`PURPOSIVE COMMUNICATION STUDENTS’ LEARNING GUIDE

Topic 6: LITERATURE AS COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTION

UNDERSTANDING LITERATURE

A society is believed to be more advanced if it has a long history of written literature. Through written
literature, many things about the history and culture of a society are revealed. The American novelist. F.
Scott Fitzgerald once wrote about the beauty of literature: “You discover that your longings are universal
longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” Literature connects people to each
other through ideas and concepts that are known to them. Because of this, literature is said to have a
universal appeal.

 The setting of the story is the time and place in which the story unfolds.
 The story unfolds through a series or sequence of events, which make up the story’s plot.
 The plot includes a conflict. This usually involves a ‘problem’ that needs to be resolved. The plot
moves towards the resolution of this problem.
 There are characters, or the ‘actors’ in the story. Depending on the nature of the story, the
characters may come in the form of people or animals.
 Stories make use of images, which are objects in the story that appeal to the reader’s senses
(sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch). When these recur, they may be interpreted as symbols
with meanings that go beyond the literal level.
 The theme is the main idea or message that the author intends to convey. All the elements unify to
support the story’s theme.

One form of literature that is familiar to many is the short story. A writer crafts a short story to convey an
idea about the human experience. The crafting of this story involves the use of a set of fictional elements
that come together to create an imagined world. These elements are identified and described as follows.

 Macaroons
 To ogle
 To hover
 Fudge
 To zoom in
 Doberman
 To titter
 Pudgy
 To hunch up
 SWEET SUMMER

By: Cyan Abad Jugo (2004)

(1) The candy club were all twelve that summer, sitting every afternoon on the village’s water tank,
savouring macaroons, Halls honey-lemon, and Cloud 9. The older boys had begun to hover about
like bees, ogling them like treats- but only the two creamy long-legged eclairs, not that nut-brown
fudge in a housedress melting in the sun.
(2) One day, before the boys zoomed in, a younger boy approached with his Doberman, reaching for
the faucet.
(3) “think of worms, of diarrhea,” Camilla said, nose addressing the still air.
(4) The boy looked up and considered the three girls, none of them looking. The dog ignored them,
and lapped at the water flowing into the boy’s hand. The boy splashed some on his face and hair,
then straightened up, letting the water drip.
(5) “Aachoo!” Faye winked at the bright sky.
(6) Sara could not bear it, and turned her raisin eyes upon the boy.
(7) His hand shout out at once, dirt under fingernails, but she bent and took it.
(8) “Freederick,” he said, “and Dolby.” He indicated the dog
(9) Camilla and Faye tittered, now regarding him. “That’s Sara the Square you’re shaking hands with.”
(10)Sara hunched up. “You live here?” she asked, and he nodded. “I’ll walk with you.”
(11)Camilla and Faye snorted. The boy shrugged. The dog loped off.
(12)“Frederick, walk your two dogs!” Camilla ventured. Laughter. High fives.
(13)Sara slid off the tank, cement scraping the back of her thighs. She ran to take her place beside the
boy and his dog.
(14)The nut-brown fudge regarded herself with surprise. A boy, even though he was only around
eleven, was talking, walking, with her! She offered Frederick a choice of sweets. He picked the
honey-lemon. Good, since she wanted the Cloud 9.
(15)Sara bounced, smearing her fingers with chocolate. Her glee rubbed off on Dolby, who ran and
pounced. She lay pinned to the sharp grass, blades pricking through her housedress. Dolby started
licking. She laughed and tried to shoo him, accidentally touching his nose. He chased her fingers.
Frederick whistled, and the weight that was Dolby left her. Frederick offered his hand the second
time that day, and for a while, she forgot the brown face, pudgy hands, and squarish body.
(16)“Don’t walk alone at night,” Frederick warned. “People can jump at you like Dolby did.” Frederick
sprang and rolled on the grass, demonstrating. Dolby barked twice and followed. Sara watched
both of them-one, then the other-and wished it had been the boy who had jumped at her and not
the dog.
(17)She offered him her hand. After all, he had given his. When she stood up, his lemony breathe
touched her face, and her heart leapt as if she had been kissed. He didn’t let go her hand either.
He bowed and danced her about in a jerky sort of dance, Dolby snapping at their heels. Then it
ended, grins spreading on both their faces.
 (18)“What was the shit?”
(19)They let go at once. Felix. Sara recognized him.
(20)“Nothing, Kuya,” Frederick replied, choking. He cleared his throat and spat a sliver of honey-lemon.
It glistened gold on the pavement before Dolby licked it off,
(21)Felix laughed and cuffed his brother, “You’re a natural! I’m proud of you! Now let me introduce you
to some real yummies over there…”
(22)Off they went the way Frederick and Sara had come, but forgetting Sara. Only the dog looked
back, licking his nose.

PAULINIAN ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

ENGAGING, TRUSTWORTHY TEAM BUILDERS & MENTORS, WHO:

1. Invite open, non-judgmental communication with others, listening closely to the intent and spirit of their
words and offering clear, constructive responses in return;
2. Clarify at the outset the substance and internet of all agreements and commitments made, making every
effort to fulfill them and supporting others to do the same;
3. Publicly explain the purpose and potential benefits of all group endeavors, enlisting explicit agreement and
support for them from participants before proceeding;
4. Initiate and develop jointly beneficial and sustainable projects with colleagues in which plans and
responsibilities are equitably shared, reliably carried out, and honestly evaluated by all

PAULINIAN AFFIRMATION

As a Christ-centered Paulinian, I am an Engaging, Trustworthy Team Builder and Mentor, fostering community
through active collaboration.

LESSON 6: LITERATURE AS COMMUNICATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES: During the learning session, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of literature as a vehicle for communicating ideas about human

experiences;
2. Identify the functional elements that come together to convey a message about human
experience; and
3. Recognize the invaluable place of literature in history and culture.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Task 1: COMPREHENSION QUESTION. Instruction. Check your understanding of the literary elements
discussed in the input. As well as the application of these elements to the story, by answering the following
questions:

1. How would you describe the following characters in the story? Support your description of the
characters with details from the story. You may use the table below as your guide.
 Characters Description Support (Identify the paragraph where the
details appear)
Sara

Camilla and Faye

Frederick

Felix

2. How do Camilla and Faye see Sara? Support your answer with details from the story.
3. How do Camilla and Faye see Frederick? Support your answer with details from the story.
4. There is recurring image (or images) in the story that is associated with the character Sara. This
recurring image (or images) is a symbol that has meanings beyond the literal level. What are these
symbolisms?

Task 2: SHORT STORY ANALYSIS . Instruction. Read the story below. Then answer the questions
that follow.

THE STORY OF AN HOUR

By Kate Chopin (1894)

(1) Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her
as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
(2) It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half
concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the
 newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s
name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a
second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the
sad message.
(3) She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to
accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arm.
When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone she would have no one
follow her.
(4) There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed
down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
(5) She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the
new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below, a peddler was crying
his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was signing reached her faintly, and
countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
(6) There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled
one above the other in the west facing her window.
(7) She sat with her head thrown back upon the crushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a
sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob
in its dreams.
(8) She was young. With a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain
strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one
of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of
intelligent thought.
(9) There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it. Fearfully. What was it? She did not
know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching
toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
(10)Now her boson rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was
approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will-as powerless as her
two white slender hands would have been.
(11)When she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it
over and over under her breathe: “free, free, free!” the vacant stare and the look of terror that had
followed it went from her eyes. The stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing
blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
(12)She did not stop to ask if it were to were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted
perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
(13)She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the
face that had never looked save with your love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw
beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.
And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
(14)There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There
would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women
 believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel
intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of
illumination.
(15)And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the
unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly
recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
(16)“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
(17)Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for
admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door- you will make yourself ill. What are you
doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.”
(18)“Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open
window.
(19)Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and all sorts of days that
would be her own. She breathed a quick player that life might be long. It was only yesterday she
had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
(20)She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s Importunities. There was a feverish triumph
in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s
waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
(21)Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little
travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of
accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing
cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
(22)But Richards was too late.
(23)When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills.

1. Describe the following characters in the story. Support your description of the characters with
details from the story. You may use the table on the next page as your guide. ( 4 points for
description + 2 points for support)

Character Description Support (Identify the paragraph where

the details appear)
Louise Mallard

Brently Mallard
 2. Describe Louise Mallard’s reactions to the news of her husband’s accidental death. Support your
answer with details from the story. (4 points)
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3. How does Louise Mallard see her husband? Support your answer with details from the story (2
points)
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4. Explain the symbolisms in the story. Do this by filling in the table below (8 points)

Paragraph numbers What images are presented? Symbolic meanings: What do

these images suggest?

Paragraph nos. 4-6

Paragraph no. 19

5. Explain the significance of the last paragraph (paragraph 23). (3 points)

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6. What reality about the human experience does the story present? (2 points)
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Task 3. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND SYMBOL.Instruction. Work in pairs or in groups. View a

popular film that makes full use of symbolisms. Focus on character development. What symbolisms are
used to support character development in the film? Write a film analysis and present it to the class.

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PROCESSING:

1. In activity 1, you learn the elements of short story: setting (time and place in which the story
unfolds), plot (sequence of events), conflict (problems that needs to be resolved), characters
(actors in the story), images (reader’s senses), symbols (meaning beyond literal level), and theme
(main idea or message).
2. In activity 2, you learn to describe the characters of the story, symbolism of the images,
significance of the last paragraph and the reality behind the human experience present in the story.
3. In activity 3 and 4, you learn the meaning of symbolism as portrayed by the characters in the film
and document the literature works of Dr. Jose Rizal and its historical significance.

FORMATION:

Literature opens creative and imaginative sides of the writer to connect individuals with larger truths
and ideas in a society and to record their thoughts and experiences in a way that is accessible to others,
through fictionalized accounts of the experience. Literature has entertainment, political, artistic, cultural,
historical, philosophical, moral and ethical values that readers can learn from reading. Through literature,
we appreciate the meaning and the value of life behind the words used by the writers and we manifest our
sense of patriotism by understanding the historical sense of the plights of Filipinos during colonization
times.

SYNTHESIS:

1. Literature is used as a vehicle for communicating ideas.

2. Fictional elements come together to deliver an author’s message about the human experience.
 3. The fictional elements include the setting, plot, conflict, character, images, symbol, and theme.

ASSESSMENT: DEEPENING ACTIVITY

LITERATURE ANALYSIS. Can you imagine our world without literature? It is terrifying thought-a world
without literature! What would have happened to our country if Jose Rizal did not write the Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo? Would we be where we are now?

Many have written about literature and its invaluable place in history and culture. Some of these
inspiring quotes are found below.

“Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as
hard as wood.” (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from
the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or
awkwardness.” (Helen Keller)

“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. it enriches the necessary competencies that
daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the desert that our lives have already
become.” (C.S. Lewis)

Task: What do these quotes tell us about literature? With a partner or in groups, discuss your thoughts
about the value of literature in human society.

PEER ASSESSMENT. Instruction. Assess your understanding of the fictional elements by filling in the
table below.

Fictional elements Agree Disagree Not sure

1. The characters in stories are always human.
2. When images appear repeatedly in a story, these
images are believed to have symbolic meanings.
3. A story’s plot is the time and place in which the story
unfolds.
4. A story’s plot includes a conflict or a problem that
 needs to be resolved.
5. A story is crafted to convey an idea about human
experience.

REFLECTION

 What I have LEARNED this week that has helped me do all aspect of this better?
 What I have DONE this week that has made me better at doing all aspects of this?
 How can I IMPROVE at doing all aspects of this is?

ASSIGNMENT:

With the advent of technology, many communications materials that were not present before now
abound. Answer the question and submit it to the teacher on the next day.

1. How do these communication materials differ in format from those that are written or prepared
traditionally?

EXPANDED OPPORTUNITIES.

Instruction. Do research on works of literature that have significantly influenced history. Examples of such
works are Jose Rizal’s two novels. Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which were instrumental in the
Philippine revolution against Spain in the 1800s.

What other works of literature have similar influences? Work in pairs or in groups. On the next page,
write your insights on the invaluable place of literature in history and culture.

Works of literature Historical significance

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REFERENCES

Floyd, K. (2012). “Interpersonal Communication.” New York, The McGraw-Hill Companies

Madrunio, M. & Martin,I. (2018). Purposive Communication Using English in Multilingual Contexts.”
Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Padilla, M., Dagdag, L., & Roxas, F. (2018). “ Communicate and Connect! Purposive Communication.”
Malabon City, Philippines: Mutya Publishing House Inc.

3G Elearning FZ LLC (2014). “Basic Communication Skills.” UAE, 3G Elearning FZ LLC

Prepared by:
MR. ALVIN J. SUMAMPONG, MAENG