1st Response

Sinsuat, Al-Ghazi U.

Valentine Dula

IS216-HUM01

29 October 2019

Cat as King of Hearts and House of Spades

A short story that depicts the irony of finding freedom in prison. John Carlo Pacala’s Ang Reyna ng

Espada at mga Pusa shows the challenges of homosexual people are facing and their struggles to face out and

show their true identity in a patriarchal society. Every event on these works hinges on an untold stories of

many: a story of loneliness and preferred comfort with profoundly immoral people. Pacala connects the irony

of finding freedom in behind bar, cards and odd humor within the story to hint that discrimination and violence

to these humans are still prevalent.

Ang Reyna ng Espada at mga Pusa is the type of story the can open your eyes in many situation. With

just the title itself, it already introduces a symbolization which I think made the short story more entertaining

and self-delving. The key characters of this story are Jose T. Clutario III, and his “friend/lover” Peng (short for

Pengson). Peng’s clemency was announced and was about to meet freedom but refused to because his freedom

is in prison.

In the first part of this work, the game Solitaire was introduced when Peng and Clutario was talking

about Clutario’s clemency. The Latin root word at the heart of this lonely word is solitarius meaning alone or

isolated. It is a form of fortune-telling whether or not the player’s desire would come true. Peng dreamt of

playing solitaire one night and desired to know if Cluatario’s freedom is true, however, after doing a lot of

trials he still doesn’t have the answer except on his last draw, all cards were red except for the Queen of

Spades.

The card of spades was introduced then. In cartomancy reading, playing cards with the spades suit

show future conflicts in your life that you might have to deal with. All of the spades cards have their meaning

but I picked two meanings that captured my interest most: (1) Represents a difficult situation that may cause

separation between you and a loved one and (2) A time of significant change, one thing will come to an end in

722 words
 1st Response

Sinsuat, Al-Ghazi U.

Valentine Dula

IS216-HUM01

29 October 2019

order to make room for something new. Clutario had plans of committing a crime just to be not freed from jail,

he thought of possible situations which included killing his fellow prison peers. With Peng being his lover and

his peers' ignorance of their relationship, he didn’t want to go to the outside world as he finds the prison the

exact opposite of the real world. The story also mentioned that the actual Queen of Spades card was lost and

later on substituted by a drawing of a queen of spades that looks like a cat done by Clutario. This all implies

that when Cluatario’s clemency is about to come, he’ll have to make a decision and if that decision involves

leaving the prison, his relation with Peng will come to an end and make room for something new to them.

The King of Hearts was introduced then in the latter part of the story. This card has a lot of meaning

that involves the joy of your loved ones, but one definition caught me and I took note, “a major change is

coming to your home, such as a loved one moving away.” This card represents Peng well in this situation.

Peng will be devasted of Cluatarios adieu but sooner or later, he’ll have to move on and face a new beginning

(which is another definition of the Hearts cards.)

Lastly, with the cat as a replacement of the Queen of Spades. The symbolism of cats in cards is a

rebirth. Cats are also associated with darkness which often goes with fear and hidden things. They also

symbolize unpredictability and healing. This implies that something will replace each character’s role in

their loved one, it is unpredictable but soon, both Peng and Clutario will heal from this.

Each character, card and their symbol unifies a story that shows that there are some people out

there that are facing with this kind of situation or worst. In this way, Pacala has used this story as a

vehicle to open the eyes of some and express the beat of his heart to tell the world that people’s freedom

may vary on their surroundings, not within the individual

722 words
 2nd Response

Sinsuat, Al-Ghazi U.

Valentine Dula

IS216-HUM01

29 October 2019

As someone who is in a closet and has a different sexual orientation, different emotions evoked

after reading the short story. A mixed feeling of anger and sadness was all I could think about: anger for

those narrow-minded individuals and sadness for those who are facing such struggles and criticism for

just being themselves.

Clutario was facing a hard decision whether choosing freedom in the most ironic place:

prison or stepping out of the world. If he chose to stay, with his freedom behind bars, he won't have any

problems, but if he chose not to, he will have to face criticism for his blasphemy.

Growing in religious family and surrounding was hard, for many years I was in negation

for simply liking the same gender. You never get to be truly delighted when you are not you. My dad is

an acolyte of traditional thinking, which made my situation worse. My friends served me as my freedom,

they accepted me and offered comfort when my dad scolds me of doing something that is against his

requirements of a boy, such as proper posture and stance, have high grades while my brothers and sister

are living their life because they are themselves. There were even times that I don’t want to go home with

my dad and just prefer the leisure of my friends, but I can't.

As I slowly grow up, I realized that the world has a standard for people like me, such as

the amount of success. If you are successful, you get respect. I always apply it to my situation, if I have a

successful career then my dad might finally respect me. And if I don’t, I’ll live under the fear that my dad

will not recognize me as his own. Success is my only freedom and I need it for me to have the liberty of

doing what I truly like.

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