Characters and short descriptions about them

[Magnificence] by Estrella Alfon

Posted on May 29, 2013

A Freudian Psychological Literary Analysis By: Patrick Mercado

The story “Magnificence”, written by Estrella Alfon, portrays a family who has trusted someone and at
the end was betrayed by the very same person. It is a common experience of everybody that after
having trusted someone, a person would soon lose his or her trust on that person because, in the end,
the person betrayed them.

In the story, Vicente was known by a mother of a little boy and a little girl during the meeting of the
neighbourhood association. It was there when Vicente volunteered himself to tutor the little kids. They
did not fear him because he was always so gentle and kind. He pretended to be so that he could get the
trust of the family. Nowadays, many people are like Vicente, they pretend so as to get what they want.

The story reflects most of the people in our society. Vicente used pencils to stimulate the little kids and
earn their trust and also used the pencils so that they will be excited to see him again. The story shows
how some people, especially today in times of poverty, will really do everything for them to be able to
live. Pencils those times where sensational for kids that’s why it is the material used to catch the
attention of the kids.

Vicente’s showed his “persona” during the neighbourhood association meeting. He was able to reach
out and gain the trust of the children and their mother by showing his social personality. This is too
please the children with his attitude. He, like earlier, even used pencils to catch the attention of the
children. He promises to give them pencils so that they will look forward in seeing him. It is shown in the
story that he promised an extra pencil to the little girl because she’s very smart but actually it was not
really the reason. She did this so that the girl will really be happy and be able to induce envy in her
classmates.

The little girl, during the part where she was left alone with Vicente, had no idea that she was going to
be molested by him. By the time Vicente asked the little girl to sit on his lap, she felt uncomfortable and
after looking Vicente, with his “…face…all in sweat and his eyes…very strange”, she jumped out of his
lap. The girl jumped out of the lap of Vicente innocently because she felt something strange around
Vicente. We people most of the time are like the little girl. In our society, we experience things
innocently and, mostly, our reactions are to go away or escape that experience because it’s out of our
knowledge. We people tend to do things out of our curiosity because it was developed or we had
experienced it during our childhood.

All the things we experienced during our childhood reflects on how we act today in our society. It is said
by Freud that “the notion that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs and
conflicts of which they are unaware…” The mother’s continuous slapping in Vicente shows the mother
defending her daughter.