Book Report on Gender and Writing

The Presence, Role, and Function of Gender

in Marikit and the Ocean of Stars

I find it most fascinating that, first and foremost, this adventure fiction children’s

literature by Caris Avendaño Cruz tells the tale of a family: a mother and a daughter. It

was said that there was once a father and a son together in this with them, but they both

have gone by the beginning of the story, and much of the narrative is driven and

focused on these women.

In the beginning, for example, Marikit, our eponymous character, is shown

motivated to acquire a dress—one that wasn’t old, remodeled, and patchwork as she

had always gotten before. She wanted an elegant new dress, a dress unlike any other,

and a dress so beautiful, she’d look like a Diwata on her tenth birthday so she too would

be “pretty like Jana.” From its kickoff, there has already been an abundant use of

gendered language and gender-related issues, and we are able to see as much of the

author’s treatment of gender in the work.

Marikit’s mother, Aling Anita, is a mute dress-making Diwanlaon (a

Diwata-before). She disguised herself as an ordinary seamstress as she was bound by

written rules not to reveal herself. Regardless of her hidden identity, it is true that she is

characterized as a hard-working mother to her daughter—as she had to be for both

Marikit and herself especially after the disappearance of her husband and son in an

unfortunate storm.

“Marikit and Aling Anita waited by the sea, along with the other mothers

and daughters and sons of the fishermen who went missing after an early dawn’s
Book Report on Gender and Writing

catch. Marikit joined the crowd who lifted their voices, “Bathala, save them!

Bathala, save them, please!” Rescuers searched far and wide. Some fishermen

were found, but Mang Fidel and Emman were not.” (p. 21)

Aling Anita was the one who took on Marikit’s request for a pretty new blue dress

and promised to sew her one that wasn’t made out of scraps for her tenth birthday.

Marikit received the latter hand-tailored with love, to her dissatisfaction. Little did she

know that it was this dress, like the ones her mother made her before that had saved

her life, that would wrap her in warmth, keep her company, and literally serve as a

functioning map throughout her journey to the land of the Engkantos to have her rite of

passage as a Diwata. It is infused with magic thread, and carefully sewn into it is a

needle to direct her path and an X marking her ultimate destination. The dress is a

crucial item for the plot, as without it Marikit would be utterly lost.

We can understand Marikit as a regular ten-year-old grappling with her

self-image through her peers before she was swooped away to her quest. From an

angle, our little girl protagonist comes off demanding, finicky, and short-tempered—but it

is necessary to take into account that she is a child. After all, she has just lost a father

and a brother and is undergoing loss like her mother. She has also faced bullying due to

her lowly status, the girls at one birthday party:

“I’m sure hers is old,” noted the girl with the gold ruffle skirt. “I’m sure hers smells

funny,” commented the girl with the yellow cat’s ears. “I’m sure she does, too,”

mused a girl with lemon prints on her pinafore.” (p.14)

Marikit also has made sense enough of her world to grasp that her relationships

matter to her, with more realization for her mother at the end of the book when she is

finally able to return home. She also did make sense and was easy to root for as we find
Book Report on Gender and Writing

out that all the while, she had been kept an important secret to her identity, about the

Diwata journey no one told her about, and she was told to have to “Learn along the

way.” Marikit still stands as a strong and determined female character.

The Shadows are mischievous creatures coming after Marikit because of her

halfling state, having a human fisherman as a father and a Diwata as a mother.

Although the term would suggest non-binarity, the Shadows are shown to use he/him

pronouns in the text: “Hi-hi-hi. The Shadow grinned, showing his dirty deathdust teeth

as he dragged Marikit toward him. Hi-hi-hi, his body gooped and rumpled.” That said,

when they were introduced, observed, and referred to in their introduction, they had it/its

as they were trying to take a shape that resembles a human: “They watched the

creature move. Its body gurgled, oozing up into the slats like a thick, velvety liquid,

slowly forming into the shape of a human wrapped in a big black cloak.”

In Chapter 6, Luntian Forest, Marikit encounters the Infinites who, introducing

themselves to Marikit, are fireflies “like the stars, tens of thousands of forevers, and

never die until the galaxy finally sleeps into existence.” The rest of how they presented

themselves is quoted below:

“In an instant, all the starlike light from the sky drew close as if long strings pulled

them down. There were hundreds—no, thousands—floating by the bamboo

forest, their tiny glow illuminating the dark bamboo groves. We Infinites have

been around for millions and billions of whences, and no other living thing with

skin can tell us otherwise.” (p. 44)

The Infinites—though shown, referred to, and interacted with collectively a lot of

times—appear to have individual voices and their own consciousness. These alitaptap

briefly help acquaint Marikit with what exactly is going on and what she is to expect on
Book Report on Gender and Writing

her expedition. They remind me of how the fireflies in The Princess and the Frog act

and interact: they are individually distinguished fireflies but may come together to form a

larger form—an imitation of various shapes—from humans to arrows, signs, and other

pictures. It was also mentioned that they glow different colors and have distinctive

genders separately: “You can only go back to the mortal world once you finish your rite

of passage as a Diwata,” said a deep-blue firefly that sounded like a lady. When the

Infinites had left, one named Ali remained to accompany the girl.

Overall, Marikit and the Ocean of Stars navigates a world filled with mythical

creatures including Tikbalang, Shadows, Infinites, gods, goddesses, deities, and alike

with ancient powers, the narrative weaves together elements of Filipino folklore, human

and especially female relationships, existence, and interaction within the worlds, real

and magical.