I.

Dead Stars by Paz Marquez

II. Summary:

The story Dead Stars revolve around a bachelor’s affair who is in his 30’s, Alfredo
Salazar. He believes in true love and Esperanza is the first woman he falls in love with. Their
families are both acquainted with each other and they start a loving relationship. Alfredo is a
lawyer who has strong desires and wants warmth and compassion, however, Esperanza has
strong will and principles. Soon Alfredo’s love for Julia fades when he and Don Julian had gone
“neighboring”; a rare enough occurrence, since he made it a point to avoid all appearance of
currying favour with the judge and there he met the young woman, Julia. He is strongly attracted
to her charm. Even he is so passionate that he doesn’t disclose his engagement to Esperanza. On
Sunday morning after mass, father and son would go crunching up their gravel road to the house
on the hill. He enjoyed talking with Julia and it was evident that she liked his company; yet what
feeling there was between them was so undisturbed that it seemed a matter of course. Only when
Esperanza chanced to ask him indirectly about those visits did some uneasiness creep into his
thoughts of the girl next door. Esperanza had wanted to know if he went straight home after
mass. There he had realize that for several Sundays he had not waited Esperanza to come out of
the church as he had been wont to do. He answered that he went home to work and added,
“Sometimes I go with Papa to Judge Del Valle’s.” She dropped the topic. Esperanza was not
prone to indulge in unprovoked jealousies. She was a believer in the regenerative virtue of
institutions, in there to regulate feeling as well as conduct. If a man were married, why, of
course, he loved his wife; if he were engaged, he could not possibly love another woman.
Alfredo had not openly admitted to himself that he was giving Julia Salas something which he
was not free to give. So as to avoid the discovery of his fiancé he keeps secrets from Esperanza
too. His eyes are doomed when he learns about Julia’s return to his native town. With the fear of
losing her, Alfredo decides to declare his true feelings for her. When the church ends, Alfredo
goes to meet her, though his fiancé is waiting for him. When he reaches there, he learns that Julia
has already known about his upcoming wedding. There he invited her to his wedding and Julia
replied with disdain and after their talking she finally said her goodbye to him. On his return
home, he finds Esperanza talking to her friend about loyalty and faithfulness. Alfredo senses a
desire to communicate. He supports the reason for craving, and choice over dishonesty.
Esperanza confronted him and confesses that she knew about his affair with Julia. She
encourages Alfredo to cancel the wedding. However, Society’s opinion got to the head of
Alfredo so he decided to still wed Esperanza. After 8 years, Alfredo, is sent to some work duty
near Julia’s native town. On his visit he feels nostalgic and cannot resist his wants for Julia and
soon finds an excuse to meet her. When he sees her, he noticed that something had gone. What
had she lost? Or was the loss his? He felt an impersonal curiosity creeping into his gaze. The
young moon had set, and from the uninviting cot he could see his one half of a star-studded sky.
So that was all over. Why had he obstinately clung to that dream? So all these years he had been
seeing the light of a dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in
the heavens. An immense sadness as of loss invaded his spirit, a vast of homesickness for
immutable refuge of the heart far away where faded gardens bloom again, and where live on in
unchanging freshness, dear, dead loves of vanished youth.

III. Characters:
 Esperanza – fiancé /wife of Alfredo Salazar. She is a homely woman, literal minded and
intensely acquisitive. She is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly
beauty.
 Alfredo Salazar – Son of Don Julian, a more than 30 year’s old man and a bachelor. He
is engaged to Esperanza but he is in love with Julia Salas.
 Julia Salas – Sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. She is the other girl of Alfredo Salazar
that remains single in her entire life.
IV. Analysis:

This short story gave us another perspective in life. This story pertains about making a
decision while a person is torn between what he wants and what he needs to do. This story may
serve us a lesson in life that we can use in the future. There are so many parts of the story that is
appropriate and accurate for us but not to other readers. Dead Stars shows us how strongly
society influence a person’s way of thinking. As the narrator says that Alfredo believes in true
love, we couldn’t agree more about it. True love does exist. This story changed our perspective a
little specially in choosing what’s best for us and for the people around us. This story taught us
that long term engagement doesn’t guarantee us the future that we expected with our partners. It
is still our choice if we will remain committed to someone we are currently in love with.
“I don’t know Julia. Perhaps not. But there is a point where a thing escapes us and rushes
downward on its own weight, dragging us along. Then it is foolish to ask whether one will or
will not, because it no longer depends on him”- Alfredo Salazar. This text in the story addressed
the things that we’re out of control. The moment we are confuse as to what to do, if we will still
fight or surrender? This just explains that everything will not work according to our favour.
Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where we’ll going to stand next. Everything can
happen in a snap of a finger or in a blink of an eye. We can apply it in every situation, in
everything that we are doing.
We are empress by Julia’s reaction and decision when she discovers the whole truth
about the upcoming wedding of Alfredo with Esperanza. She shows no intention of ruining
someone’s relationship. She’s just being true to her feelings and a victim of circumstances and
Alfredo’s selfish decision in life. The problem is just that, Alfredo should have become more
honest or should have distance his self with Julia when he discovered that there is an attraction
that is forming inside of him.
“What is essential in a work of art is that it should rise far above the realm of personal
life and speak to the spirit and heart of the poet as a man to the spirit and heart of mankind.”-
C.G. Jung. This short story is wisely written. It gives readers something to think of. It doesn’t
just a love story, it’s more than that. It is also about knowing your self-worth and self-respect.
Knowing what you can give and take by loving someone regardless of the situation.
V. Reflection:

The short story was all about the love affair of Alfredo, Esperanza and Julia, Alfredo who
is the son of the old man Don Julian and who’s engaged to Esperanza for almost four years. This
story is not just all about love, but it also focuses on society which can make our decision in life
change and people’s judgement to our own life. Alfredo loves Esperanza for a long time ago but
when Julia came to his life. Alfredo’s love for Esperanza was slowly fading away just because he
met Julia and invest his feelings for only a short time, which is consider as an infatuation not
love. Maybe Alfredo can’t find the satisfaction and happiness in Esperanza but it is not a valid
reason to fall in love with someone else, but Alfredo still choose to marry Esperanza because he
was afraid of judgements or what people might say when they find out about his affair. It is
entitled Dead Stars because of Alfredo’s feelings for Julia was gone. Infatuation is the state of
being carried away by an unreasoned passion for love, so other people think that it is love right
away. It also happens in real life and I also have regrets in life but my mistake doesn’t define me,
of who I really am, because we’re not all perfect and we can learn from that mistake. People may
come and go and I believe that everything happens for a reason because these people that come
into our life can teach us lessons or may help ourselves find out of who we are in the future.
Sometimes there is a problem in our life that is hard, feeling unfair and painful at first but you’ll
find out that without overcoming hindrance you would have never realized it by heart. We
should all know that whatever challenges or tests that will come to our life, we should believe in
ourselves because it is our daily ally in life that we can surpass every hardship we face, and lastly
I believe that there is no challenge that can’t outdo.
-Kim Hanna Vallesteros
Reflection:
Dead Stars gave me something that I cannot pinpoint, a maybe a realization, or it can be
a perspective. This is just a proof that this remarkable work is really a thought-provoking story.
However it doesn’t really hugely change my perspective in love. Alfredo must be attracted to
Julia but as a man, he should keep his promise for Esperanza. The point that he is engaged to her
is clearly an indicator that he shouldn’t associate himself with another woman aside from his
relatives. He’s afraid of people’s judgements yet he still continued seeing Julia who doesn’t even
know a thing about his engagement with Esperanza or his relationship status. This whole event
just strengthens my belief that if a man really loves a woman, he will not develop another feeling
to another woman, and it is not always the woman’s fault that she’s been cheated on the same
with a man.
“You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.” – Nina
Simone. As a woman, I will never want to be one of someone’s choices when he needed to
choose. Love can never be sure but love can recognize what it wants. I know my self-value so I
won’t let someone use me as a distraction when the said person’s relationship is being at risked.
Some woman gets blinded by the given attention of a man. As for Julia, I am empress by her,
being composed when she’s talking to Alfredo about her discovery to his upcoming wedding. A
typical woman would go mad or hit a man straight to his face the first time she discovers the
man’s lies. She’s brave enough to walk away on what’s hurting her even though once in her life,
it is also the reason of her happiness. As for me, Alfredo clearly disrespects Julia for lying to her
just because he mistakenly recognized infatuation to love.
As for Esperanza, I was amazed of her unconditional love for Alfredo. Love conquers all
challenges and heartaches. She still accepts Alfredo regardless of his betrayal and dishonesty. If
it was another woman, I bet she’ll get mad and never forgive her cheating partner. Imagine a
woman asking herself what is wrong with her to be cheated on, thinking she’s just lacking, ugly
and so many negative things about her. I think men and women should know the effects of
cheating to a person’s mind. It leaves damages to their self-steem. It lessens their confidence to
love again or to associate themselves to another commitment.
The whole story taught me 3 different kinds of love. First, the love that lies. Second, the
love that destroys. Third, the love that forgives.
-Karlzen J. de los Santos
Reflection:

It is a reminder that it is pointless to fall in love with the idea of love. Often, it is hard to
determine whether what one feels is love or just an imitation of it. Infatuation can delude
someone into thinking that the passion is really for the object of one’s affection, until one
realizes that the object of desire really is the idea of being in love. As in the case of Alfredo who
thought he fell in love with Julia till he realized that there was no magic after all, a person who
obsesses about the idea of love can never be in love with the object of passion. Why? A person
feels good when in love. The roller coaster of feelings makes one truly human. One time, one
feels happy; the next, one feels dejected; another time, one feels hopeful. Who wouldn’t want to
be humanized? It is this element of love that fools some people into the notion that love and
infatuation is one and the same banana. Too bad if in the long run, one wakes up to the fact that
one is really not in love, and too many sacrifices have been made along the way. Imagine if
Alfredo pursued Julia then realized too belatedly that he wasn’t in love with her anymore or at
all. There was Esperanza who got victimized because Alfredo’s relationship with her must have
ended. There was Julia who became the convenient excuse for the idea of infatuation. There was
Alfredo who was fooling himself into thinking that he was in love with a person, only to discover
he wasn’t even in love at all. I do not want to fall in love with a non-person. I do not want to be
obsessed with an idea. I want to fall in love and be able to share this emotion with somebody
else, hoping that person will be able to reciprocate to add to the fantastic feeling. I want to come
out of the phase or be stuck with it eternally knowing that I am truly in love with a human. I want
to experience the joys and the pains and the hopes and the despairs associated with love, but not
having to feel these without a proper object to receive my emotion. If it entails waiting long just
to let the right one happen along, so be it, for as long as the love in me gets awakened by a real
person than it being triggered for the sake of being triggered. The various imitations of love are
not unlike stars long dead but seeming alive from our vantage point under the sky. From where
we see them, these stars twinkle, sparking light that we perceive as signs of life. However, even
as these lights reach our planet, it may be unknown to us that they travelled the space so long that
their stars of origin have long been extinguished. Bottom line is, we are seeing falsely alive stars.
These stars, in comparison, are the false loves we feel. Loves that we believe have persons for
objects but are actually loves that are narcissistic, for they exist for their own sake. These selfish
loves should not be taken for the one and only genuine love that is full of sacrifice, emotionally-
charged and, most of all, humanizing
-Gem Lster Mengua

Reflection:
It is a great and interesting story but there's one reason you should read Dead star. First
thing is about the characters that have many conflict in their life like Alfredo he is stuck in two
people which is hard to him to choose maybe because it’s a battle between what you want and
what you need. Like us we know we have choices but sometimes things will be much
complicated when we choose the one that we want instead the one that always here by our side.
Another character is Esperanza the one who sacrifice a lot for her to save her relationship with
Alfredo and we know she just love but Alfredo don't appreciate it and find another girl just like
in reality its painful when the people we love doesn't love us .And last one it's such a painful
feeling when you know you give your best but in reality you will just realize that when you give
your all it's symbolize your loyalty to someone you love.
-Mark Sergio Porta