...The Trap Kerima Polotan Tuvera I was fourteen when we moved to Cabuyao. We reached the town at night and though it was notquite seven, the streets were empty. I had hoped we would get to it before dark, while there waslight enough for people to see us come. We knew no one, of course ² ´We·ll make friends,µ myfather had said ² and expected no welcome, but having left Tayug with reluctance, I had urgedmy father during the trip to drive faster so that we might arrive in Cabuyao early enough forsomeone to see us drive in.That was important to me.´Why, Elisa?µ my mother asked, and I could not tell her why, except that I had left behind inTayug one friend very dear to me. When the day came for us to go, we could not leave soonenough. I wanted the pain of missing Salud to start quickly. She said goodbye to me that morningby the plaza, asking, ´Are you taking everything, Elisa? You·re sure?µ When Mother frowned, Ihated Salud for betraying me.Several times that past year I had told Salud I felt that something was happening to me. I felt Iwas growing to be another person entirely. ´Something·s wrong, Salud,µ I said one day ² ´I·mgoing crazy.µ She had laughed and looked pointedly at my breasts and said. ´They·re growinglike mine, Elisa.µ She had a way of saying things like that, that angered and also disarmed me;she was 18 and the four years between us yawned like an abyss. During all that time I hadwatched her turn into a lovely, graceful girl, unfazed by adolescence, leaving me far behind...
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...The Virgin by Kerima Polotan 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 sexulity 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 primmness, as well as her distance from the carpenter. She is slim and frail-looking, which contrasts with the carpenter's physical streghth 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...
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...Analysis on the Short Story “The Virgin” by Kerima Polotan Tuvera * Based on the short story, the various personalities that the main character named Miss Mijares showcased were her stiff and aloof behavior wherein her superiority to herself makes her unfriendly and detached to other people. Also her attitude when it comes to dealing with people wherein she often humiliates them by asking them questions with regards to their standing in the society. Moreover, her life was effusively based on caring for her ailing mother and putting to school her niece thus, her realization to herself when it comes to her own personal life such as love and marriage was eluded. Miss Mijares is a thirty-four-year-old woman who works at a job placement agency wherein her perspective in life has put her into a situation of helping first her family before herself. The major problems that Miss Mijares encountered in the story was the death of her mother wherein she mourned on that very day kneeding her mother’s flesh and struggling to keep herself strong which also changed her ideals in life which made her superiority as a women more resilient. Another problem that she encountered was confronting her emotions especially with her feelings to the new man at the carpentry shop wherein during the interview and application for the job, Miss Mijares shows a bossy or arrogant kind of personality towards the guy, furthermore she was unwittingly drawn to the man especially during the time that both of...
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...Search Results a Character Analysis On Kerima Polotan-Tuvera's The Virgin www.termpaperwarehouse.com › English and Literature Feb 15, 2014 - Read this essay on A Character Analysis on Kerima Polotan-Tuvera's the Virgin . Come browse our large digital warehouse of free sample ... Kerima Polotan Tuvera's The Virgin: The Feminist Approach ... ezinearticles.com › Book Reviews › Short Stories Mar 31, 2014 - Kerima Polotan Tuvera was a renowned Filipino author. ... and discovery of the story or any kind of literary piece using character analysis. lit102: philippine literature: The Virgin by Kerima Polotan lit102.blogspot.com/2007/08/virgin-by-kerima-polotan.html 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 ... The Virgin By Kerima Polotan Tuvera Story Analysis Free ... www.studymode.com/.../the-virgin-by-kerima-polotan-tuvera-story-anal... The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera Kerima Polotan-Tuvera's “The Virgin” is a short story that is centered on two characters namely Miss Mijares and The ... Analysis Of The Short Story Th Virgin By Kerima Polotan ... www.studymode.com/.../analysis-of-the-short-story-th-virgin-by-kerima-... The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera Kerima Polotan-Tuvera's “The Virgin” is a short story that is centered on two characters namely Miss Mijares and The ... ...
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...The Virgin by Kerima Polotan 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 sexulity 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 primmness, as well as her distance from the carpenter. She is slim and frail-looking, which contrasts with the carpenter's physical streghth 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...
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...Review on Kerima Polotan’s “The Virgin” 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 sexulity 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 primmness, as well as her distance from the carpenter. She is slim and frail-looking, which contrasts with the carpenter's physical streghth 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...
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...Gay language Have you experienced being near two gays who were talking in quite a different language altogether? And were you not surprised that you could understand some of the words they were saying? Yes. It is gayspeak, that wonderful lingo, argot, or jargon, which Filipino gays in general seamlessly switch into when they are gathered together or most immediately when they are around other people in order perhaps to “cloak” their intimate conversations, the better to protect the “virgin” ears of those around them. Historically though, it is known as swardspeak, a word coinage in the 1970s attributed by Jose Javier Reyes to columnist and movie critic Nestor Torre. Reyes himself devoted a book on the subject titled Swardspeak: A Preliminary Study. No other term has replaced swardspeak in local usage since the 70s but Ronald Baytan (in his essay “Language, Sex, and Insults: Notes on Garcia and Remoto’s The Gay Dict”) opines that the term sward these days has become anachronistic, making it improper to call the language of the gay people as “swardspeak” preferring instead to term it gayspeak. Consciously or unconsciously, even straights or heterosexuals have peppered their vocabulary with words traceable to gayspeak. Mention the word anech (from “ano” or “what” in English with anesh, anik, anikla as varieties) to anyone in the metropolitan area and in all likelihood, the person being spoken to will reply as casually. There are also the familiar words chika, chuva, and lafang...
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...Prevailing Philosophies and Psychosocial Dimensions of Philippine Contemporary Novels in English Chapter I – Introduction Philippine contemporary novels or literature in general is an offshoot of the Philippine-American War or what is coined as the Philippine War of Independence which transpired from 1899 to 1902. As early as 1863, the Spanish colonizers have introduced the public elementary school system to the Philippines. During the American colonization, U.S. soldiers have started layering down the bricks as foundation of the public school system in the Philippines when they opened the first public school in the Philippines at Corregidor Island. On January 21, 1901, the Taft Commission headed by William Howard Taft, passed the Education Act No. 34 that incepted the Department of Public Instruction. William Howard Taft was also given the responsibility of expanding the public school system in and around the Philippines. On August 21, 1901; around 600 American educators or “Thomasites” were sent to the Philippines by the U.S Government aboard the USAT Thomas whose main purpose is to integrate a new and expanded public school system, to train and hone Filipino teachers with the use of English as the primary medium of instruction, and to inculcate basic education to Filipinos. The American educators taught an extensive curriculum which cover subjects on English, Grammar, Reading, Mathematics, Agriculture, Housekeeping and Related Arts (cooking, sewing, and crocheting),...
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...Sheila Mae T. Geroche PHILLIT AC122 Atty. Paul Gomez Hildawa Literary Text: THE VIRGIN Writer: Kerima Polotan-Tuvera Literary worksheet No. 5 “Details of Character” Analysis (Text, Context and Experience) 1. In two sentences, describe the physical characteristics of the protagonist. Miss Mijares, who is the protagonist in the story, is a 34 year-old woman, slender, almost bony and likes to wear a thick row of ruffles that made her look as though she had a bosom. She had smooth, clear brow, thin cheeks, small, receding chin, lippy and sensual pout and curly hair. 2. Directly quote the lines from the story which gave you those characteristics. “She was slight, almost bony, but she had learned early how to dress herself to achieve an illusion of hips and bosom... On her bodice, astride or lengthwise, there sat an inevitable row of thick camouflaging ruffles that made her look almost as though she had a bosom...”, “Her brow was smooth and clear and she was always pushing off it the hair she kept in tight curls at night. She had thin cheeks, small and angular, falling down to what would have been a nondescript, receding chin, but Nature's hand had erred and given her a jaw instead. When displeased, she had a lippy, almost sensual pout, surprising on such a small face.” 3. Describe the protagonist's goal, conflicts and background. Miss Mijares worked at a job placement office for ten years that made her very unapproachable, impolite, and superior. All her life, she was just...
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...The Trap Kerima Polotan Tuvera I was fourteen when we moved to Cabuyao. We reached the town at night and though it was not quite seven, the streets were empty. I had hoped we would get to it before dark, while there was light enough for people to see us come. We knew no one, of course – “We’ll make friends,” my father had said – and expected no welcome, but having left Tayug with reluctance, I had urged my father during the trip to drive faster so that we might arrive in Cabuyao early enough for someone to see us drive in. That was important to me. “Why, Elisa?” my mother asked, and I could not tell her why, except that I had left behind in Tayug one friend very dear to me. When the day came for us to go, we could not leave soon enough. I wanted the pain of missing Salud to start quickly. She said goodbye to me that morning by the plaza, asking, “Are you taking everything, Elisa? You’re sure?” When Mother frowned, I hated Salud for betraying me. Several times that past year I had told Salud I felt that something was happening to me. I felt I was growing to be another person entirely. “Something’s wrong, Salud,” I said one day – “I’m going crazy.” She had laughed and looked pointedly at my breasts and said. “They’re growing like mine, Elisa.” She had a way of saying things like that, that angered and also disarmed me; she was 18 and the four years between us yawned like an abyss. During all that time I had watched her turn into a lovely, graceful girl, unfazed by adolescence...
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...THE VIRGIN by Kerima Polotan Tuvera 1) He went to where Miss Mijares sat, a tall, big man, walking with an economy of movement, graceful and light, a man who knew his body and used it well. He sat in the low chair worn decrepit by countless other interviewers and laid all ten fingerprints carefully on the edge of her desk. She pushed a sheet towards him, rolling a pencil along with it. While he read the question and wrote down his answers, she glanced at her watch and saw that it was ten. "I shall be coming back quickly," she said, speaking distinctly in the dialect (you were never sure about these people on their first visit, if they could speak English, or even write at all, the poor were always proud and to use the dialect with them was an act of charity), "you will wait for me." 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 peremtorily, with an abruptness she knew annoyed the people about her. When she talked with the jobless across her desk, asking them the damning questions that completed their humiliation, watching pale tongues run over dry lips, dirt crusted handkerchiefs flutter in trembling hands, she was filled with an impatience she could not understand. Sign here, she had said thousands of times, pushing the familiar form across, her finger held to a line, feeling...
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...PHILIPPINE LITERATURE Philippine literature is the body of works, both oral and written, that Filipinos, whether native, naturalized, or foreign born, have created about the experience of people living in or relating to Philippine society. It is composed or written in any of the Philippine languages, in Spanish and in English, and in Chinese as well. Philippine literature may be produced in the capital city of Manila and in the different urban centers and rural outposts, even in foreign lands where descendants of Filipino migrants use English or any of the languages of the Philippines to create works that tell about their lives and aspirations. The forms used by Filipino authors may be indigenous or borrowed from other cultures, and these may range from popular pieces addressed to mass audiences to highly sophisticated works intended for the intellectual elite. Having gone through two colonial regimes, the Philippines has manifested the cultural influences of the Spanish and American colonial powers in its literary production. Works may be grouped according to the dominant tradition or traditions operative in them. The first grouping belongs to the ethnic tradition, which comprises oral lore identifiably precolonial in provenance and works that circulate within contemporary communities of tribal Filipinos, or among lowland Filipinos that have maintained their links with the culture of their non-Islamic or non-Christian ancestors. The second grouping consists of works that show...
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