , wondering what gives it flavor and shape. His usual daydreaming of
being “destined” for Aida, his romantic interest, makes him more competent in the field
of academics and music (playing violin). The boy thinks that the money he will
eventually earn from playing the violin capacitates him of giving her a brooch and
stationery as an expression of his unspoken emotions. Together with the Saez’s band,
he performs in the asalto for Don Esteban’s twin daughters, wherein Aida perceives him
sneaking some sweets into the packet under his shirt. As speechlessness and
embarassment ascend over composure, the warmth of feeling he has for Aida vanishes.
One understands that life is about embracing reality and realizing that not all dreams
come true, as the young man is awakened to what he has to accept. N.V.M. Gonzalez
gives readers a picture of a young boy who is fond of daydreaming or fantasizing.
The boy, having an intense adoration towards the Old Spaniard’s niece, assumes that
the latter also holds romantic interest in him but tries to be discreet. As the boy
visualizes himself being a genius, world-class violinist and certainly winning Aida’s
“hand”, the author makes the readers see a character who imagines delighful events in
an extremity to the extent that he almost finds it real. The astute reader observes the
suggestion of conflict between what exists in the mind and what actually exists.
Metaphors are creatively used to add color and meaning to the story. The lines “I
wondered if the sea wind carrying the straggling notes across the pebbled river did not
transform them into a Schubert’s Serenade” (personification), and “Neither by post nor
by hand would a reply reach me
But no matter; it would be a silence full of voices.” (oxymoron) suggest the intensity of
affection the boy has towards Aida. His whimsical imagination of being with the beloved,
strengthened by some metaphorical statements, shows how much he is into her. The
images of light and darkness are meaningfully used to represent the main character’s
realization towards reality. The line “With the napkin balled up in my hand. I flung out my
arm to scatter the egg yolk things in the dark…” signifies the boy’s real-like dream of
having a romantic attachment with Aida cannot anymore take place as the ardor
vanishes. He eventually bids “goodbye” to an almost impossible dream. Analogously,
the line “Farther away glimmered the light from Grandmother’s window, calling me
home.” is an implicit but clear representation of the young boy who is about to accept
the awakening truth.
The use of symbols works well in “The Bread of Salt”. The main character, who thinks of
giving Aida a brooch, signifies his intense thought and assumptions toward a person
who is not very close with him. At the beginning, the mention of the masses’ staple food
(pan de sal) which has the size of the boy’s little fist and has a pair of lips convulsed into
a painful frown symbolizes the main character’s immaturity and absurdity of his many
romantic assumptions and fantasies with a girl he barely knows. Appearing at the end,
the line “It was not quite five, and the bread was not yet ready.” implies the boy who has
been unprepared to accept reality, since he is just chasing dreams and living in
fantasies. This also suggests that time, along with the dynamics of real-life experiences,
dictates maturity. The young boy wanting to buy with his own money some bread (pan
de sal) to eat on his way represents the main character who is about to accept the truth
that not all dreams and aspirations are meant to take place.
The matter that makes the story complete and substantial is the conveyance of social
implications evident in the Filipino culture and ways of life. Usually, social differences
dictate the harshness and bitterness of reality. The young boy visualizes and assumes
that he and Aida would be romantically together, but their difference in social status
could be a hindrance, more strengthened by the fact that they do now know each other
well. The near end of the story depicts the boy putting some sweets in several sheets of
napkin paper and sneaking these in the packet under his shirt. The main character feels
embarassed as the girl perceives the act and is willing to offer him a big package, if he
has just waited until the party is over and the guests are already gone.
His lapse of ethics and Aida’s “somehow insulting” statement towards him suggest the
materialization and fulfillment of his dreams almost, or absolutely impossible. The short
story also shows how some Filipinos make their class known in social gatherings, where
one tries to equate or even predominate whatever others display, thus it manifests the
explicit value of social impression. The idea is clearly depicted and extracted from one
of the lines, “The local matrons, however hard they tried, however sincere their efforts
were bound to fail in their aspiration to rise to the level of Don Esteban’s daughters.”
The essential detail that the reader fails not to observe is the way the rich people treat
those who are, in great distance, inferior to them – master-servant relationship.
As the story portrays, the two servants are barefooted so that only the slightest scraping
can be heard as they bring out a gleaming harp from the music room. The servants’
“social inferiority” is emphasized. This short but meaningful detail may or may not be
unjust, but it definitely gives readers a picture of the great difference of two “worlds”.
Indeed, N.V.M. Gonzalez’s “The Bread of Salt” encompasses the essential factors a
good literature must be. The ablaze application of literary elements and the infusion of
the story’s social value make the whole of it reflective, fruitful, and worth-to-read.
Bread of Salt, as if often noted, is Gonzalez's loving homage to Joyce's Araby. Both
short stories feature young adolescents infatuated with a girl who is oblivious to them.
Moreover, this puppy love ends in a searing instance of humiliation and realization;
made all the more painful by the fact that even in that instant of pain, the girl is
ignorant of their feelings. Bread of Salt casts this theme though in distinctly Filipino
terms.
A running image throughout the story is how the narrator, is similar in many ways to
pan de sal, the bread of salt. The similarity is physical: the bread is described as
diminutive,nut-brown and the size of my little fist, just as the narrator is still basically
only a boy. Note how the image of the narrator is quite similar to that of bread
baking, I could feel my body glow in the sun as though it had been instantly cast in
bronze.
The similarity is also metaphorical: just as bread needs to bake in the fire to rise and
be ready, so too must the narrator undergo trials before he can be called a man.
Indeed, a crucial acknowledgement at the end of the story (after he has embarrassed
himself before Aida) is that the narrator admits that he is not yet baked, It was not
quite five, and the bread was not yet ready.
This acknowledgement though only comes at the end. For most of the story the
narrator is insistent on his maturity, that he has grown up enough for love. Thus his
disdain for his aunt, She was the sort you could depend on to say such vulgar
things. Thus also his constant need to excel, Quickly I raced through Alard. There is
too his quiet pride in being accepted into a big-boys club, the band, Pete pressed my
arm. He had for some time now been asking me to join the Minviluz Orchestra, his
private band... My head began to whirl. Taken together these acts have the quaint tone
of a young lad insisting to all around him that he is no longer a boy.
The object of all this effort is of course a girl, Aida. She is lovely and fair, the
narrator's vision of perfection, Their [other girls'] eyes glowed with envy, it seemed to
me, for those fair cheeks and the bobbed dark-brown hair which lineage had denied
them Befitting an adolescent fantasy, the narrator imagines that he and she share a
secret language, a codice of signs only apparent to them, She would perhaps never
write me back. Neither by post nor by hand would a reply reach me. But no matter; it
would be a silence full of voices.
But young fantasy ultimately collides with the reality that the affection is not mutual.
While Aida seems like a nice enough girl she doesn't see the narrator in a romantic
light. This epiphany hits the narrator when he is at his most vulnerable, when he is
without pretensions and is hungrily wolfing down the remains of the food from the
party, The sight of so much silver and china confused me. There was more food before
us than I had ever imagined... [I] also wrapped up a quantity of those egg-yolk things
in several sheets of napkin paper. None of my companions had thought of doing the
same, and it was with some pride that I slipped the packet under my shirt.
The humiliation of Aida seeing him pocketing food (really a slight affront in the
greater scheme of things) triggers an epiphany in the narrator; all affection for Aida is
expunged from him, I could not quite believe that she had seen me, and yet I was sure
that she knew what I had done, and I felt all ardor for her gone from me entirely.
What triggers this epiphany is that Aida saw him in an unguarded moment, she saw
him as he was and not as how he wished to appear. This clash between the affectation
of polished maturity and the reality of boyish exuberance is a theme developed
throughout the story and it climaxes in the narrator's loss of fire for Aida.
He, the narrator, has grown up though, if ever so slightly. With money he has earned
from his own toil, he insists on buying for himself some pandesal.