Sociological Approach: “The Tomato Game” by NVM Gonzales

The Tomato Game is a short story written by NVM Gonzales. This literary piece talks
about Sopi, the old man, Alice, Tony and NVM himself, where the old man is looking for a bride
and Sopi provided him one but Alice had someone she loves and that person was Tony, a taxi
driver. In exchange for Alice becoming the old man’s bride, he must adopt Tony as his nephew
and bring him in San Francisco. The old man agreed to it and he even has plans for Tony even
though he hasn’t met the boy himself. He wanted Tony to become a lawyer just like Sopi or
even someone like NVM.

According to sociological approach, we must consider the social context when analyzing
a text because when we do this, we will understand more about the story in this perspective. If
we see this literary piece in a sociological context or how society is being reflected in it we can
see that the values and norms that is being presented in the story were a reflection of how
American people acquire a Filipina wife through a legal basis but sometimes these Filipino
women have a love of their own but due to poverty, these women will cling to any opportunity
they’ll get in order to survive. One part of the letter showed NVM’s impression about Sopi when
he describe him as a “nothing on earth could have been more detestable than this creature I
had known by the tag “Sopi””, this shows a part of man where he judges someone based on
their actions even though they’ve just known each other for a while and that reflects a part of
society since man is a part of it. The letter also speaks off about how old Americans spend their
fortune and they spend it through acquiring Filipino women as their wife and also spending it on
some charitable activities that will help other people. This piece also shows that the society
where Sopi and the old man belong is just like any other society at this point of time, where
people are desperately trying to survive by any means, where people would pay large sum of
money just to acquire the thing they want and where money is all that matters.