21CLPW

LESSON 5 | Emerging Trends Philippine Literature: The Literary Essay

Home

 Where one lives permanently, especially as a member of family or household.

Essay
 Short piece of writing on a particular subject.
 Fr. Modesto de Castro’s Platicas Doctrinales helped formalize “Filipino values”.

Creative non-fiction
 Essays that have clear narrative elements, or uses fiction techniques such as dialogue or
characterization.

Description
 An account of a person, object or event that enables the reader to get a clear picture of what is
being described.

Narration
 Act of telling a story.

Anecdotes
 Short stories based on true accounts.

Characteristics
 Mental and moral qualities that make someone distinctive.

Dialogue
 Conversations found in written works such as films, plays or films.

Insight
 Capacity to gain a deep understanding about something.
Five Brothers, One Mother (From Many Mansions)
By Exie Abola

Setting: Taurus St, Cinco Hermanos, Marikina.

 The characters already moved in their unfinished house in Marikina due to an ultimatum,
spending their first night agitated with the lack of electricity and the mosquitoes that swarmed
their unscreened windows.
 Work on the Marikina house would continue, but remains unfinished 8 years later.
 As the siblings grew older and drifted apart, the mother, like the entertainer or the host, would
clean the living room, patio, and dining room for the guests; keep the kitchen well organized,
and buy groceries as if all of her children still lived inside the house, figuring that food, and a
clean place to stay was they needed from her. She felt like she was losing them to friends,
loves and jobs.
 The mother would be delighted during Christmas and New year get-togethers with the relatives,
preparing a hearty feast and decorating the house with lavish Christmas décor,
 The siblings would come over to the house to have Sunday lunches.

Description of the Ortigas House:

 The location of the Green Meadows house, which was Ortigas, was swanky or posh, unlike the
Cinco Hermanos house.
 Furniture was relocated to Cinco Hermanos.
 “Successful”.
 There is a formal dining room.

Description of the Marikina house:

 The interior is done, but the exterior remains unpainted.
 The garden lacks greeneries.
 Features the same furniture of their Green Meadows house; an attempt to imitate their old
house, but is a smaller house in a smaller lot; His mother’s growing angel figurines.
 The kitchen is carefully planned; cooking and eating areas are demarcated; a formal dining room.
 The location of the house was disrupted by noise from nearby tricycles, people chattering, trucks
crossing down the Marcos highway and blaring loudspeakers played by eager-beaver barangay
officials; a dense community of pedicabs, narrow streets and poverty.
 Upstairs are boys’ rooms which is like a loft or an attic, had two bedrooms as wide as a hall. Beds
custom made for Green Meadows house; had no bathroom which made them walk downstairs
to go to the toilet.
 The first floor had a clear separation between the family and guest areas, so one can entertain
outsiders without disturbing the house’s inhabitants