A Formalistic Analysis on Luis P.

Gatmaitan’s A Dozen Pair of Shoes

The analysis talks about the story talks about how a Father’s love for his children encompasses all
boundaries of love. Many say that parents’ love towards their children are selfless. The story evolves how
a child of a shoemaker describes how she see her parents accept the trials of their life as a family. The
way how her parents resiliently assent the condition of her younger sister.

There's a young girl named Karina who has a father that works as a shoemaker. Every time she
got an award or some special occasions like birthday, Christmas and first day of school her father make a
shoes for her. Karina is in a Grade 2 student when she had a younger sister, named Susie but when her
mother is pregnant, there is a disease that the doctor discover. Her youngest sister born with no feet.
Every time she looks at her parents, she felt lonely and sad because her parents has a big dream to her
little sister. Her father wants her little sister become a ballet dancer someday, but Susie born with no feet.
Every time when the birthday of Susie's near, Susie dream about the shoes that his father makes. When
Susie became 12 years old, their father died. Karina went to the storage to look for some shoes to donate
to the asylum, but she encountered a cabinet that has 12 different types of shoes, then when she looks for
it, she saw a dedication card and it is for Susie, to her little sister. Then she gets it all and go to her mother
and little sister wonder because it is the exact shoes in Susie’s dream every time her birthday comes. So,
Karina figure it out that every birthday of her little sister, her father made a shoes for Susie. The story
wants us to understand that this world isn't perfect we just have to accept the good and bad side of our
lives.
The setting of the story is in the house of the narrator’s family because it was mentioned in the
last part that the narrator saw the 12 shoes in the garage or storage of her father. One day, she went to the
garage and found something, it was a box full of shoes that looked new and never been used.

The story is narrated by first person point of view. Karina is the one of the daughters and she is
the one who tells the story about her family. She is a limited narrator because she doesn’t narrate what are
the things going on the mind of any characters. The family of Karina suffers of being criticized by other
there are times that her father gets anger of someone saying something bad about her sister Susie. The
main character, Karina is a supportive older Sister of Susie. She always defends her sister to the
judgmental people. The story is about how parents show their unconditional and selfless love towards
their children. The main theme of the story is about love. A love that’s never ending. A love that
transpires naturally from parents to his/her children.
To sum it up, inspires the readers of how great the love of parents can give to their children. As the story
displays, it can emerge through the Father’s creation of the shoes as a gift to her children. The story also
narrates how a family hurdles trials that they face in their lifetime. Their resiliency is commendable.