Banana Heart

Summer
By: Merlinda Bobis
Presented by:
Divine Mujar
Lay Gene Murillo
Monique Noga
 Background of the Author
Merlinda Carullo Bobis

• was born on November 25, 1959.

• A contemporary Filipina-Australian writer and performer.

• Born in Albay, Merlinda has written and published in English,

Filipino, and Bikol, integrating Philippine and Australian
cultures and experiences with a wider global vision.

• A multi-awarded author, she has four novels, six poetry

books, a collection of short stories, and nine dramatic works
performed internationally.
• She attended Bicol University High School then completed her BA at Aquinas
University of Legazpi and her Master of Arts in Literature at the University of
Santo Tomas, Manila.

• She taught English and Literature for 10 years in the Philippines then did a
Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, where she went
on to lecture in creative writing for 21 years.

• She is currently Honorary Senior Lecturer at The Australian National

University.
 Background of the Text
• Merlinda Bobis’ first novel, published in 2004.

• a lyrical narrative of a girl growing up in the Philippines during

an eventful summer for her and the people living on her street.

• Banana Heart Summer is packed with signs and metaphors that

never fail to arouse the senses.

• The novel was shortlisted for the Australian Literature Society

Gold Medal, nominated and received the Philippine Golden
Book Award.

• It was published in Australia (Murdoch Books), the US (Bantam,

Random), and the Philippines (Anvil), where it was well
reviewed.
 Times and Milieu
• It is the hottest summer of the 1960s, in her small town reeling with the songs of Roy
Orbison, Patsy Cline, and The Beatles. Banana Heart Summer recalls a summer in the
childhood of Nenita on Remedios Street, in a small Philippines village with a Catholic
church at one end and an active volcano at the other. These two powerful presences
compete for Nenita’s, and the villagers’ attention as they struggle constantly for love,
for acceptance and for nourishment – body and soul.

• “A lot of the issues in the book are the same as those of the Philippines”, says Bobis.

• “I wanted to write the divide between those who love to love and eat and those who
long to love and eat. And I wanted the book to evoke, for anyone from any picture,
from any culture or any places, tender things: the love of the mother, the hunger for
that love, the hunger for the food”, Bobis said.
SUMMARY
ANALYSIS
"For those who love to love and
eat
For those who long to love and
eat"
 DIVISION OF BANANA HEART SUMMER NOVEL:

- The Heart of the Matter

- The Spleen of the Matter

- Becoming a Heart

The novel traces Nenita’s coming of age in 50 chapters, each discourse on a local
cuisine.
An excerpt of the first 10 chapters:

Chapter 1: "For those who love to love and eat

For those who long to love and eat"
Chapter 2: Turon: the melody
Chapter 3: Shredded heart in coconut milk
Chapter 4: Tomato lemon carp with hibiscus
Chapter 5: Lengua para Diablo (The devil ate my words)
Chapter 6: Floating faith (palitaw)
Chapter 7: Seaweed salad and the Calcium Man (with pilinut husk on the side)
Chapter 8: Halo-halo: mix mix
Chapter 9: Not quite mixed (sugar and salt)
Chapter 10: Clear clam soup
 STRUCTURE AND STYLE
Structure refers to the presentation of the story. It is
the manner by which the author presents the
chronology of events.

Style, according to Abrams (1999: 303) “is the manner

of linguistic expression in prose or verse- as how
speakers or writers say whatever it is that they say.”
 STRUCTURE AND STYLE
- to hold her tightly at night, whispering over and over again, I love you Maring,
I love you. Then a baby always arrived from the armpit (p.71)

- which clung to the waist of our father who clung to our mother and
whispered, I love you, I love you, while she kept her face turned away,
breathing precious air from the vent (p.73-74)

- This was a story that he would tell me years later in his weary letters, which
always asked whether I could send the family’s a little bit of help (p. 202)
 STRUCTURE AND STYLE
- Two guavas, two guavas, she said swallowing a fresh burst of giggles. I looked
up. My cheeks were on fire. Was it a fruit of a vegetable? Up there, Manolito
Chong’s shorts were too shorts indeed. (p. 122)

- But how can I save that twelve-year-old from these arguments? Of course I
love my own? Even today, it takes great effort to believe myself (p.131). I could
climb any tree at my time (p. 132).

- That summer I was twelve, lihi made sense. Mother vented her spleen on me
because she was pregnant, and she couldn’t help it. Today, twenty years later,
and so far away from home, I understand and I forgive (p. 103).
 LANGUAGE
The novel is written with the use of English language.
 TONE AND MOOD
“SENSOUS”

“Banana Heart Summer is a sensous, poignant, and quirky feast. Smoky coconut
chicken in green papayas, sticky rice with sweet anise, or spicy sorrowful
peccadillos whet challenge and palate and the heart”,
 SYMBOLISMS

• Banana Heart
• Heart
• Summer
• Food recipes
• Lengua para diablo
• Volcano and Church
 Themes

• The nourishment of body and

soul

• Child Labor and

Child Abuse

• Poverty