Sumagang, Ma. Kamilah B.

BPED 2-B

“ SIN ” – a novel by F. Sionil Jose

Don Carlos Cobello is on the last peak of his life, lying on his precious deathbed, determined to
tell everything. Don Carlos is lying, as they say, through his teeth.

In the slim novel entitled “Sin” which was the most controversial and the most bohemian among
the literary write-ups of the renowned novelist F. Sionil Jose, the Filipino traditional mores as well as
the characterization and reputation of Philippine Society as "highly-conservative" and "predominantly
Roman Catholic" are shown way too different and far too opposite because of Sionil’s lustful, indecent,
corrupt and exploitative, patrician protagonist.

“Sin” is a chronicle of an aristocratic family which is very clear in the history of the Philippines.
However, A canniest mestizo Family who is drawn by perpetual monopoly of wealth, resources, and
social capital along with its arrogant, indeed racist, disposition towards the darker-skinned, lower class
"Indios”. Thus, the heart of “Sin” speaks for the undying gap of inequality
between mestizos and indios (rich and poor).

Don Carlos Cobello, aka C.C., a blue-blooded Spanish mestizo (A Filipino with Spanish
ancestry) had a little direct contact of the classes beneath him because he was born with a silver spoon
in his mouth and eventually worked far from the grounds. According to Cobello "If there is
anything Indios cannot accept, it is the searing truth about themselves, their perfidious character...no
sooner have they proclaimed their virtue then they turn around and do the opposite...These Indios--they
are stupid." Hence, his degradation and his feeling of disgust towards Indios that time grew bigger. On
the other hand, Carlos Cobello has been a diplomat and conducted strange bittersweet romances during
his business travels in Korea, Japan and Hong Kong; And an entrepreneur of which one of his tasks was
to manage his father's wartime bordello for Japanese officers (on whom he spies). He lived his
aristocratic life full of selfishness and greed.

C.C. in his formative youth, undermine embedded codes of morality by engaging both
adulterous and incestuous relationships which resulted him to have two offsprings: The demure Angela,
who is presented to the public as his culturally-refined niece and the family’s heiress. But Angela was in
truth his daughter, the result of an immoral union with his sister Corito. Although the incestuous
exploitation is kept secret from Angela herself, she remains a constant reminder to
both Cobello and Corito of their acts and guilt. Meanwhile, his other child Delfin, a boy born from the
womb of his teenage sweetheart of an indigent background, was a university student who later became
a lawyer and defender of the rights of the poor in their quest for decent living standards and greater
equality.

Cobello cherished both children, who are tagged in the novel as the polarization of Philippine
society: Angela being the heiress of Cobello’s wealth, with Delfin being
Cobello’s antithesis. But Cobello is convinced that Angela according to them (Corito and himself)
was "God's immutable way of reminding us of our guilt, for which there was no atonement, no
absolution." As for the heir apparent Delfin, he refused to follow the footsteps of his father and rejected
the offer of a privileged and luxurious lifestyle, becoming a person who disapproved oligarchy, their
excesses, and the abuses committed by his father. Delfin did not want to belong to the élite world into
which his father Cobello has long stubbornly established himself.

On the other hand, Don Carlos Cobello, in an absurd twist of irony, became a helpless paraplegic
after a freak accident in his bathroom. The incident caused him to become physically disabled which
stripped his pride but not his soul."How do I begin this litany? Is this the time to do it? In my present
mood of isolation and decay, crippled as I am, should I even try to put things down? A form of expiation,
perhaps, or atonement, the recitation of a thousand mea culpas? (latin: Through my fault) and if I do it,
which I know I must, should I be a slave to the rigid chronology of time or to some human conceit that
will blot out everything self-deprecating? I know I have lived an interesting life but would it possible for
me to relate this life interestingly?”. However, these were once the words of Don Carlos Cobello, "What
are social taboos? They are the absurd and even grotesque creations of society...Sin is a social definition,
not a moral one." but on his deathbed, He recalled those that he had lost and longed for, he reaped
most of what he sowed.

True to its title, the novel “Sin” through Don Carlos Cobello serves as an eye-opener towards the
mass’ consciousness as it exposes the tower of vanity and greed which tinted the élite structures of
power in countries around the world