A Critical Paper

on the short story

Summer Solstice

(Nick Joaquin)

Submitted by:

Dizon, Deirdre Mae R.

11-St. Finnian

July 15, 2016

Submitted to:

Ms. Gina Tablin

 “This is what manly is. This is what being a female is.” Although people today

say that gender equality is more evident now, there are still people who can’t help but

stereotype the opposite gender. It is kind of ironic how “feminists” get pissed off when

their femininity is stereotyped but they too label men according to their masculinity. In

the current generation, people misunderstand what feminism is. Most “feminists” think

that feminism is defined as females being better than males and that is not what

feminism is. Feminism according to dictionaries is the advocacy of women’s rights on

the grounds of political, social, and economic EQUALITY to men therefore proving that

the definition that most people have today regarding feminism is wrong.

Nicomendes Marquez Joaquin, popularly known as Nick Joaquin is a famous

Filipino writer and a National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, He was born on the

4th of May the year 1917 in Paco, Manila. He is best known for writing about the Spanish

colonial period and the diverse heritage of the Filipino people. Joaquin greatly

influenced the development of the Philippine novel and short story. His writing became

a bridge that connected the modern literature and themes from Spanish heritage and

primitive beliefs.

Summer Solstice is one of the stories written by Nick Joaquin. It revolves around

the Moretas and the Tadtarin festival. In the start of the story, Dona Lupeng is shown

feeling anger towards the family’s cook, Amanda because she did not show up for work

and she kept on making noises. According to Entoy, Amanda’s husband, Amanda went

to the Tadtarin festival the night before and now has the spirit in her body. This

introduces the readers to the main setting of the story, that is in the beginning of

summer during the Tadtarin festival and the feast of St. John. During the parade, it was
at this point that Dona Lupeng started feeling inferior to men and wanted women to be

seen the same way as men. After the parade the couple met their cousin Guido, who

also participated in the parade of St. John. Guido was shown to have adored Dona

Lupeng greatly. He even kissed the lady’s feet. This action affected Dona Lupeng’s

emotion. That night because of Dona Lupeng’s stubbornness, her husband, Don Paeng,

agreed to take her to the Tadtarin festival. The festival started when “The crowd parted,

and up the street came the prancing, screaming, writhing women, their eyes wild, black

shawls flying around their shoulders, and their long hair streaming and covered with

leaves.” When the Tadtarin “resurrected” the women started dancing and Dona Lupeng

joined them. This caused the couple to argue. The man wanted to whip the woman and

the women wanted adoration from the man. In the end, the Don Paeng kissed Dona

Lupeng’s foot.

The story mainly revolved around which one has the upper hand in a

relationship. The man or the woman? In the relationship of the Moretas, the woman

seemed to have the upper hand because the guy seemed like a pushover. In a

relationship, the couple should show respect to each other and in between Don Paeng

and Dona Lupeng, only Don Paeng seemed to show respect at first because he loved

his wife. After seeing her dancing with the ladies in the festival, he felt shame and

wanted to whip her but in the end he succumbed to the wants of his wife and that is

adoration. This shows that they have an unhealthy relationship because there is no

mutual respect. The mutual respect is also what is missing in this generation. This

generation lacks respect towards the opposite gender and that is why there is a lack of
harmony in between men and women. There is a lack of respect that is why gender

equality does not completely exist in our world now and that is what we need to change.

References:

21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World (pp. 55-66)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Nick_Joaquin