A Child Of Sorrow by Zoilo Galang

A Child Of Sorrow
By Zoilo Galang

Summary:
The story revolves around two lovers, Rosa and Lucio, who had undergone a lot of
tribulations in their relationship. They were torn between fighting for their love or
complying their responsibilities to their parents. Besides, there was Oscar who gave
several quakes to their strong ties. Until one night, Oscar raped the beautiful Rosa.
She was helpless that time like a gazelle in the teeth of a lion. The two--Rosa and
Lucio--said goodbye to each other with Rosa couldn't move on and wept almost
every day and Lucio who drowned himself in paperwork, books, and all. At the end,
Rosa died.

Biography:
Born on June 27, 1895 in Bacolor, Pampanga, Zoilo Galang grew up in Spanish
culture and was indoctrinated by American influence. He graduated at Pampanga
High School and studied law but did not finish it. Through self-teaching, he widened
his knowledge which helped him in making his masterpieces.

Galang was the first Filipino who wrote a novel in English.

Historical Analysis:
Since Galang grew up in Spanish culture, probably he wrote the novel in accordance
with the era he was in but attacked it the other way around. And it's very evident in
the notion of the novel about marriage, according to Wikipedia, "...marriage itself
does not only signify the union of the persons, but also the fusion of the two families,
and the unification of two clans (Spanish colonialism)."; however, Galang showed a
character in the novel who is Lucio. Lucio was despised by the parents of Rosa.
They did not want her to be married to an ordinary man. With this circumstance, we
could say that Galang wanted to show a fresh story to the people of his time.

Biographical Analysis:
Galang was a learned man. He enhanced his knowledge through immersion or
social interaction. Didactically, experience is the best teacher, thus making Galang
be exposed to the reality of life. With this, he was able to come up an idea which
tackles about the weaknesses of people and he pointed out sorrow. Sorrow is
already part of our system but only felt if triggered, right? So, it is safe to say that
Galang must have experienced the things that the characters in his story had
encountered. There is imitation. There is reflection. There is heart. Therefore, a
masterpiece was unfolded.

A Child of Sorrow is a 1921 novel by the Filipino author Zoilo Galang.[1] It is

considered the first Philippine novel written in English.[2] Critics have suggested that
the novel was heavily influenced by the sentimentalism of the Tagalog prose
narratives of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[3]
Historical Analysis.

The novel tells a typical setting of a Filipino love story. It was set in a particular province
or town in a time too far from the modern setting where technology is abundant and
dominant, but it manifests certain characteristics of a love story which can still watched
in televisions in the modern times.

The scenes in the story are still seen in the present times, though it has been written in
the past. This makes the story eternal and timeless; from being in love at a young age, to
the issues of fixed marriage, up to the societal issues such as bribery.

The way the author writes the order of scenes, I can say that some of the scenes can be a
little bit predictable, which can also be manifested in teleseryes in the modern times. This
somehow set the standards or techniques of Filipino authors. To add to it, the author made
the sequence of scenes organized, and often uses flashbacks, which can still be seen in
modern Filipino Tele novelas.

Biography
ZoiloGalangwasbornonJune27,1895inBacolor,Pampanga.Hespentmostofhisyoung
lifeintheirtownknownasthehometownoffamedwritersandartists.Hewasthefirst
FilipinonovelistwhouseEnglishasamedium.HegraduatedfromBacolorElementary
SchoolandhewasalsoaproductofEscueladeDerecho,aprestigiouslawschoolinthe
country,wherehegraduatedin1919.HealsotookupspecialcoursesattheUniversityofthe
Philippinesin1925,thenwenttoColumbiaUniversityforfurtherstudies.Afterwhich,he
startedwriting.hisworkswereincludedinaKapampanganpaper"EMangabiran".Hewas
alsotheauthorofthefirstEnglishnovelwrittenbyaFilipino"AChildofSorrow",which
wasalsomadeintoamovielaterin1930.Someofhisoutstandingworksinclude"Nadia",
"ForDreamsMustDie","Springtime","LeadersofthePhilippines","GlimpsesoftheWorld",
"LifeandSuccess","MasterofDestiny","Unisophy",and"BarrioLife".

"A Child of Sorrow" is the very first Filipino novel written in English and was published in
1921. It was written by Zoilo M. Galang, a native of Mabalacat Pampanga.

The novel was set in Merrytown one summer in the month of April. It was all about the
tragic story of Lucio Soliman, a man who lived as a fanatic of books, who fell inlove with
the beautiful and moral woman in the person of Rosa Garcia. Their story ended up
tragically and encountered almost all sorts of hindrances. The hardest was when Rosa was
married to the selfish Oscar Ramirez.

Lucio met Rosa in his vacation to Merrytown. When he first met her, he suddenly felt
different, something beyond friendship, so did Rosa. After a couple of days, they met
again, pushing Lucio to confess his love for Rosa. He spent most of his vacation time with
Rosa until such time came when he was about to returning o his provincial town. Leaving
was hard for both of them, but they remained strong, strong until Lucio knew that Rosa
was about to be married to Oscar. Rosa was unhappy, of course, since he was married to a
man whom not only because she doesn't love him, but because all he thinks about is
nothing but himself. Many other circumstances came to test the love of Rosa and Lucio.
Until they saw each other again, but hardly did they know that it would be the last time
for Lucio to see Rosa alive.

DEAD STARS

Born in 1894 in Lucena, Tayabas (now Quezon). Marquez Bentez authored the first
Filipino modern English language short story,Dead Stars, published in the Philippine Herald
in 1925. Born into the prominent Marquez family of Quezon province, she was among the
first generation of Filipino people trained in the American education system which used
English as the medium of instruction. She graduated high school in Tayabas High School
now, Quezon National High School. She was a member of the first freshman class of the
University of the Philippines, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.

Two years after graduation, she married UP College of Education Dean Francisco Bentez
with whom she had four children.

Mrquez-Bentez later became a teacher at the University of the Philippines, who taught
short-story writing and had become an influential figure to many Filipino writers in the
English language, such as Loreto Paras-Sulit, Paz M. Latorena, Arturo Belleza Rotor,
Bienvenido N. Santos and Francisco Arcellana. The annually held Paz Marquez-Benitez
Lectures in the Philippines honors her memory by focusing on the contribution of Filipino
women writers to Philippine Literature in the English language.

Although she only had one more published short story after "Dead Stars" entitled "A Night in
the Hills," she made her mark in Philippine literature because the former is considered the
first modern Philippine short story.

For Marquez-Benitez, writing was a lifelong occupation. In 1919, she founded "Woman's
Home Journal," the first women's magazine in the country. Also in the same year, she and
other six women who were prominent members of Manila's social elites, namely, Clara
Aragon, Concepcion Aragon, Francisca Tirona Benitez, Carolina Ocampo Palma, Mercedes
Rivera and Socorro Marquez Zaballero, founded the Philippine Women's College now
Philippine Women's University. "Filipino Love Stories," reportedly the first anthology of
Philippine stories in English by Filipinos, was compiled in 1928 by Marquez-Benitez from the
works of her students.

When her husband died in 1951, she took over as editor of the Philippine Journal of
Education at UP. She held the editorial post for over two decades.

In 1995, her daughter Virginia Benitez-Licuanan wrote her biography "Paz Marquez-Benitez:
One Woman's Life, Letters, and Writings."