How does fiction reflect the Filipino ways of life as seen in the story, The Virgin by Kerima Polotan Tuvera?
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How does fiction reflect the Filipino ways of life as seen in the story, The Virgin by Kerima Polotan Tuvera?
The Filipino ways of life are embodied in the story The Virgin by Kerima Polotan. As observed and read in this short story, one of the Filipino values that are evident and portrayed in Miss Mijares' life is "utang na loob", which depicts how children are expected to give back what they have received from their parents and bear the responsibility of educating younger relatives. Should we promote and advocate for this Filipino value? Our group has a cooperative agreement that this value, "utang na loob", should not be further encouraged, passed on, taught, and influenced to other people because it restricts the freedom and self-expression of an individual, just like how Miss Mijares forced to bear the burden of…
Kerima Polotan Tuvera's The Virgin talks about women's roles and responsibility in the eyes but are actual struggles as many of them face it. It talks about being a “virgin,” which we all know refers to being pure or unstained, especially women. It is one of the representations or ways of gaining dignity and respect from the people. Like what Miss Mijares did, she did not even pursue entering a relationship because of her responsibilities.
As mentioned by the responders, the story gave us a glimpse of the culture and beliefs we Filipinos value the most: Children taking responsibility for their parents, giving back the education our parents bestowed us to our younger siblings, finishing school with the pressure of…
Her unhappiness is rooted in the fact that she is supposed to marry, yet she is still a virgin. Yes, preserving your virginity until marriage is a virtuous act, yet her age is a factor that we should consider, and most likely, Miss Mijares considers
We can witness development in Miss Mijares’ beliefs from the beginning of the story till its ending. We can separate it into three parts. Upon further research, Superior Jay (2015), in his blog, defined its terminologies: the feminine, feminist, and female.
FEMININE: During this stage in her life, she lived by the rules and dictations of society.
Textual Evidence #1: "As she walked to the cafeteria, Miss Mijares thought how she could easily have said, Please wait for me, or will you wait for me? But years of working for the placement section had dulled the edges of her instinct for courtesy. She spoke now peremptorily, with an abruptness she knew annoyed the people about her."
Textual Evidence #2: "And…
K., 2020)
Oh! This is the topic that I am really eager to delve into! In this short story, Kerima Tuvera really did a great job showing us a mirror of how society has created differences, roles, and discrimination in the given setting. Examine how people back then believed that women's dignity relies on their purity/virginity, while men could go rampant and lose theirs, and they still would be proud of it. Textual evidence is found here:
"It was an emergency, ma'am," he said. "My son died."
"How so?"
A slow bitter anger began to form inside her. "But you said you were not married!"
"No, ma'am," he said gesturing.
"Are you married?" she asked loudly.
"No, ma'am."
"But you…