MAGNIFICENCE

ESTRELLA ALFON
  There is couple with a son and a daughter. Their parents have a good job.  They go to
school. Their mother is a president in their village. In a meeting the man volunteered to
be their tutor because he doesn’t do anything in the evening also for an extra job. His
name is Vicente. He is a bus conductor. So he went to the house every night to teach
the kids.
   He promised the kids to give them 2 pencils each.  One night he gives the pencil to
the kids. That time it was the "it". The children in this time want pencils. Vincent is nice
to the children. He knows their wants. But when he gave the pencil, he gives 3 pencils
for the girl and 2 for the boy. Their mother said to say thank you. The boy kissed
Vicente but Vicente told him that boys don't kiss boys. Then the girl goes to Vicente to
say thank you. He hugs her so tight and the girl started to get out of his too tight hug.
The girl looks at Vicente with a little wonder on his face. The next day they were so
proud and happy with their new pencils. They showed it to their friends in class. They
also thought of asking Vicente for new pencils. 
     In dinner they talked a little about Vicente but the father is busy reading something.
He did not listen to what the mother said. The mother thinks that Vicente is fond of the
children with the way he is treating them. That evening Vicente arrived earlier. The
children are proud of the pencil. Their classmates are jealous with their new pencils
given by Vicente. He asked the little boy to get him a glass of water. Then he put the girl
on his lap. Then he let the girl write her homework. The little girl told him not to carry her
because she is heavy. Vicente is perspiring, and his eyes are strange. Then the girl
jumped out of his lap because she became afraid. Then their mom arrived. She rubs the
girls back and told them to go upstairs. The mother slapped the man
repeatedly.  Vicente just accepts the entire slap that the mother gave him. Then he went
out of the house. The mother closed the door. She gives a bath to the girl. Then she
asked them to throw the pencil. Then she put her to sleep.

THE VIRGIN
KERIMA POLOTAN TUVERA
The title of Kerima Polotan's "The Virgin" gives us the subject-virginity, female virginity,
a cherished value of Filipino Male culture. By presenting its protagonist as "victim"
rather than heroine of this value system, the text subverts it. Reflecting on her virginal
state, Miss Mijares does so "with a mixture of shame and bitterness and guilt"

The story's eroticism is heightened by the lyrical, almost cadenced language. (The
eroticism is quite explicit for it's time, and the foregrounding of a woman's sexuality is
also rather in advance of its time.) But the use of symbolism is a bit too obvious--the
paperweight, the dream of being lost, the jeepney's detour, the storm.

Miss Mijares is a dutiful daughter, sacrificing herself, in this case, for a sick mother, and
becoming a spinster, a pathetic figure, her sternness of manner and abruptness of
speech, disguise for an aching loneliness. Referring to her as "Miss Mijares" underlines
her primness, as well as her distance from the carpenter. She is slim and frail-looking,
which contrasts with the carpenter's physical strength and size.

The carpenter has a certain grace, poise, confidence "walking with an economy of
movement, graveful and light, a man who knew his body and used it well", which comes
from being easy in his skin, which Miss Mijares, decidedly, is not.

Miss Mijares' over reaction to the discovery that the carpenter has fathered a child by a
woman he is not married to reveals the extent of her acquiescence to the system--
moral, social, etc. Discovering that he has "feet of clay," she suddenly notices
everything else that is wrong with him--his stupid grin, his defective teeth.