THE BAMBOO DANCERS

BY N. V. M. GONZALEZ
MAUJERIE ANN MIRANDA
2ASN2
 WHO IS N.V.M. GONZALEZ?
NESTOR VICENTE MADALI GONZALEZ was born on
September 8 1915 in Romblon.

Studied at National University, and at universities in the US.

Worked as a writer at Graphic Weekly and editor at Manila

Evening News Magazine and Manila Chronicle.

Taught at UST, PWU and UPD. Internationally, he taught at the

University of Hong Kong, Cal State Hayward, University of
Washington and UCLA.
 WHO IS N.V.M. GONZALEZ?
Published his first essay in the Philippine Graphic. His first
poem was published in 1934.

His first novel "The Winds of April," published in 1941, won

honorable mention for the Commonwealth Literary Awards.

He wrote five novels, eight short fiction collections and

multiple essays.

Wrote about his colonial island homeland, and his stories are
peopled with the farmers and fishermen, the schoolteachers
and small-town merchants, "the underclass who constitute
the majority in all societies.
 WHO IS N.V.M. GONZALEZ?
won the award of National Artist for Literature in 1997 and
Centennial Award for Literature in 1998

"The Philippines’ foremost creative writer in English.” He

became UCLA’s Regents Professor in 1998.

Died in 1999 at the age of 84

“appreciated his land, his people, his language, his culture,

and mostly wrote about the simplicity of life."

He wrote "The Bamboo Dancers" in 1959.

 BOOK SYNOPSIS

-Ernie Rama, protagonist, -She questions her morals

sculptor, studies in the US. so they plan to marry.

-He meets an old -She changes her mind and

acquaintance, an unnamed marries Herb Lane.
girl.
-Herb dies on the way to
-They proceed to have a the Philippines.
sexual relationship
 BOOK SYNOPSIS

-His brother, who is a -In New York, he meets

doctor, is in California. three Filipinos.

-Said brother is having an -Ernie goes to Hiroshima

affair with a nurse. and learns about the bomb
tragedies.

-When he goes home, he

-He is apathetic to the
discovers he is
situation of his brother and
uninterested in his wife. what he learned in Japan.
 BOOK SYNOPSIS

-Ernie learns that Herb -Ernie has a near-death

attacked Ernie's ex-fling experience.
and ran over a girl

-This led to an anti-

American demonstration.

-He is apathetic to this.

 EXCERPT SYNOPSIS:
IN SIPOLOG
01 02 03 04

He rides Pepe arrives

He home on a homes and
Ernie converses horse where this makes
journies with the he is greeted Ernie realize
home. Captain by his father something
 EXCERPT SYNOPSIS:
IN SIPOLOG
5 6 7
He gets into an He gets angry The couple are
accident at sea and shouts at shocked because
which almost Pepe and Gaya of his wet
kills him because he physique, he did
thought they not actually
were apathetic to shout at them.
the situation.
Analysis
Bamboo dance/Tinikling is used.
Bamboo poles = two ideologies clashing
Dancers = Characters
Told in the perspective of Filipino intellectuals
who temporarily stay in the US
different type of diaspora vis-a-vis working
class migrants.
family-centeredness, emotional, empathy
vs. liberal attitude
Temporarily replacing your culture to feel
familiarity, ends in fighting yourself to
maintain origins.
Analysis
The boat in "In Sipolog" is named after Kapitan
Tiago of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere, the
father of Maria Clara. This represents Ernie
accepting western ideologies, as much as
Kapitan Tiago embraced Spanish colonialism.

The ending shows Ernie getting mad at his

brother and sister-in-law and tried to show
anger by shouting. Although he was
unsuccessful in doing so, it just meant that
Ernie is still VERY Filipino even if he accepted
the American culture already. He just needed
to go home to realize this.
REFERENCES
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-nov-30-mn-39013-
story.html
https://english.colostate.edu/news/filipino-american-history-month-n-v-
m-gonzalez/
https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295972756/the-bread-of-salt-and-
other-stories/
https://www.supersummary.com/the-bamboo-dancers/summary/
https://aroundtheworldin2000books.com/2020/01/06/the-bamboo-
dancers/#:~:text=Last%20week's%20book%20dealt%20with,America%20
during%20the%20Great%20Depression.