Analysis of Jose Garcia Villa’s Footnote to Youth based on the Elements of a Short Story

Title – Footnote means a note at the bottom of a page, giving further information about something
mentioned in the text above. Therefore it suggests that it is a relatively unimportant part or a minor
detail compared to the other elements in a particular text. But in the story, the author includes no actual
footnotes. Therefore, the title being Footnote to Youth suggests that the whole story is the actual
footnote. And the fact that footnote is used as a component of the title suggests that the connotations
in the story are of utmost importance.

Setting – The story took place in a farm where the house of the main character is located which speaks a
lot about the social conditions prevalent when the short story was written in 1933. Back then, farmers
suffered because of two reasons. One was the rapid increase in the national population (from 7.6 million
in 1905 to 16 million in 1939) brought about through improvements in public health, which put added
pressure on the land, lowered the standard of living, and created a labor surplus. And in this story, Jose
Garcia Villa portrayed two predominant issues at that time – the fast surging of population and the
hardships it brought to the cultivators. This also denotes the historical period when the story took place
which was the time when the country was in great economic turmoil.

The narration started moments before dusk which is an unusual way to begin a story. Commonly,
sunrise is associated with birth, the commencement of life. But in this story, the sun setting in the west
could mean just the opposite; not necessarily death but the end of the main character’s youth.  This
brought a somber atmosphere in the story noting that what Dodong, the main character, was about to
do would ‘mark a climacteric in his life.’

Throughout the story, the weather condition was sunny. No amount of rain showered across the lands
nor a breeze of cold, comforting wind brushed the leaves of plants or even the temporary shade of
clouds came about to ease the heat of the sun. Moreover, the story took place during the planting
season from June to August and it is notably peculiar that the author never mentioned about rain when
it pours during these times of the year (monsoon). And this could be another symbolism used by the
author to signify the grueling effort made by the characters, especially the main character in the story.

Plot 

                Introduction – The beginning of the story established the mood and what the story is all about
– youth and marriage. Also, the introduction served as the foundation of the story as it will later on
progress and reveal the deeper issues that concern youth and marriage.

                Rising Action – The rising action of the story was when Dodong was about to tell his father
about his decision of marrying Teang. The conflicts were Man vs. Himself (Dodong vs. himself) when
Dodong was confused about his choice as soon as his father asked him if he must marry.  And the other
conflict is Man vs. Man (Dodong vs. his father) when Dodong and his father discussed Dodong’s age and
that Dodong is still too young to get married.

                Climax – The climax was Dodong’s effortless declaration of his plan, how his father tried to
accept it and his father’s answer on whether Dodong should marry. Though his father was disappointed
about Dodong’s decision, he approved it knowing it’s his son’s wish. Then the story discloses the life that
Dodong has ventured in to – the life of a married young man with growing responsibilities of a husband
and a father as the number of his sons and daughters increased along with the anxiety of her wife,
Teang for all the things she had to do like cooking, laundering, the house and the children.

                Falling action – The story doesn’t have a falling action because the complications in Dodong’s
life were not resolved, in fact, they increased as the years go by.

                Denouement – The final outcome of the story could be best described with the saying “History
repeats itself” wherein Dodong was confronted with the fact that his son, Blas is undertaking the same
journey he travelled on when he was his age. And the sad part is he wasn’t able to do anything about it.

Characters

             Dodong – He is the main character and the protagonist in the story. He was very young, only
seventeen when he got married and eighteen when he experienced the hardships of fatherhood. From
the story it was apparent that he was self-obsessed and is very careless about his actions and decisions.
He wanted to gain wisdom but felt he was deprived of it for the fact that wisdom is gained for a
considerable period of time and it is something that is handed down by people who had wisdoms
themselves which his father never did, that makes Dodong’s thought of him not being able to surpass
his father seem true. And since he married and fathered his kids at a young age, he wasn’t able to raise
them properly.

                Teang – She is Dodong’s wife. Teang regrets her decision of marrying at a young age but never
her choice of marrying Dodong. Though she cried sometimes for all the arduous and never-ending tasks
to be done, she never told Dodong about it for fear that Dodong would dislike her – that’s how patient
she is and how much she loved Dodong that she was able to deal with it every single day of her life as a
married woman.

                Blas – Dodong’s son who also experienced what Dodong had gone through in his youth.

Point of view – The point of view used was the omniscient limited where the author tells the story in
third person and the audience only knows what the character knows and what the author allows to tell
the audience. Moreover, the audience sees the thoughts and feelings of characters if the author chooses
to reveal them to the audience.

Themes

                History repeats itself.

                Don’t go marching blindly into marriage.