THE WORLD IS AN APPLE

The World is an Apple is one of the plays written by the famous playwright,
Alberto S. Florentino. Florentino learned to write a play through the experiences he
got from his father when he was young. His father was a teacher and was active in
school activities such as directing plays. Asking for assistance from his son,
Florentino had to type multiple copies of his father’s play. So, he needed to read
his father’s manuscript over and over again that helps him to learn some techniques
in writing a good play, and “The World is an Apple” is the play he composed that
drove him to receive a Palanca Award.
THE WORLD IS AN APPLE –
by: Alberto S. Florentino (Analysis)

Setting/s
 In the small and poor home behind a portion of the Intramuros
walls. There are two wooden boxes on either side of the doorway.
At left is an Acacia tree with a wooden bench under it. It is where
the poor family lived in, and where the story starts on how life was
going on and end in the complexity of life in which the main
character lived with no choice but to go back again with his old
ways of life.
 Character Analysis
 Mario- He is the Father of the story, the husband of Gloria. He is
known to be bad before but he strive hard to change his life for her
daughter and for her wife, but life sometimes is unfair that force
him with no choice to go back the old way of his life.
 Gloria- She is the wife of Mario. The very good and lovable
woman who just want a simple life yet descent life. She is the
reason why Mario changed because of her unconditional love to
him.
 Pablo- The evil man in the story, the protagonist, the old friend of
Mario. He wants easy and dishonest money, the life that Mario
lived before.
Plot
  This is a story of how wrong decisions become greater burdens to a
family. Mario’s family happens to be in the lower bracket of
society. When Mario got home, Gloria saw Mario and she was
asking for some money to feed their children to Mario. Mario said
that he have no money because he did something.
 Gloria didn’t believe on what Mario said and said to tell the truth.
When Mario answered it, Gloria was shocked on what she heard
because Mario lost his job. Gloria asked Mario if how he lost his
job and Mario answered it and Gloria was shocked again because
Mario said that he lost his job because of an apple.
 Gloria said that how can he lose his job by just taking one not a
dozen not a crate but one apple and Mario answered that he just
saw it rolling and he found himself putting it in his bag because
Tita would love to have it, and Mario told Gloria that there’s no
need to worry because he found a new job.
 Suddenly Pablo was there ruining the whole conversation and
asked them if how is there daughter doing and he’ll loan a few
pesos to help their daughter and Gloria said that no thank you
because Mario stopped depending on Pablo. Pablo said that
Mario’s new job was with Pablo. When Gloria heard it he told
Mario that it’s a bad doing and risky.
 Mario didn’t listen and walks away with Pablo and told Gloria not
to worry because he will come back early morning and don’t wait
for him. Gloria cries and shouting Mario, while Tita was crying
also because he heard the conversation.
Theme:
 The one-word prevailing message in the story is the word “Apple”
that symbolizes temptation and the dishonest life lived by Mario
before. The theme of the story is, it is man’s basic instinct
 that drives him towards his survival. But, no matter what he should
not forget that society expects him to confirm to its norms. One’s
action is weighed right or wrong and thus should be kept towards
the proper action and his wrong decisions become greater burdens
to a family that symbolizes the word “Apple”.
Tone
 The mood of the story is serious. It tackles many aspects of human
flaws and what is wrong in the culture. The story is sometimes sad
but in the end, there’s a glimpse of hopefulness even though it is in
vain.
JOELA:
The world is an apple tells us how an apple changes everything.
Temptations are the reasons why many people especially the poor
get into a crime. It also shows how a parents love their children. The
story shows how Mario loves his daughter tita that he will give
everything just to see his daughter happy.
MARJ;

Florentino’s “The World is An Apple” talks about the sad fate of an

indigent father who had to struggle everyday to feed his family, but the
twisting part of the story was focused on his weakness to the temptation
of the flesh, hence eroding his noble purpose as a father for the story
evolved in man’s evil-minded nature to succumb to the lust for physical
pleasure forgetting his greater responsibility outside himself.

Florentino has also managed to use another angle in the story to make
his readers see that money is not the evil but the man who uses the
money is to be blamed for his personal woes.
The story went this way…

A poor worker of an apple factory was fired from work after stealing one
apple which he said was for his sick daughter. He had to steal to feed his
daughter for he used his salary to spend nights with prostitutes, hence,
the money that was intended for the family was diverted to satisfy his
lust for the flesh.

Unmindful of his own sin, the poor worker blamed the management of
the apple factory for firing him just only because of the one apple that he
stole. He opined that the company had plenty of apples to share and
asserted that he was treated unfairly.

He questioned the act done to correct his mistake,but he failed to

examine himself for the bad thing he did as a wayward and selfish
husband.

CASSY:
What is the moral lesson of this story: that man’s ineptness is the cause
of his own misfortune. Man can choose to become bad because he
wanted the pleasures of life and he does not exercise control over his
reactions to the evils that life could bring…

He should have prevailed over his temporal desires for the flesh and not
spent all his money for prostitutes. His family should have been his
priority more than anything else..
Joela:
Why did I cite this story? For one point: Man has the power over his life
for he has the freedom to exercise proper judgment on things requiring
his utmost attention. As a family man, his works and time should have
been focused on meeting the needs of his family and not his personal
desire for sex. Sadly, this story has successfully made the readers see
that most of human flaws originate from man’s selfish myopia about
life.

This brings us to one conclusion: that good principles and values will
effectively work beneficially to the person who have them and will not
work for those who do not have the right perception and attitude about
life.

Responsibility comes with the knowledge and submission to one’s fate.

In the case of the man who fell prey to the lust of the flesh, he knew at
the start that he was married with a sick daughter who needed him the
most.

Man’s weakness is a flaw that must not always be accepted as expected.

We should remind ourselves that although we are not perfect, we must
also remember that perfection does not mean being holy at all times but
it also means, in its ideal definition, being responsible for one’s role in
life…the role that he has chosen himself to be..the choice that was not of
other’s making but of himself.
Granting for the sake of argument that he has lost his love for his wife,
but this does not give him the right to neglect his duties as a father.
One’s wrong choice for a marriage partner should not be extended to the
fruit of such union regardless of the internal problems between the
couple –an innocent life, that of his daughter.
MARJ:
As a result, the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality,
temptation, the fall of man and sin.
CASSYYY:
The world is an apple describes the importance of money in this world.
Apple represents sin because just for a apple evrerything changes.