Lesson

The Literature of Brunei

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Flag of Brunei Map of Brunei

What Will You Learn?

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Learn the facts about Brunei;

2. Understand the types of point-of-views;
3. Compose a short narrative with focus on point-of-view.

Facts about Brunei

1. Brunei is a small, independent, oil-rich country.

2. The name Brunei Darussalam means "abode of peace" which
is mostly true given the country's higher standard of living
and longer life expectancy (average is 75.93 years as of
2020) than many of their neighbors in Southeast Asia.
3. In 2018, Brunei ranked higher on the Human Development Index (43 overall
in the index) than all other countries in Southeast Asia aside from Singapore.
4. Brunei is considered to be the most observant Islamic nation in Southeast
Asia. Beautiful mosques dot the country. Visitors are welcome inside of
mosques outside of prayer times and with proper dress.
5. Brunei has one of the highest rates of obesity in Southeast Asia. An estimated
51% of schoolchildren are overweight or obese.
6. The literacy rate in Brunei is estimated at 97.2% of the population.
7. Brunei passed a law in 2014 making homosexuality a crime punishable by ten

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 years in prison. In 2019, it was announced that the penalty would be death
by stoning.
8. Caning is still a method of punishment for crimes in Brunei.
9. The sale and public consumption of alcohol is illegal in Brunei, although non-
Muslims are allowed to bring up to two liters into the country.
10. Brunei has one of the highest car-ownership rates (roughly one car per every
1.5 people in 2017) in the world.
11. The Sultan also serves as Defense Minister, Prime Minister, Finance Minister,
and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Brunei.

Let’s Try This Activity 1.0

Look for the meaning of the italicised words. Choose your answers
from the options below. Write your answers on the space provided
before the number.

____________ 1. I migrate with the seasons.

A. stay in one place
B. dominant figure
C. go with the flow
D. move from one place to another
____________ 2. … which is stuffed secretly with harmless contraband,
sugared cuttlefish and tins of corned beef…
A. illegal goods
B. sacred things
C. delicate matters
D. expensive things
____________ 3. … makes it docilely through customs and immigration.
A. accepted
B. hoarded
C. submissive
D. take care of
____________ 4. … the grey cold of the air outside the airport was a
revelation – clear and crisp and burning through my lungs.
A. disclosure
B. excitement
C. secret things
D. exposure
____________ 5. I will have chosen light clothing, airy, weightless, a barrier
against the weight of the air, and of expectation.
A. comfort
B. hindrance
C. fortunate
D. principle

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 ____________ 6. I marvel at the white-haired men and women who seem to
think that walking at their age is natural…
A. melancholic
B. enjoy
C. astonishment
D. adventure
____________ 7. … always the same Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, the white-
and-pink complexions daubed onto canvas…
A. coated
B. bared
C. painted
D. exhibited
____________ 8. … the explanations vague, and there is no number to call
when your pizza comes more than an hour late…
A. clearly stated
B. understood
C. unclear
D. expressed

Let’s read

Read the story below and determine the narrator of the story.

I Am a Bird
Kathrina Haji Mohd Daud

I migrate with the seasons. I fly away from the monsoons and the heat of Brunei in
September, using wings of metal to alight into London Heathrow, where I am
searched and questioned, heaving a sigh of relief when my bag, which is stuffed
secretly with harmless contraband, sugared cuttlefish and tins of corned beef, white
rabbit sweets wrapped in edible transparent plastic, makes it docilely through
customs and immigration. When I first arrived in London, the grey cold of the air
outside the airport was a revelation – clear and crisp and burning through my lungs.
These days, I make sure I am wrapped up against the chill, and I can make my way
from baggage to the coach station with my eyes closed.

In the summer, the Junes and the Julies, when the academic year is over, I fly away
from the dry heat of England back to the heavy humidity of Brunei. As soon as I step
off the plane into the terminal building, the air compresses and exhales droplets of
moisture. The lines here are slower-moving, less anxious. My heartbeat is steady

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and home. My bag will be heavy, with Marks and Spencers biscuits, Harrods trinkets,
requests from Mother care, all the chains that we do not have. As I step outside, I
know my family, my parents, will be waiting for me, waiting to greet me with smiles.
I will have chosen light clothing, airy, weightless, a barrier against the weight of the
air, and of expectation.

In the months and seasons in between, I will use my legs to walk – walk – walk
everywhere. It feels sometimes that I have walked the length of England on my way
to school, to the bus stop, to the grocery store, to the train station. I marvel at the
white-haired men and women who seem to think that walking at their age is natural,
a necessity, who have no expectation that their sons and daughters will go to the
grocery store for them, will replace their old legs with the service of their own. In
the spaces between, the Decembers and the Marches, I fly tentatively to new places
– the Spains, the Frances, the Italies and Hollands, and my eyes are dazzled by
tulips and paintings which blend into each other, always the same Virgin Mary and
baby Jesus, the white-and-pink complexions daubed onto canvas, immortalized into
smooth white marble. I don’t see my own brown skin anywhere in these
Masterworks, or even in the newspapers in England, the Daily Mail and the
Guardian. I see black and white and sometimes dark brown – usually Pakistani or
Indian – sometimes designated as ―South Asian‖ but never Southeast Asian. The
missing syllable is a missing me.

So this is why, when you ask me to marry you, when I look at your light brown hair
and your brown eyes, and your pink-whiteness and your lovely strong bones and
jaw, and my heart breaks with the loving of you, I say, ―No.‖ You ask, Why? And
your face is confused and betrayed and I can hear your heartbeat shock into speed
and heat, the way mine does when my visa is scrutinized at the borders of your
country.

I could tell you that I have loved you, have loved the loving of you, but that when I
dream I dream of a heat that warms the bones instead of the skin. That when I
picture you in Brunei, I see you confused and lost and increasingly angry when the
queues become slower, the explanations vague, and there is no number to call when
your pizza comes more than an hour late and you cannot return your socks for a
refund and there is a directive from the ministry which you disagree with.

When I tell you, I could only love you in England, I also mean that you could only
love me here, as well, but I cannot say this because you would not understand, you
would argue, and tell me that love conquers all. We speak in English, and I cannot
tell you that I know this is not true.

I saw the truth while I was in the air, when I looked down past my metal wings and
saw the dark heavy solidity of land stopping the movement of the vast ocean, and
there was a moment when I could not tell, not from up there, whether I was coming
or going.

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 Answer this Answer 1.1

Answer the following questions based on the story, ―I am a bird.‖

1. Characterize the narrator in the story?

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2. What is the problem of the narrator in the story?

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 Let’s learn this

One who tells a story is referred to as a narrator. The narrator

decides the story's point of view in a work of fiction. The narration
is assumed to be in the first person if the narrator is a complete
participant in the story's action. A third-person narration is a story
told by a narrator who is not a character in the story.

There are three primary types of point of view:

First person point of view

In first person point of view, one of the characters is narrating the story. This is
generally revealed by the ―I‖ sentence construction and relies on first person
pronouns. (―I went to work.‖) The reader assumes that this character is closely
related to the story’s action—either a main character or someone close to the
protagonist. First person narrative can provide intimacy and a deeper look into a
character’s mind, but it is also limited by the perceptive abilities of the character.
They are confined to report only what they would realistically know about the story,
and they are further confined by their own perspective. Nick Carraway of The Great
Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ishmael of Herman Melville’s Moby
Dick (1851) are two of the most well-known first person narrators in literature and
great examples of this point of view.

Second person point of view

Second person point of view is structured around the ―you‖ pronoun, and is less
common in novel-length work. (―You thought you could do it.‖) Second person can
allow you to draw your reader into the story and make them feel like they’re part of
the action because the narrator is speaking directly to them. Writing in second
person for any great length is a challenge, and will stretch your writing skills. Lorrie
Moore is well-known for her innovative use of second person narration in her short
story collection Self-Help (1985). Second person point of view is sometimes referred
to as second person POV.

Third person point of view

The author is narrating a story about the characters and refers to them with the
third person pronouns ―he/she.‖ (―He was hungry.‖) This point of view is subdivided
into third person omniscient and third person limited. Third person point of view is
sometimes referred to as third person POV.

What Is the Difference Between Third Person Omniscient and Third

Person Limited?
The omniscient narrator knows everything about the story and its characters. This
third person narrator can enter anyone’s mind, move freely through time, and give
the reader their own opinions and observations as well as those of the characters.
This narrator also knows more than the characters—think of the omniscient narrator
as having a god’s-eye-view of the characters. (―He had been infected with the virus,
but he didn’t know it yet.‖)

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The third person limited point of view (often called a ―close third‖) is when an author
sticks closely to one character but remains in third person. This style gives you the
ability to be inside a character’s thoughts, feelings, and sensations, which can give
readers a deeper experience of character and scene. (―As she watched him leave,
she was afraid he’d never come back.‖)

Do this task Activity 1.2

Writing a micro-fiction.

Instructions
1. Read the rubrics before writing the task.
2. On a piece of paper, write a 500-word story of any
theme or topic.
3. Focus your story on the narrator.
4. The story should not include racial slurs, profanity,
vulgarity, attach to anybody.
5. Plagiarize output will be marked 0.

Writing Short Story Rubrics

Criteria 4 3 2 1
Opening Captures Gets reader’s Lacks tension to Has no creative
paragraph gets reader’s attention in first necessary to tension to
reader’s attention from paragraph, but capture reader’s capture
attention the hints attention and the reader and
without giving first paragraph too much the gives aw states the desire
away the desire without giving desire ay the of the story
of the story away of the story. desire of the
too much story.

Writing is Used creative Had some Had little creat Very little to no
creative and and creative ive creative or
original with an original ideas and original ideas in the original ideas.
interesting story to ideas story. No real desire
showing create an with the start of Unclear desire with very little
a desire and interesting an and little conflict to
conflict of the and unique interesting to make an no conflict
main character story. story. interesting within
Showed a clear Had a desire story. the story.
desire with
involving conflict some conflict
on reaching the
reaching that desire.
desire.

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Clear and Writer showed Some strong Not a very Little to no
understandable strong vocabulary strong strength in
writing vocabulary by showing use of vocabulary.
throughout the using description vocabulary Little to no
story. description in through words. Tells description in
their word choice. description writing. Story is
writing and Dialogue is a rather very confusing.
word little than showing it.
choice. difficult to Dialogue is
Dialogue is understand. confusing to the
stated clearly to Story re
who is easy to read ader. Story is a
is talking to with little difficult to
whom. some confusing understand.
Story is clear areas.
and
easy to read.

Correct spelling, Shows complete 5-7 spelling, 8-10 spelling, 11+ spelling,
grammar, and sentences in grammar, and grammar, and grammar, and
punctuation description punctuation punctuation punctuation
Little or no and dialogue. errors. errors. errors. Dialogue
spelling, is very
grammar, or confusing.
usage
punctuation
errors.

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