The poem “Problem Is” was written by Conchitina R. Cruz.

The text tells us on what do most

Filipino’s lifestyle look was, most have nothing to do but fuck and living in houses with room.
On my own perception the speaker wants us to be more inspired of not having such life issues
and struggles “to pursue first your goals and dreams”.
The poem tells us the different challenges in life specially for those poor families. In the line
“when all we did was touch, and for all the movies we missed, fancy dinner we didn’t have,
books we borrowed” shows us that they didn’t even had a fancy dinner because of lack of
money. The Theme was all about survival on how can we survive those kind of status. Hope is
the key to success
The speaker was a Filipino and the intended audience is to all of us Filipino’s, It narates the
life of us Filipino who was doing nothing so that the cycle of our lives was all the same day and
day. If I were on the situation of the author, I could really tell that no matter how our life
struggles is we must always look for a hope which can lead us into a new begging and into a
new life. Life struggles and problems really test our own self on how we stand up and fight for
our new day by a new hope.
The tone and mood of the text was giving us hope for a better day to a better life. Everyday
is a new beginning, it’s either someday or by now. We can see on the fourth stanza it tells us
“typical Filipinos, broke and empty-handed” which means they have nothing.
The issue presented is the poem was poverty and lack of things to do. Many of us Filipino
suffers from poverty due to unfinished study and most of us we’re tardy in studying. Poverty is
one of the most problem by us Filipino’s. Doctor Jose Rizal told us once that the youth is our
hope but look, many of us teenagers now are drinking such liquors and some of women are
pregnant. Where is the hope when we are the one who destroys it.
Figurative language of simile is seen in the first stanza of the poem "they say poor filipinos
multiply like rabbits since they have nothing to do but fuck”. It compares the poor life of Filipino
into a rabbit which emphasize the author to convey to its readers.
Analyzing the poem to look for figurative language used was only simile. The symbol
presented in the poem was the rabbit itself. It shows that poor Filipinos was just like rabbit
because all they have to do was to multiply. We should also make a plan to ourselves for a
better path into a better life. We should not box ourselves into a place where we cannot
achieve anything in life. Looking into the title, it’s all about the problem of our society which is
poverty where in the poem tells all about the suffering of the author. Where in it talks about
the poor Filipino families who do nothing but to multiply or to make love in which they do not
do something to get their selves out of poverty.
For me, the poem itself is an eye opener to all of us Filipino’s because it talks all about the
problem and struggles that we may encounter in our daily lives. Where in it reflects on poor
families who suffers in lack of job and opportunities in life where they know in their selves that
they can do something to get their life out of poverty but still choose to do nothing about it and
instead they say “bahala na”.

Austine Derilo
Stem 12-F