LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
After studying this module, you should be able to:
a. unlock the symbolisms from the literary
piece using a graphic organizer
b. create a story mountain (Freytag’s Pyramid)
that shows the plot of the story
c. show interest in acquiring a deeper
understanding of texts through reflection
paper
TOPIC
OUTLINE
1. The World is an Apple by Alberto Florentino
2. Lengua Para Diablo (Excerpt from Banana
Heart Summer) by Merlinda Bobis
OVERVIEW
Love, good vs. evil, heroism, and revenge – these are
some common themes that you might encounter in
a short story, poem, novels, or any other literary
work. The themes of these literary works are usually
conveyed by its characters, plot, setting,
symbolisms, and even the moral or the lesson of it.
In this module, you will encounter a literary piece
that is written by award-winning and reputable
authors that tackles the theme - poverty. This
module contains an excerpt from a novel and also
the script of one of the most performed plays in the
Philippines up to this day. Both of which contains
symbolisms that you are expected to unlock at the
end of this module. Enjoy reading!
ACTIVATING
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Among the literary pieces taught by your English
teachers, which of these were memorable?
How did your teacher introduce and process it for
the whole class?
THE WORLD IS AN APPLE
by ALBERTO FLORENTINO
Alberto Florentino was born on July 28, 1931 in
Nueva Ecija and died on September 22, 2018 in
Portland, Oregon. “Bert”, as his friends call him, was
a young boy used to help his father to type multiple
copies of his plays in school where he worked as a
teacher and a director. That eventually helped Bert
find his passion into playwriting. Later, as a 23 year
old accounting student in the University of the East,
he received his first Carlos Palanca Memorial Award
for One-Act play in the year 1954 for his most
famous play – The World is an Apple which is one of
the most performed play up to this day. The themes
that he usually tackles about deals with everyday
scenarios of a commoner’s life, he usually portrays
the struggles of Filipinos.
For more details about Alberto Florentino’s life,
kindly visit the following links:
Brief summary of The World is an Apple
It was a story of a man – Mario who lost his job
because of an Apple. Four years ago, with his friend
named Pablo, he took a sinful road, they are doing
illegal jobs. Until Mario met Gloria – her wife, she
took him away from Pablo’s clutches. Gloria
accepted Mario and trusted him to change, even
opposing what her mother told her “Gloria you’ll
commit the greatest mistake of your life if you marry
Module 3 – Literary Pieces on Poverty | Page 1 of 4
that good-for-nothing loafer! You can’t make him any
straighter than you would a crooked wire with your
bare hands.” For four years, Mario had a decent job
and even though they are experiencing poverty, he
never wanted to go back in his old ways because his
wife will get angry to him. Until one time, he arrived
home. His wife slips her finger to take some money
to buy Tita a biscuit, but Mario was annoyed and
moved away from his wife. Then, they began to
quarrel. Gloria was asking some of the money from
his pay but Mario insisted that he has none. Mario
told her that he spent it all for a woman and a drinks
for his friends but Gloria didn’t believe it and keep on
insisting. So, Mario told her everything. He said
“Could I have guessed they would do that for one
apple? When there were millions of them? We were
hauling them to the warehouse. I saw one roll out of
a broken crate. It was that big. It looked so delicious.
Suddenly I found myself putting it in my lunch bag.”
Gloria was shocked about it and told Mario that
when he thinks of his own stomach, he thinks of
nothing else. But Mario insists it was not for him. It
was for their child – Tita. “Do you remember the day
I took her out for a walk? On our way home we
passed a grocery that sold “delicious” apples at
seventy centavos each. She wanted me to buy one
for her but I did not have seventy centavos. I bought
her one of those small green apples they sell on the
sidewalk, but she just threw it away, saying it was
not a real apple. Then she cried. So when I saw the
apple roll out of the broken crate, I thought that Tita
would love to have it.
Gloria couldn’t believe that for a measly apple, her
husband will lost her job. Mario tried to find a job
over the week but couldn’t find any, so he went to his
old friend – Pablo. Even told Gloria that he will meet
a friend because he found a good job that needs a
night watchman. Not until Pablo arrived at their
house and voiced undesirable comments about their
life. “What is honest money? Does it look better than
dishonest money? Does it buy more? Or honesty?
What is it? Dressing like that? Staying in this
dungeon you call a house? Is that what you so
beautifully call “honesty”? See what happened to
your daughter. That is what honesty has done to her.
And how can honesty help her now? She’s not sick
and she needs no medicine. You know that. – You
know very well that she needs: food, good food.
She’s under-nourished, isn’t she?” Pablo on an
argument between him and Gloria when he offered a
money to Gloria but she declined.
Pablo then stated the reason why he was there, even
convinced Mario to tell everything to Gloria that he
no longer believes in the way she wanted her to live.
But then Gloria trusted Mario that he will never go
back to that kind of life and that he’s not going with
Pablo. But Mario fixes his clothes and firmly said
“Gloria, I’m going with him.”
Note: This is just a summary, to better understand it,
kindly read the full script by visiting this link:
LEARNING
ACTIVITY 1
Freytag’s Pyramid
Objective: Create a story mountain (Freytag’s
Pyramid) that shows the plot of the story
Task: Using the Plot Structure (Freytag’s Pyramid)
you are expected to create a story mountain to show
the structure of the play. Refer on the image below
on how to do it.
Tools and resources: Online resources, Padlet,
laptop,
LENGUA PARA DIABLO
By MERLINDA BOBIS
Merlinda Bobis is a contemporary
Philippine-Australian writer and a performer. She
was born on November 25, 1959 in Legaspi City,
Albay. She is an award-winning author one of which
is the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards
for Poetry. She has published novels, short stories,
Module 3 – Literary Pieces on Poverty | Page 2 of 4
drama, and plays which have been produced and
performed here in the Philippines and Australia.
To know more about Merlinda Bobis, kindly visit the
link:
The story you are about to read concerns a father,
and how he no longer feels like he has a power over
his family and society.
I suspect that my father sold his tongue to the devil.
He had little to say in our house. Whenever he felt
like disagreeing with my mother, he murmured. “The
devil ate my words”. This meant he forgot what he
was about to say and Mother was often appeased.
There was more need for appeasement after he lost
his job.
The devil ate his words, the devil ate his capacity for
words, and the devil ate his tongue. But perhaps only
after prior negotiation with its owner, what with
Mother always complaining, “I’m already taking a
peek at hell!” when it got too hot and stuffy in our
tiny house. She seemed to sweat more that summer,
and miserable. She made it sound like Father’s fault,
so he cajoled her with kisses and promises of an
electric fan, bigger windows, a bigger house, but she
pushed him away, saying, “Get off me, I’m hot, ay,
this hellish life!” Again he was ready to pledge relief,
but something in my mother’s eyes made him mutter
only the usual excuse, “The devil ate my words,”
before he shut his mouth. Then he ran to the tap to
get more water.
Lengua para diablo, tongue for the devil. Surely he
sold his tongue in exchange for those promise to my
mother: comfort, a full stomach, life without our
wretched want….But the devil never delivered his
side of the bargain. The devil was alien to want. He
lived in a Spanish house and owned several stores in
the city. This Spanish mestizo was my father’s
employer, but only for a very short while. He sacked
him and our neighbour Tiyo Anding, also a mason,
after he found a cheaper hand for the extension of
his house.
We never knew the devil’s name. Father was
incapable of speaking it, more so after he came
home and sat in the darkest corner of the house, and
stared at his hands. It took him two days of silent
staring before he told my mother about his fate. I
wondered how the devil ate my father’s tongue.
Perhaps he cooked it in mushroom sauce, in that
special Spanish way that they do to ox tongue. First,
it was scrupulously cleaned, rubble with salt and
vinegar, blanched in boiling water, then scraped of its
white coating – now, imagine words scraped off the
tongue, and even taste, our capacity for pleasure. In
all those two days of silent staring Father hardly ate.
He said he had lost his taste for food, he was not
hungry. Junior and Nilo were more than happy to
demolish his share of gruel with fish sauce.
Now, after the thorough clean, the tongue was
pricked with a fork to allow the flavours of all the
spices and condiments to penetrate the flesh. Then
it was browned in olive oil. How I wished we could
prick my father’s tongue back to speech and even
hunger, but of course we couldn’t, because it had
disappeared. It had been served on the devil’s platter
with garlic, onions, tomatoes, bay leaf, clove,
peppercorns, soy sauce, even sherry, butter, and
grated cheese, with that aroma of something rich
and foreign. His silent tongue was already
luxuriating in a multitude of essences, pampered
into piquant delight. Perhaps, he should sell his
esophagus, then his stomach. I would if had the
chance to be that pampered. To know for once what
I would never taste. I would be soaked, steamed,
basted, baked, boiled, fried and feted with only the
perfect seasonings. I would become an epicure. On
a rich man’s plate, I would be initiated to flavours of
only the finest quality. In his stomach, I would be
inducted to secrets. I would be an “inside girl”, and I
could tell you the true nature of sated affluence.
LEARNING
ACTIVITY 2
Unlocking of symbolisms
Objective: Unlock the symbolisms from the literary
piece using a graphic organizer.
Task: On the given literary piece above, you are
expected to unlock the symbolism using a graphic
organizer and explain. Choose the best graphic
organizer that would best illustrate it. Use a separate
Module 3 – Literary Pieces on Poverty | Page 3 of 4
sheet of paper, or you can do it in Microsoft Word.
After that, answer the following questions below:

1. What does this tell about our Philippine

society? Do you think this is still true today?

Tools and resources: Online resources, photos,

laptop

Congratulations! You can now proceed to the next

module.

SUMMARY
Let us see if you can remember the main points
raised in this lesson. Below is a summary of these
points:

REFERENCES
Cruz, Isagani R. (1987). Classicism: A theory for all
seasons. A paper read at the First National
Consultative Conference on Literary Theories,
Sulo Hotel, Quezon City.

Patron, I. Y. (2002). Philippine literature: Interactive

reading-responding to and writing about Philippine
literature. QC: Great Books Trading.

Roberts, E. & Jacobs, H. (1995). Literature: An

introduction to reading and writing (4th ed.).
New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Romero, P. & Eugenio, P. (1997). An approach to

literature. QC: Katha Publishing Co.

Prepared by:

JHON GHMUEL FRANCIS R. CAADIANG

Faculty, College of Arts and Sciences

Module 3 – Literary Pieces on Poverty | Page 4 of 4