WELCOME TO ENGLISH

C R E AT I V E W R I T I N G
HUMMS 11B

Ms. Merlyn N. Cabarles

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 Dear God,
Bless us in ouyr school
today.
Help us grow
in love and kindness, more
like Jesus everyday.

Amen
Past Lesson
Well Known Local and Foreign Story Writer
DIRECTIONS: Using jumble word puzzle, find the 5 words pair in
the grid in any direction (Horizontally, Vertically, Diagonally).

T F S N S E P O

R K O S K C W U

O N L R R E A I

P B A T E L H T

I P F V A I H F

C S G C E W G Y

A N O H A L Q N

L L A N M H S C
KEY TO CORRECTIONS

T F
1. Tropical
2. Foreign
R O C
3. Navels
4. Local
5. Cat O N R A

P A E L T

I V A I

C C E G

A O L N

L L S
 LESSON 4.4
LOCAL AND FOREIGN
STORY
On the eve of his death, an unnamed narrator opens the
story by proclaiming that he is sane, despite the wild
narrative he is about to convey. This narrative begins
years before, when the narrator’s honorable character is
well known and celebrated. He confesses a great love for
cats and dogs, both of which, he says, respect the fidelity
of friendship, unlike fellow men. The narrator marries at a
young age and introduces his wife to the domestic joys of
owning pets. Among birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, and a
monkey, the narrator singles out a large and beautiful
black cat, named Pluto, as his favorite.
 Though he loves Pluto, the narrator begins to suffer from violent mood
swings, predominantly due to the influence of alcohol. He takes to
mistreating not only the other animals but also his wife. During this
uncontrollable rage, he spares only Pluto. After returning home quite drunk
one night, the narrator lashes out at Pluto. Believing the cat has avoided
him, he vengefully grasps the cat, only to be bitten on the hand. In demonic
retaliation, the narrator pulls a penknife from his pocket and cuts out one of
the cat’s eyes. Though the narrator wakes the next morning with a partial
feeling of remorse, he is unable to reverse the newly ominous course of his
black soul. Ignored for certain now by the wounded cat, the narrator soon
seeks further retaliation. He is overwhelmed by a spirit of PERVERSENESS,
and sets out to commit wrong for the sake of wrong. He hangs Pluto from
the limb of a tree one morning.
 On the night of Pluto’s hanging, the narrator’s family’s house
burns down, but he dismisses the possibility of a connection
between the two events. The day after the fire, which destroys all
the narrator’s possessions, he witnesses a group of neighbors
collected around a wall that remains standing. Investigating their
shouts of amazement, the narrator discovers the impression of a
gigantic cat—with a rope around its neck—on the surface of the
wall. The narrator attempts to explain rationally the existence of
the impression, but he finds himself haunted by this phantasm
over the course of many months. One night, while out drunk, the
narrator discovers a black object poised upon a large barrel of
alcohol. A new black cat has appeared, resembling Pluto but with
a splash of white on his fur.
 As with Pluto, the narrator experiences a great fondness
for the mysterious cat, which no one has seen before.
The cat becomes part of the household, much adored by
his wife as well. However, following the earlier pattern,
the narrator soon cannot resist feelings of hatred for the
cat. These murderous sentiments intensify when the
narrator discovers that the cat’s splash of white fur has
mysteriously taken on the shape of the gallows, the
structure on which a hanging takes place. The white fur
reveals the mode of execution that claimed Pluto, and the
narrator pledges revenge.
 One day, descending into the cellar of the building with his wife,
the narrator almost trips over the cat. Enraged, the narrator grabs
an axe to attack the cat, but his wife defends the animal. Further
angered by this interference, the narrator turns his rage at his
wife and buries the axe in her head. Faced with the evidence of
his crime, the narrator considers many options for the body’s
disposal, including dismemberment and burial. The narrator
eventually decides to take advantage of the damp walls in the
basement and entomb the body behind their plaster. Without any
difficulty, the narrator creates a tomb in the plaster wall, thereby
hiding the body and all traces of his murder. When he finally turns
to the cat, it is missing, and he concludes that it has been
frightened away by his anger.
On the fourth day after the murder, the police arrive unexpectedly
at the narrator’s apartment. Cool and collected, the narrator leads
them through the premises, even into the basement. Though
facing the scene of the crime, the police do not demonstrate any
curiosity and prepare to leave the residence. The narrator,
however, keeps trying to allay their suspicion. Commenting upon
the solid craftsmanship of the house, he taps on the wall—behind
which is his wife’s body—with a cane. In response to the tapping,
a long, loud cry emanates from behind the wall. The police storm
the wall and dismantle it, discovering the hidden corpse. Upon its
head sits the missing cat.
 Connie Escovar arriving at Pepe Monson's Hong
Kong apartment to ask if he can perform surgery to
correct the two bellybuttons she claims to have.
Pepe believes she is telling the truth, but he
laments that he is a horse doctor and therefore
unable to operate on humans.
Connie tells Pepe the story of how she learned of her two
navels as a girl when she pulled up the clothing on her
doll. She threw the doll in her backyard pond and
proceeded to hide the fact of her bellybuttons from anyone
but her family and maids, who didn't seem to take notice.
She says she avoided letting men discover her secret
throughout her twenties. Recently, she married a man
named Macho. She says she married him that morning
and then fled to Hong Kong before he could discover her
secret bellybuttons on their honeymoon.
Pepe explains that he is the son of a Filipino exile
who fought alongside General Aguinaldo and who
didn't want to return to the Philippines until it was
freed. Connie says it is independent now, and
Pepe replies that his father has visited. He thinks
of his father sitting with a hopeless look in his eyes
in the next room. Connie's presence has an odd
effect on Pepe. He shivers and develops tears in
his eyes as she seems to make the furniture in the
room hover.
 Later that afternoon, Connie's mother, Concha de
Vidal, visits Pepe. She disputes Connie's account,
saying she was married a year ago, she's only
eighteen and not thirty, and she only has one
navel. After becoming frustrated with each other,
Pepe and Concha discuss how Concha, as a girl,
looked up to Pepe's father, who was a local hero in
Manila. The glittering memory she relates contrasts
with the image of the devastated man Pepe thinks
about on the other side of the wall.
 At Mary and Paco's apartment, Pepe learns that
Mary already knows about Paco's relationship with
Connie and Concha, and that Mary has even met
with Concha, who bought two of her watercolor
paintings. Paco is reluctant to tell his wife the
whole truth but insists he didn't rape Connie or her
mother. He says he is staying in the apartment so
much because he wants to avoid running into
them. Eventually, the couple decides to go out to
the park with their children. They invite Paco.
 The narration shifts to a summary of Paco's time in Manila. On a
six-month contract with his band the Tune Technicians, Paco meets
Concha and develops a friendship that involves driving her around
the city while she teaches him about the Philippines, which he had
never visited before. He writes to Mary about the friendship without
concern. Soon people around him and Concha joke about them
being a romantic item. He scorns the attention and stops seeing
Concha for a time. He senses death and doom in the atmosphere of
Manila, where people seem indifferent to the realities they live in,
filled with American-influenced fantasies of being like Hollywood
stars.
 Paco and Concha rekindle their friendship and he stops writing to
Mary. He then meets Connie, who informs him that Concha is at the
morgue identifying the bodies of her friends who were murdered.
Out on a car ride in her convertible, Paco kisses Connie, but she
resists. She comes to his club that night and they begin spending
time together. Paco's passion for her grows as she evades further
physical intimacy. Twice she brings him to a temple in the Chinese
quarter, where she offers a plastic doll to an idol with two
bellybuttons. Eventually Paco brings her to his hotel room and
struggles to have sex with her. She fights him off before he can rip
her dress fully off to reveal her navels
Seeing Connie's bloody smile, Paco runs from the hotel room and
falls unconscious on the beach. Two days later, he takes a ship
back to Hong Kong. Paco's dialogue picks up the narration,
revealing that he has been telling Pepe the story of his time in
Manila. The men sit in a park; Mary has taken the children home.
Paco says Connie and Concha are evil, and that they share in the
pleasure of torturing people and damning their souls. Pepe refutes
the idea, saying Connie's insistence on her two navels is a way of
saying she has a guardian angel.
 After Paco tells Pepe to leave him alone in the park, Pepe walks
away, reflecting on how his father also returned early from Manila as
a changed man. Pepe thinks of the literary figure of Alice going
through a mirror to another world. Like her, Pepe and Paco have
gone through the mirror. Now the barrier between worlds is broken
open, and it threatens to affect people like him and Mary who
haven't had their reality shaken so violently that they are ghosts of
their former selves. Pepe thinks about himself as being surrounded
by broken glass and ghosts, immersed in a reality where people are
emotionally unstable and logic no longer applies. Pepe shivers and
then walks toward Mary's apartment, where she is waiting with
soup.
 LESSON 5
READING AND WRITING
POETRY
THANK YOU !