Image Identifier

Paragraph 8 - “What I mean is that at the beginning he was enthusiastic–flowers,

serenades, notes, and things like that–”
Flowers, serenades, and notes symbolizes the love and affection of one person towards the
other. Here in the Philippines, these things we’re normally used and done for an individual to
fully express their emotions and is usually applied to feelings of love, sympathy, remorse and
even appreciation. On this line, these words were used to show the love that Alfredo had to
Esperanza in the beginning when their love is just starting to bloom.

Paragraph 13 - “I supposed long-engaged people are like that; warm now, cool
tomorrow.”
On this line, the words warm and cool symbolizes the phase of love. Wherein love is as warm
as the sun in the beginning, it lights you up, it gives you energy, it excites and motivate you and
gives you hope just like how the sun shines in the morning. On the other hand, love is as cool
as the snow which fades away in time. Just like how the love of Alfredo to Esperanza vanished,
as time passes by.

Paragraph 73 - “Like a carabao in a mud pool,”

In the Philippines, carabao symbolizes hardwork for it is known as most busy among all of the
animals. The carabao cools itself by lying in a pool of mud after the work. The term carabao was
used to describe how busy Alfredo Salazar must be as a lawyer but he seems not and always
unharried when he is with Julia Salas. He is calm and placid “like a carabao in a mud pool.”
This action of him represents his affection to Julia, despite being a busy man he will be able to
find a way because for him, being with the woman he loved feels like home where he wanted to
rest.

Paragraph 117 – “She turned and looked into his face, in her dark eyes a ghost of sunset
sadness.”
Sunset symbolizes ending, romance, twilight, beginning of darkness, and change. It depicts
sadness and sufferings. On this line, the term a “ghost of sunset sadness” was used to
interpret feelings of the character. To show the emotion of Julia Salas during that afternoon, that
may be their last goodbyes and that may be the end for her and Alfredo Salazar.

Paragraph 207 – “That unforgettable red-and-gold afternoon in early April haunted him
with a sense of incompleteness as restless as other unlaid ghosts.”
The color red symbolizes joy while gold symbolizes prosperity- implies to success in terms of
wealth, health and happiness. On this line, “That unforgettable red-and-gold afternoon” it
was used to express the feelings Alfredo had during that afternoon with Julia, it was the feeling
of joy and happiness. In addition, the last part of this line the, ”haunted him with a sense of
incompleteness as restless as other unlaid ghosts.” speaks about his feelings along the story
up to the very end. He was still longing for that happiness he felt that afternoon he spent with
Julia. He seems like a missing ghost searching for something that may unload his uneasy
feeling.

Paragraph 220 - "...he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet
seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens."
This line represents how both Julia and Alfredo had been clinging to a lost dream. In the story,
before he met Julia again, Alfredo was thinking about how his life would have gone if he married
Julia. It was also known that Julia did not marry anyone for several years. This was something
that was on his mind even when he got married to Esperanza, yet when he met Julia, he
realized that he doesn't feel anything for her anymore. This was what he thought was missing
when he met Julia again: the love. And when he realized that he doesn't love her anymore, he
already knew that these dreams were over. It was something that he was looking up to, but he
never knew that it was already dead.