Psychoanalytic

In the poem, the letter sender showed his deep meaning of friendship to Pete by bringing
back the forgotten memories of their childhood. Moments that they shared together wherein they
were like twins who can’t be separated. The letter sender talked about the changes happened in
their hometown, like the progress the town had experienced. It showed that projects in
infrastructures were imposed to make life easier.

” A steel bridge named after the congressman’s wife now span the gray river”

In addition, the narrator wanted to break the barriers of distance by telling Pete the things
they did as a kid, like their circumcision which made them true men.

“Tasyo, the old goat, had split the skin of our young lizards to make us a man many years ago”.

The line proved that they been through the circumcision with the help of Tasyo in the
river. The word “lizards” means the male sexual organ or the phallus which was been cut to
prove their manhood. It was also the part which the narrator admired Pete the most. Before, he
thought that it was just an envy to admire the others sex organs. But it was different, because
sometimes he felt something whenever he remembered it. There was a time wherein he imagined
that their circumcision was also their marriage and Tasyo was the priest. A child became the fruit
of their love which was presented by the cat Simeona which once became their pet. So, when the
cat died Pete and the persona buried the cat in a place known by them. They gave a decent grave
for the cat as if it was a real kid that’s why it bothered the narrator when he found out that the
grave of Simeona went missing.

” This morning I couldn’t find anymore the grave of Simeona, the cat we buried at the foot of
Miguel’s mango tree.”

As the time passed by, the persona’s feelings of friendship developed into feelings of
admiration and love which grew greatly when they parted to each other. He started to feel that he
was longing to Pete so he wrote the letter because he was not brave enough to admit that he has a
feeling for Pete. Though the letter was written for a friend, it seemed to be a love letter of an
admirer who believed in a long distance relationship. The letter sender wrote it as a way to
persuade Pete to come back in their hometown because he missed him so much. He even
remembered him whenever they had gathering and got drunk.

” Pete, old friend, every time we have good reason to get drunk and be carried away home in a
wheelbarrow we always remembered you.”

The author, Rene Estella Amper had an aspiration to become a U.S. citizen so his id
created Pete out of his own desire. He envied a person who could work and migrate abroad that’s
why he wrote the poem. A letter which he used to differentiate the past and present time of his
hometown was determined by his ego. But his superego made him realized that through
migration Filipinos tend to forget their origin and became stranger to their own country.