Janelle V.

Bolor G2
S12-15 October 04, 2018

Compare and Contrast Graphic Organizer

Pingkaw by Isabelo S. Sobrevega Noli Me Tangere (Chapter XVI)

by Dr. Jose Rizal

It is evident in Pingkaw and her Chapter XVI of Noli Me Tangere is

children’s surroundings and way of life that
the central issue of the story is poverty.
Pingkaw is a woman who seems oblivious to
the oppressive conditions under which they
all love, content to push her cart and scavenge
for things that she and her children can use for
their survival in everyday life like clothes to
wear and food to eat. Her poverty and
indifference of other people only strike at her
consciousness when her three children got
poisoned from eating scavenge food and
when she failed to get a help with her
children’s medical treatment in time. It was a
tragic fate for Pingkaw as all her three
children died one by one at a very short span
of time. Because of her gloomy experienced
she became insane that kids tease her
especially about getting her “child” which is
made from a can and a piece of waste cloth,
lucky enough someone is always there to
defend her with which she either call him
mayor, senator, cornel or sergeant whereas it
is just the same person.
one of the most emotionally stirring chapter in
the entire book as it focuses on the story of
Sisa and her family’s undesirable situation.
While Sisa is a passive wife to her husband
who is very irresponsible, worthless, and
abusive to her, she is also a loving mother to
her children namely Crispin and Basilio that
being the case, when she knew that her sons
will be coming home from the church after a
quite long time she wanted it to be special, so
she did her best to find money and ask for
some food so that she will be able to cook her
sons’ favorite but unfortunately her husband
ate the majority of the dinner. The same night
Basilio came home alone with bleeding
forehead and a story that Crispin was accused
of being a thief that is why he was left behind
but then Sisa could not resist to worry about
him so she went to search for him, only to find
out that he was dead at the same time, while
Basilio is looking for his brother, Sisa thought
that he went missing which made her crazy.

It is evident that both stories feature the main characters, Pingkaw and Sisa, experience with
coping up to poverty. Pingkaw and Sisa have resembling characteristics for they are a good figure
of a loving mother for they would do their best to give everything that their children need despite
of being poverty-stricken and are not complaining about it. Giving up is not a choice for them, they
fought all the way against hardships, but it seemed not enough because both of them lose their
children for the reason that nobody wanted to help them or if there is one, he is not capable of
helping or it’s already too late. Because of their great love for their children, for they loved their
children until the last inch of their hearts, they did not know how to cope up to life after what have
had happened which have caused both of them to be insane or crazy. The stories send off a message
that the reader should open their eyes, to truly see the oppression that was going through today and
that it is time to fight back. Another message is that children should value their mother more than
anyone else as they really have experienced hardship from the day they were in their womb until
they were born just to give all of their children’s needs and the best thing that children could do is
love them back.

Pingkaw is a short story which is Noli Me Tangere is a novel that

intended to be read in a single sitting and
designed to produce a single effect. Just like
any other short stories, the story was
focused on a single character’s situation
which in the story is Pingkaw that we could
have already notice because it is the title
itself. The intended audience for this story
may be everyone because it’s plot could be
easily understand and even the words that
have been used. The story was told into a
second person point of view. Furthermore,
the setting of the story is at the dumpsite and
while the main character is a mother of three
children who does not have a husband who
could have helped her to raise her children.
Last the main character was left alone alive
and being teased by the children.
requires a lot of time to read and patience in
understanding the story as it introduces a lot
of characters in different settings in every
chapter. In chapter XVI of it, it contains the
story of Sisa, the main character in that
chapter who has a husband and two sons.
The setting of the story is at the house of
Sisa. Technically, the intended audience for
this novel would be starting from the high
school students up to the older ones as this
would require deep understanding for the
reason that the story have a complex plot
and symbolisms.
In the end, the main character’s one
son has died and was followed by hers
which have left the other son alive who
would give justice to what have happened to
them. Moreover, the chapter was written
into third person point of view.