“Critical Interpretation of Cuatro”

The story title is derived from the Spanish word “cuatro” which means “four”. Based on
the Philippine grading system, four means below 75 or a failing grade. In light of this, the story
discusses a student who flunked her English 4: Masterpieces in World Literature subject due to
multiple backlogs from her extra-curricular activities, student organizations, and lovelife. The
author uses the Spanish word “cuatro” to add a foreign flavor or a realistic touch to the narrative.
By choosing not to translate the title, the author is implying that there are connotations, context,
or idea contained within the word. Furthermore, “cuatro” is also defined as a small guitar with
four strings. Probably, this also connects to the character’s past lover Jason who’s a musician and
one of the reasons why she failed her ENG 4 class. If the author used the Filipino word
“kuwatro”, it wouldn’t make a difference since both of the words have the same denotation.

Dr. Remy Miciano, the class professor, addresses her students with their ID number as a
substitute of their names in every class recitation. Considering how the author describes her
character in the story, she has reputation and she’s a decent educator. Moreover, just by looking
at her name suffix, we can say that she has a doctorate degree which implies that her moral
behavior is respectable. Consequently, Dr. Miciano calls her students by their ID number because
she wanted her subject to be taken seriously. Through utilizing the ID number, this creates a tone
of gravity and intimidation which implies a strict atmosphere that captivates the reader’s
attention. Because the reader tries to anticipate what might happen to the character because of the
dialogue, they are held in a state of suspense, which makes the scene frightening to read.

Homer’s The Iliad has been mentioned by Dr. Miciano during their session. She
mentioned Hollywood actor Brad Pitt being a girl’s Achilles’ heels in the blockbuster. The
allusion “Achilles’ Heels” refers to a person’s vulnerability. In 2004, the actor starred in the
movie “Troy” as Achilles due to his acting skills and body figure. It is a character in Greek
mythology who was thought to be invincible but due to his unprotected heels it led to his
downfall when it was struck by an arrow. The allusion of the narrator and Achilles correspond
with each other. In light of this, the narrator in the story is an aspiring iska or “scholar” but her
ENG 4 class is her Achilles’ heels. This means that the mentioned subject is her vulnerability
since she failed because of it. Nevertheless, it builds her character to be powerful despite her
shortcomings. On the other hand, Brad Pitt also became a girl's Achilles’ heels as she became
every girl’s weakness due to his good looks and appeal not because of his vulnerability as an
actor. The intertextuality of The Iliad and Cuatro is in the context of war. For Achilles, war
brings out the best in his heroes, as they tap previously unknown reserves of strength, courage,
and loyalty. Whereas in Cuatro, war connotes life as a continual battle of one’s success.
 Writing about how we feel is very important for us to grow. It helps us identify the
threads and themes in our lives and gives us a sense of what we’ve lived. Re-viewing one self is
a healing and transformative journey as it contributes to recorded history and is our legacy to
family, friends, and the world. Our memories are what we are, what makes us make the decisions
we make, and act as we act. Moreover, it’s impossible to remember everything because our mind
is selective. That's why writing our memories is an essential for our thoughts and feelings, just
like the author from Cuatro who wrote her bitter-sweet memories from failing to learning. As a
result, she vicariously relives her memories through her writing. As we grow older, our
memories are ours alone to be responsible for. We should think of it as receipts or essential
documents. If we don’t keep careful track of them, they’ll eventually be lost amongst the chaos.

“I flunked her class but it was quite an education”. That was the exact words the author
incorporated in her memoir. Failure is one of the best teachers, indeed. It’s a no brainer that
failing in school can have lifelong consequences but for Jocelyn, failure is often the driving force
behind success. Being labeled as an “underdog” despite being active in school could be one of
the harshest critics of her personal worth. Nevertheless, it builds her character and teaches her
how to persevere. In the principle of student-driven learning, students should focus on their
academic growth and aspirations. In today’s generation, having high grades and multiple awards
such as trophies and medals are signs of intelligence and indicators of being well-educated. This
is also being said in the story “Don’t settle for mediocre. Aim for honor and excellence”.
However, the author disagrees with the social norms as she was also a victim of the rotten
system. Overall, performing poorly in one subject should not be an impasse to one’s education
success, human growth or development.