Footnote to Youth, Jose Garica Villa

In Jose Garica Villa’s Footnote to Youth, he tackles the responsibilities and realities that
come with marriage and the family life. In it, he narrates the story of Dodong, wherein
we are introduced to Dodong when he is seventeen and seeking to marry his love
Teang.

He is problematic over how he intends to talk to his father about marrying Teang, going
over the possible responses his father would give, and at the same time convincing
himself that he is old enough to handle the responsibility. On his way home, he makes a
stop to relieve himself. The ground was broken up into many fresh wounds and fragrant
with a sweetish, earthy smell.Many slender soft worms emerged from the furrows and
then burrowed again deeper into the soil. The appearance of the worms and the
occurrence of one worm crawling over Dodong’s foot is of great importance to the story,
as it serves as a revealing of Dodong’s character and future. A short colorless worm
marched blindly towards Dodong’s foot and crawled clammily over it. Dodong got tickled
and jerked his foot, flinging the worm into the air. Several characteristics attributed to
the worm can also be reflected back onto Dodong’s story, particularly the fact that the
short worm was crawling blindly.

It would be interesting to note, as well, the connection this worm crawling over Dodong’s
foot has with Jose Garcia Villa’s title. A footnote is simply defined as a note at the foot of
the page. It is often used to give additional information to the reader regarding certain
words or phrases in the text. And yet the author includes no actual footnotes in the
story. As such, Jose Garcia Villa is obviously trying to put forth certain themes and
messages regarding youth and life through the use of a short story. The message that
comes forth to the reader through the reading of the story, then, is what we may refer to
as his footnote.However, an interesting alternative suggestion may lie within the story
itself, particularly with the worm depicted in the story. The worm is described as blindly
marching towards Dodong’s foot, which is exactly how we could also describe Dodong
and his choices in this story.