Literary Criticism

Republic of the Philippines

University o Northern Philippines

Heritage City of Vigan

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

A Literary Criticism in:

The Formalistic Approach

The Sociological Approach

The Psychological Approach

The Moral Approach and

The Archetypal Approach

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in ENG 142 (Literary

Criticism)

Presented by:

Geraldine A. Peralta

BSED 4A

Presented to:

Patria A. Bello, Ed. D., Prof. VI

INSTRUCTOR

Mahogany Water by Soccoro Villanueva

Plot Summary:

Julian has had so many pets but they all died: hamster, fish, a spider, a bird. And I worry that he might think life so fragile, full of mishaps. I talked to him about life’s twists and turns, but he seemed not to mind at all. Instead he became more careful with his pet. In his birthday, he bought a rabbit and named it Buddy.

Buddy is now two months old. We take him with us in Punta Fuego. Francis did not want to come. But Julian and I won’t give up. “Come on, daddy! Please, daddy!” Francis gave up and we won. And we all go for Christmasing with Gracie and her kids.

Gracie is my friend. Newly-divorced, losyang and pudgy and weepy. Not like her old self at all. So I took her out to the Red Box Karaoke. And the then gorgeous Gracie was back. We had big fun like we did before when we were skinny and innocent and boy-crazy. Back in the days of Mahogany Water. We got the name from Weena’s father who made us drink a concoction of steeped mahogany seeds. Awfully bitter. The taste, we used to say, of boiled golf shoes. It was supposed to make us invincible. Weena’s daddy, 5-star general, what a quack! He stomped his feet – tiny little stomps, like a boy throwing a tantrum at a toy store – as Weena was being lowered to the ground. Dead at 21 from steering wheel lodged in her chest. Vincible. Gracie and I toured the house. It was magnificent. I imagine how many scraps would I write and how many cases would Francis lawyer to buy something like this. Across the water on the north side where the ridge curves, there is a larger house, large like Alcatraz even in the distance, and Francis points to it. “Whoa, that one’s a biggie,” Gracie says. “Isn’t it weird, all these estates, and outside, those kids?” Every view in that place represents grandeur, except the scene of children begging for alms in the streets. Gracie has always been cheerful, overenthusiastic and glitzy, not to mention the prettiest. She got the most attention; she was Mahogany Water’s main attraction. Back then, I had issues with that. And this – this wide-armed outrageous openness to people makes her stand out. Julian told the other kids not to take Buddy out of the cage. But they insist on taking it out of the cage to hold it. Julian looks out for possible hazards, and I did as well. He argues with them. My turn to grin. “Come here, Jaloosh,” I say. “Why?” he mouths.

Literary Criticism | geraldineaperalta 2

“Come here, gimme hug,” I say, and he walks over and wraps his skinny arms around my neck. “I love you, Jalooshkins,” I whisper to his ear. “I love you, too, Mamooshkins,” he says. “But I love you more!” I say. “Na-ah. I love you more.” “That’s not possible,” I say, and he runs back to his rabbit, saying, “It’s possible, it’s possible,” as he goes. “That’s cute,” Gracie says. “It’s a script,” I say. We say the same lines to each other every day like prayer.

They had dinner. The adults at the long table, the kids at a small one where they had a meeting, where Bianca carries on like she was some chairman of the board. Or like Gloria Arroyo on a good day. “I am the president, okay!” And they agreed that everyone could hold the rabbit three times a day.

“Sounds like democracy,” says Francis. I reach over and pinch his arm to silence him, accidentally toppling a knife to the floor. The kids turn their attention to this little commotion in our table, and I signal Gracie to pretend to be oblivious, but she can’t help herself from giggling. When she giggles, her eyes squint as if to let the light into her face so that she glows, it looks like, from inside her skin. And she shows a lot of cleavage between the V of her turquoise top that I suddenly feel nervous, and pucha, I need to watch my husband’s eyes.

The kids made a promise that they would stick together no matter what. I reminded Julian not to talk when his mouth is full. He looks at me from the corner of his eye and turns to his friends, says conspiratorially, “Unless problems, such as adults, happen.” Gracie laughs hardest. I’m laughing, too, but then I see Francis’ eyes flit from her boobs to his shrimp and back again and I feel the room darken a bit. “We’re going to behave ourselves, aren’t we?” I say, looking straight at Francis with my eyes popped. “I’m sure there’s a way down there somewhere,” Francis says referring to the beach. Gracie is face down on a mat beside the pool just a few feet away – an ogle away – the two swells of her butt peeking out of her bikini like twin blimps heralding the start of a major problem. I don’t know where my panics come from. Wifehood, motherhood, they make me crazy. I stay where I am, beside the hammock, blocking my husband’s view of Gracie. I’d just showered and my hair is dripping on my dress, which is a beach tunic in blinding orange; it’s way too short. Someone’s pasalubong from Boracay. I didn’t think I’d ever wear it – it’s too Joyce Jimenez. But it’s a Gracie kind of look.


“Is that new? It’s nice,” Francis says “It’s a gift. Isn’t it too short? Too orange? Really, you like it?” He reaches under the hem of it, slides his fingers beneath the lacy elastic of my panties. “Let’s go upstairs,” he says. “Now?” It’s only half past three. “Now.”

At times, I think of my mother after we had sex. She had sex all the time – she gave birth ten time, once every two years. She did it like it was as methodical as baking a cake? – Tonight, we’re going to try to bake a BOY. Was she even awake? I can’t think of my mother doing the things I do with Francis. No way.

We were all mistakes. We should have been boys. My sisters and I were all screwed, trying all our lives to be the best disappointment Daddy ever had. Daddy with the stingy, stingy heart. A month before my wedding, I stopped speaking to Daddy altogether after my mother did some girl-talk, and said, “Anak, men are faithless.” What Francis did after sex is sleep. I leave him alone in his apnea and walk around the house again, shaking off the happy guilt of broad-daylight sex in someone else’s bed. The stairwell comes alive as four kids run up the stairs at once, a curious formation: Carlos and Kevin in front, Bianca and Julian at the back together, holding either end of the rabbit cage. What, she blinks her green eyes at him and he’s in love with her already? I follow the kids to the kitchen, and I hear the tail end of a sentence being spoken by Bianca, apparently a suggestion (as can only come from a girl) to wash the vegetables before giving it for feed. “Hey, baby!” I say. Julian spins around, a clear ripple of disgust washing over his face. He mumbles that shush, he’s not a baby. “Oh, sorry, I forgot, you’re an attorney,” I say, sing-song. They are raiding the fridge, Bianca giving orders to the others like a mother in a supermarket. “Don’t; get that. Get this. Take that one.” I will not have any other child. He’s enough. He’s plenty. Takes all my time, all my heart. “Come here, guapo, gimme hug,” I say. “Tsk,” he says. He approaches me, and I stoop down to welcome his embrace, my lips already puckered. But he goes for my ear and whispers, “Ma, can you stop please?” I was shocked. While the kids are busy having fun and Francis is enjoying the Godfather series, Gracie and I had time for each other. We remembered the old days of the Mahogany Water.


The next day, Buddy is dead. Dead, it appears, from a couple of siling labuyo the children had fed him the night before. “I told you pets die easy,” Julian says solemnly and we adults stop joking around. This is the tender and exquisite grief of the young. We have a burial ceremony for Buddy at noon in the vacant lot beside the house. I look at Julian to sympathize. His eyes were full of sorrow but he was not crying. He looks away first. Beth was full of sorrow. Grief. Francis came and comforted her. Julian and Kevin and Bianca and Carlos are playing in the pool, chasing, splashing, diving in and flapping about, screeching like dolphins, laughing like birds. Having fun. “They’d forgotten.” At the rim of the pool, Gracie, queen of fools, dances to Jingle Bells. I look away. From the house across the water I think I see a glint of light flash for one brief moment and I wave. I fling my arms like crazy

Formalistic Approach

CharacterizationThe narrator – the speaker in the story, is the protagonist. She is a round character. Francis –is the husband of the narrator. He is a static character.Gracie – is a friend of the narrator. She was recently divorced. She is an antihero.Julian –is the son of the narrator and Francis. He is a boy who loved pets but have them die on him.Gracie’s kids: Bianca, Carlos, Kevin – they are the new friends of Julian.

Figures of SpeechThe story employed some figures of speech to vividly express the author’s ideas. We can find: “I didn’t think I’d ever wear it – it’s too Joyce Jimenez” is an example of analogy. It also has a simile, “She did it like it was as methodical as baking a cake.” or “He stomped his feet – tiny little stomps, like a boy throwing a tantrum at a toy store.”

The Plot

ExpositionThe story begins with the introduction of Julian, the narrator and Francis’ son. Here, the narrator tells she’s worried that her son might think life so rude. With the thought established in the introduction you


will be guided through. It can be implied that the narrator did not have peace of mind, that she had grief inside. “that I worried he, only eight, might think life so inordinately flimsy, full of sad surprises: someone you care for turning stiff…” With how the narrator said these lines, we can hint an uncertainty of happiness because she thinks herself of these thoughts.

Rising Action/ConflictThe conflict is the inner grief the narrator feels for her loss, her friend’s death. Therefore, it is internal. It has been introduced from the start, in the exposition. It is just that it is implied. The next events in the story support the problem that the narrator has. She has no peace of mind. She is insecure of herself. These can be seen in the way she suspects about her husband. There was one part of the story when she kept an eye on her husband because she was afraid Francis’ eyes might have caught Gracie’s cleavage. It was even said, “The room darkened quite a bit.” Signifying a start o a problem.

ClimaxHer insecurity has even gone higher when she was wearing that orange pair of bikinis. She said she wears it because it is a Gracie kind of look. It is also when she thought about her mother and her childhood. This is where the root o her insecurity was revealed. There was a sudden melancholy. Her sadness was even aggravated when she was rebuffed by her son when she tried to cuddle him like a baby. Falling ActionBuddy’s death is the falling action or denouement. We see here that the inner grief of the narrator is somewhat came out. And it is no surprise that she remembered Weena’s death.

ConclusionWe can imply that the narrator finally found peace of mind. At the end of the story, what were mentioned are the kids playing, having forgotten about the sorrow in the death of Buddy and Gracie dancing to Jingle Bells and she, the narrator, waving her arms like crazy. We could say that the narrator was enlightened by the events and decided to let the grief go, so with the insecurities.

Point of ViewThe story is expressed in the first person point of view—narrative voice that speaks with "I/we/us" pronouns.

Imagery


The story is rich in imagery. The setting was clearly described. The reader could easily picture what the author says because of the abundant use of imagery in the story. You are compelled to imagine the place being described because it seemed that the words are taking 0you to that place being described, specially images that draw mental pictures.

SettingThe name of the place where the story was held was Punta Fuego. This was like an exclusive village for the rich because the house where the family stayed is a beach house. Also, “We see a flash of light from that direction. A glint of sun deflected from a mirror, maybe, or something flashy like a Rolex.” “Across the water on the north side where the ridge curves, there is a larger house, large like Alcatraz even in the distance, and Francis points to it.” Throughout the story, the parts of the house are being described as magnificent, grandiose. Which is true, as in the lines: “a humongous Rubik’s cube made of glass with some corner quadrants lopped off. It’s shamelessly large for a weekend retreat; eight huge bedrooms spread over three floors. The bits of detail – stone, wood, glass, leather – smell of over-the-top money. Every twelve-inch plank of wood makes me think of landslides in Quezon, but I don’t tell Graciethat, her sister owns the place, so I tell her, "It’s so Elle Decor." I must admit it’s very pretty, though. The design is so open, as if the ocean and sky are part of the house…”

Literary DevicesThe story employed Flashback, since it is looking back into time. The narrator remembers something from the past, and then the story revolves around it. And, in a flash, goes back to the present situation. Another literary device used is Foreshadowing. One event in the story is a foreshadowing of another event. “I see a glint of light flash for one brief moment and I wave. I fling my arms like crazy.” Her seeing of the glint of light foreshadows her enlightenment. This enlightenment signifies her realization that she has to let go of the past. She has to free herself from the insecurities.

ThemeThe past can haunt you even if you take refuge in the present. Whatever you do when you escape something in the past and do not face it, it will always and always come back haunting you wherever you go, whether in the present or in the future. You’ve got to face what brought you this uncertainty so that you could free yourself from it and find inner peace.

Motifs


Gender DiscriminationThis is presented in the part when the narrator remembered the maltreatment she has experienced in childhood. She was born in the time when girls are disappointments and boys were preferred than them.

GriefGrief becomes an uncertainty of mind when you haven’t let go o the feeling. This happens when you haven’t accepted the loss of a loved one for example.

InsecurityInsecurity springs when you feel envy to someone. You think that you are inferior to a person and you think you don’t have what others have.

Symbols

Mahogany WaterMahogany Water will represent the narrator’s comfort zone. She loved the band more than anything else because she felt her worth there. And when one member of the band, Weena, died, she felt her world collapse. And literally, the mahogany water, her band caved in.

Buddy RabbitAs a symbol, Buddy Rabbit is representative of dependent people. They are the ones who did not stand on their own. They were used to being controlled by someone. And because Julian was so cautious with his pet that he became overprotective for the reason that he did not want another animal dying on him.

Sociological Approach

One great issue we can get from the story is the confinement of the constituents of a political country. They are never free to choose even if the political system is democracy. Its essence is never fulfilled. Buddy rabbit and Julian both symbolize this kind of persons. Julian was too protective with his rabbit that he never lets him out in the same way that Beth was babying him too much. The situation became worse when the other kids joined Julian. Each of them could hold the rabbit three times a day? They don’t let the rabbit breath fresh air. They are like a president who holds his people too much because he does not want to lose any vote come next election. And the result is, the rabbit died.


This part: “Julian told the other kids not to take Buddy out of the cage. But they insist on taking it out of the cage to hold it.” It portrays two kinds of authority. The first one is not an obvious one; he imprisons the rabbit in a cage. The rabbit could still move but with a limited motion. The second one is a real dictator. They are possessive because they would like hold the rabbit in the neck.

A product of a social condition is also portrayed in the selection. This is the long-due and extended grief that a person keeps in his heart from parting with a loved one. In this case, it is the narrator’s grief. She had lost Weena, a close friend. And she grieved a lot when this friend died. Yes, we feel sorrow for our loss but we should not lock ourselves in our room and cry there all day. As for the narrator, she temporarily forgot her grief, she has not let go yet of the thought that her friend died. When something triggers it, for example, Buddy’s burial, it eventually comes back. She again feels pain. Another social condition which is relatively important is gender discrimination and inequality. This is portrayed through one part of the story wherein the girls, wherein the narrator is one, are referred to as disappointments to their father, that they should have been boys. This greatly affects the attitude of a child. Especially that she was being threatened by her relatives. She feels a great pressure on her shoulders.

This social condition, loss of a loved one, is a natural cycle in the society. People come and go, but life is just a matter of acceptance.

Psychological Approach

The narrator feels insecure of herself. She is not even confident of her husband’s feelings. She thinks that Gracie could get her husband when in fact, Gracie does not try to. This kind of thinking may be caused by

her experiences from childhood.Maybe the reason is the narrator was treated like she had no worth

when she was a child. Yes, this is supported by these lines: “I was the sixth girl, coming at a time when the disappointment had given way to


disgust: Babae na naman? Relatives, friends, the whole stretch of Pinaglabanan, saying the same thing: Another girl? The whole city of

San Juan!

We were all mistakes. We should have been boys. My sisters and me were all screwed, trying all our lives to be the best disappointment

Daddy ever had. Daddy with the stingy, stingy heart.

We had a spinster aunt live with us, what with all those girl-babies and wedding cakes Mommy had to make. Auntie Paz told me – she told me many times – that my father refused to look at me after I was born, left

my mother at the hospital and got drunk and smashed somebody’s face, so that if I didn’t eat my sitaw my Daddy "will give you to

the bumbay who will grind you into paper money." And Daddy will not miss me. I swear to God that’s the first thought that came to my

head.”

This is why, I think, she tries to be good in bed. She thinks her insecurities will be recompensated with this. “Sometimes after sex I

think of my mother. I can tell she had sex all the time – she gave birth ten times, once every two years. Ten girls until she was fat and confused. Couldn’t say our names off the top of her head. But to

imagine how she behaved in bed? I can’t! It must have been, what, facile? Perfunctory? As methodical as baking a cake? – Tonight, we’re going to try to bake a BOY. Was she even awake? I can’t think of my

mother doing the things I do with Francis. No way.”

Moreover, we can see that the narrator is trying to avoid what happened to her mother. She did not like to have disappointment for

her husband. The boy was emphasized in the lines above. And the sacred act o sex was just compared to baking as if they can choose

what could grow in her tummy.

We can say that the id is the sexual act itself. The ego is the The superego is the thought of her mother.

Moral Approach

The story is set in a Filipino context. But here is another family from a foreign country, the US. So that we expect it to have Filipino


and American traditions and values embedded in it, may it be negative or positive. Some Filipino values which can be seen in the selection are close family ties. This is portrayed in one part of the story: “"Come here, gimme hug," I say, and he walks over and wraps his skinny arms around my neck. "I love you, Jalooshkins," I whisper to his ear. "I love you too, Mamooshkins," he says. "But I love you more!" I say. "Na-ah. I love you more." "That’s not possible," I say, and he runs back to his rabbit, saying, "it’s possible, its possible," as he goes. "It’s a script," I say. We say the same lines to each other every day like prayer. After this, Julian allowed now the other kids to hold his rabbit. The good benefit and influence of having close family ties is even implied in the story.

One value innate to the Americans which Gracie’s family has is liberality. Her way of dressing is evidence. Also the attitude of her children could say she is a liberated mother. Another is democracy, which is portrayed in the “Secret Society Club meeting.” This is somewhat not present with the narrator, she was trying to protect his son, but too much of it, that is babying him could produce another issue, too much dependence of the child to the parents.

As literary pieces are capable of instilling morals in learners the story has something to tell us. Morally speaking, the events in the story are not deviating the morality. But taking refuge in sex is not a moral act. While it is true that they are married, the narrator should not be

Beth, as a character was a good mother. She was protective to her son, actually, overprotective. She was also a good wife. She gives everything to her family. But she has a dark past. She had a bad childhood. She experienced being treated as a worthless person. She was a victim of gender discrimination. She grew up in a family where girls are not accepted. She lived in the times when boys, even if they are boys by their deeds, are too appreciated.

Francis was also a good husband. He is always there for his wife. He comforts her in times of sorrow. He inspires and enlightens her.


Archetypal Approach

Archetypes found in the selection are:

The sea (beach) – the sea usually means the Mother of all Life; spiritual mystery, and infinity; death and rebirth; timelessness and eternity; the unconscious. In this case, it is death and rebirth. One part of the story, the narrator said, “There is no access to the beach.” and her husband replied, “I’m sure there’s a way down there somewhere.” And in this, I think the author is referring to the death of the feeling of sorrow and a rebirth of true happiness. In the end of the story, the narrator’s husband again reminded her of this. The husband’s inspiration to the narrator is consistent throughout the story.

If we try to connect the story to a literary piece, we could say it is related to another fictional short story by Nick Joaquin, “Three Generations.” The daughter (narrator) is controlling herself. She has an uncertain happiness because she


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