Trash Novel Essay By Tahsan Amin

The novel, “Trash”, was written by Andy Mulligan and published in 2010. The story revolves around a 14-
year-old boy named Raphael. He resides in Behala, which is a literal landfill. He spends every day
scavenging through trash to find anything he could sell in order to provide for his family. Raphael has been
doing this with his best friend, Gardo for the last 11 years. One fortunate day, described by Raphael as “his
unlucky, lucky day”, he crosses paths with a black bag. Inside the bag is the ID of a man named José Angelo,
a key with the numbers, “101”, a map and a wallet. The wallet was filled with eleven hundred pesos! This
was considered as a lot of money. The duo celebrated and split the money. Raphael decided to keep the
bag and everything inside and soon, Gardo and he headed back. Later that night, the police came into
Behala, going into every home, questioning and informing everyone about a bag they had lost. They had
stated that whoever returned the bag, would be given 10 000 pesos. However, the bag the police had
described matched the bag Raphael had found. He considered whether or not to return, but he decided to
hold on to it as he realized that the price of the bag would increase over time. But Raphael’s auntie
foolishly blurts out that Raphael had found something. He quickly lied and said he found a shoe. Gardo and
his auntie were disappointed in Raphael and quickly called him out. He explained and soon his auntie was
on her way. Gardo knew that Raphael would get in trouble for lying so they decided to give the bag and its
contents to an 11-year-old boy nicknamed Rat (Originally Name Jun-Jun), as he could hide it. When Rat
examines the contents of the bag, he noticed the key. He stated that the key belonged to a locker at
Central Station. He knew this as he spent almost a year living there. The three of them decided to head to
Central Station to see what was inside the locker the next day. When they opened the locker, they found a
letter addressed to a Gabriel Olondriz. On the letter, there were a series of numbers and slashes. As soon
as they saw this, they realized that they had gotten tangled in so matters that they weren’t supposed to.

The novel, Trash, focuses on the many issues of third-world countries. In fact, the author was inspired to
write this book when he saw the living conditions of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Two issues that
appear to have the most focus throughout the entirety of the novel are corruption and children living in
poverty. The novel is very focused on these issues and related ideas are often mentioned throughout the
novel. Two ideas related to these issues include exposing and stopping corrupt politicians like Gabriel
Olondriz attempted to do and donating to the poor to lower the level of poverty.

Trash is a fictional novel, loosely constructed from the author, Andy Mulligan’s experience during his trip to
Manila. There, he volunteered as an aid worker on a landfill in Manila. There he learnt the people who
lived at the landfill, were living there due to the government and the level of corruption within it. This is
exactly how everyone in Behala in the novel ended up in Behala. The novel, Trash, is heavily focused on the
issue of corruption. This is demonstrated through the use of plot. The plot revolves heavily on the issue of
corruption as it tells the story of the theft of millions of dollars from the greedy Senator Zapanta’s personal
vault, who siphoned 30 million dollars’ worth of welfare money that was meant for the under-privileged
people who live in Behala. Josè Angelo was infuriated by this action and decided to take matters into his
own hands. He managed to smuggle $6 million dollars of the $30 million dollars in an old fridge. The theft
of the $6 million dollars itself, was planned by Josè and enacted both by him and the main protagonists,
Rat, Gardo and Raphael. It was justified by the fact that the Senator siphoned millions of dollars meant for
the poor. Using this money, the Senator was able to acquire a firm grip over the government, infecting it
with his corruption. Due to this level of corruption, the poor people that lived in Behala were given
absolutely no money, were not helped at all and yet, the Senator was able to cover it up. Gabriel Olondriz,
a prisoner who was convicted for attempting to expose the Senator, stated that the welfare money was
meant for the development of schools and hospitals but “the city’s poor remained poor.” The level of
power that the Senator was able to attain through corruption enabled him to get a firm grip on the police
force as well, which is a type of power a Senator would not be able to attain, let alone, have. The Senator
was able to get this type of power through bribery, which is a form of corruption. The novel implies that
exposing corrupt politicians is a way to stop corruption, as Gabriel Olondriz attempted to do. The author
disputes that corruption is the most shameful form of stealing, as corruption negatively impacts the mostly
poor, making their already bad life, worse. Even though the poorest in the novel’s fictional city pilfer in
 Trash Novel Essay By Tahsan Amin
microscopic amounts to somehow survive and Josè Angelo was able to siphon $6 Million Dollars for the
Senator’s personal vault, these thefts are aught, compared to the Senator’s. Occurrences like these occur
in many-third world countries, including the Philippines.

The issue of children living in poverty, in a prejudiced world, is demonstrated by specific characters, mainly
the protagonists, Gardo, Rat and Raphael. Two of the three, Raphael and Gardo, are dumpsite boys, who
send relentless hours of their days, rummaging through abundant amounts of putrescent trash, to find
anything they can sell, just to barely provide for their family. Prosperous people within the city, live
comfortably and don’t even spare a single thought on the penurious children who live in Behala, being
completely disregarded from society. For example, Rat states he is often denied the use of the public
transport system, due to the fact that the public see Rat as “too filthy” and is often chased away like a bad
omen. This would mean the public don’t even take into consideration that people like Rat and Raphael look
like this as they have no money spare or that they might even need help to get out of their predicament.
Since children like Raphael, are completely ignored and rejected from society, they are forced to cede their
childhood and education, which is a basic human right, just to spend every day of their lives, persistently
scavenging through trash to provide for their families. This is what has occurred just by poverty alone.
During the early parts of the novel, Raphael states he has been scavenging through trash since the age of
three, meaning he gave up his childhood, to take on a full-blown responsibility, which was to provide for
his family. And everyone who does the same job as Raphael, never stop working until they find something
suitable to sell. The author discusses that the children who are living within the trash, are treated like trash
by others, therefore implying that their anguish is evoked by society’s ignorance and biased behaviour
towards them. Josè Angelo, the man who had stolen $6 million dollars from the Senator, had wanted to
return this money to the poor, whom it was intended to be given to, implying that donating to the poor is
one of the many ways that people can reduce the level of children living in poverty.

Another way the issue of corruption is demonstrated in the novel, “Trash”, is through the use of the
narrative element of character. There are many characters in the novels who are corrupt but arguably the
most corrupt of them all is the former vice president, Senator Zapanta. Though we are never given a
complete outlook onto the Senator, we are given brief explanations on him by several characters. Gabriel
Olondriz, who convicted by the Senator in an attempt to expose him of his crimes, states that the Senator
had been planning Gabriel’s downfall ever since he had heard that Gabriel had been planning to expose
him for his crimes. The Senator issued a raid on Gabriel’s office and on that same night, his house, which
was full of evidence against the Senator had caught fire, killing Gabriel’s maid and driver in the process.
This just demonstrates how far corrupt politicians can go for the sake of their wealth. If this wasn’t bad
enough, the Senator instructed the police force to arrest Josè Angelo due to the Senator’s suspicion
towards him, but he ends up telling the police force to kill Josè as he was not complying and cooperating,
therefore, removing his freedom to trial by jury. The narrative element of character was another way that
the issue of corruption was demonstrated in the novel trash.

The two main issues discussed in the novel, “Trash”, are children living in poverty and corruption. Two
related ideas to these issues are donating to the poor and exposing corrupt politicians. The issue of poverty
was demonstrated with the narrative element of character and the issue of corruption was demonstrated
with the narrative element of plot. The novel, Trash, is not a bad book. It is just fast paced, which
decreases the quality of it. One minute the protagonists are enjoying their day and the next, they are
running for their lives. The novel had a good plot which I found intriguing due to the fact that I know that
many third-world countries face issues like the ones described in the novel. I enjoyed it none the less.