DEAD STARS

A literary critique

By

Arcel Azcuna

Razylmae Ganiolon

Frances Morales

John Carlo Puagang

Nychille Faith Sarmiento

 Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez is a story about a guy named Alfredo Salazar who is

in love with a young lady named Julia Salas while in a relationship with Esperanza. The

author showed that men should always stay committed to someone and to not fall for another

girl for pleasure and lust only. This story initiated that be we must be contented with our

loved ones and also to be loyal to them. (intro)

The story revolves around the love of a man and a woman who's in a long term

engagement, but got conflicts due to an affair of the man with an outsider individual. Alfredo

is a 30-year-old man who is long engaged with Esperanza. But one day, he unexpectedly met

a girl, he was not fond nor had felt any attention towards her, but as times goes by he felt

admiration that eventually led him to fall in love with her. Her name was Julia Salas, the

sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle, a not so obviously pretty girl, but got his attention, she was

not just an ordinary girl. But to avoid the lies of him meeting another woman, eventually he

hid it away from his fiancée, who had never doubted him even for once. After a while Don

Julian invited Alfredo for a (salo2 In English ) where he and julia had a talk, bit it was

postponed by its overwhelming silence as she broke the news that it will be their last chat as

she's going home in her hometown. Alfredo felt scared at that time, the sight of losing Julia,

her new desire made him confessed his feelings towards her. (summary)

The binary contrast of tradition vs modernity is a key component of "Dead Stars." The

plot takes place in the Philippines at this period of transition from a colonial to a more

modern society in the early 1900s. The character of Alfredo, who is divided between his love

for a conventional woman named Esperanza and his attraction to a more modern,

cosmopolitan woman named Julia, embodies this tension. The binary contrast of duty vs

desire is another significant aspect of the plot. Despite the fact that Julia is the object of
Alfredo's attraction, they are engaged to be married to Esperanza. He battles between his

passion for Julia and his sense of obligation to Esperanza. (structuralist)

The story “Dead Stars” is a great story, but the thing is, the author uses too much

complicated words that can make the readers easily get bored. The story is so long that the

readers would not want to read the original story, but instead want to read the summary of the

story because it's more understandable and it will not waste too much time. For Alfredo's

case, he seems to be confused about his feelings, due to the fact that he has a fiancée but he

fell for another girl out of pleasure and lust. And for Esperanza’s case, Esperanza is selfless

as she still chose to marry Alfredo even though she knew about the affair that has been going

on. Lastly, for Julia’s, she should've stopped seeing Alfredo after finding out about Alfredo

and Esperanza’s upcoming wedding. She should've told Alfredo to stop seeing him. It gives

the readers a multitude of emotions. (reader-response)