A BOOK ANALYSIS ON:

“BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT”

BY: AGPASA, TRAVIS ULRICH P.

GROUP 1 PHILOSOPHY

I. CHARACTERS

1. Pilar – She is the main character and narrator in this story. At the

beginning of the story, Pilar already had a life in Zaragoza. But as she

goes through a spiritual journey with her childhood friend, she slowly

changes into a different person.

2. Pilar’s friend – He is also the protagonist of this story. Unlike Pilar, he

went around the world learning about different cultures and religions. He

becomes enlightened as he spends a few years in a monastery while

performing miracles before wanting to reunite with Pilar. And during

their journey, he also goes through changes where he eventually decides

to abandon his old life to spend his time with Pilar.

3. Brida – She is the woman whom Pilar met during her friend’s conference

in Madrid. After the conference, Brida tells Pilar to come with her to a

statue. As they walked through town, Brida sang and praised the moon.

As they reached a fountain, she tells Pilar that her friend loves her.

4. The Padre – He is a friend of Pilar’s friend. Despite being a priest, he

didn’t want to let Pilar’s friend choose a risky path in life, so he tried to
 make Pilar convince him to be with her. Pilar instead let her friend

choose his own path.

5. Bernadette – In one of the stories of Pilar’s friend, she was a girl who

encountered the Immaculate Conception, who would perform miracles

for her village despite no one believing what Bernadette encountered.

II. SETTING

DATES: December 4, 1993 – December 10, 1993

PLACES:

1. Spain

- Soria

- Zaragoza

- Madrid

- Bilbao

- San Martin de Unx

- River Piedra

2. France

- Saint-Savin

- Lourdes

III. SUMMARY
 The story begins with a woman named Pilar, who misses her

childhood friend. And at the first day of her 1-week journey, she reunites

with her friend after attending his lecture.

But unlike Pilar who moved to Zaragoza and studies in a university,

her friend spent his life travelling around the world learning about different

religions. He believed in a different view of things, including the feminine

side of God.

She offered her friend to have coffee together, but he also asked her to

come to his lecture in Bilbao. The next day, they drove to Bilbao without

talking to each other. Pilar wanted to go back to Zaragoza, but her friend

insisted she come with him. When they arrived, he gave Pilar a small red

pouch containing her old medal and confesses his love for her.

After the lecture, they went to dinner. Pilar wanted to talk to him

about her views on love but he changed the subject. As they leave the

restaurant, a weeping man begs her friend to help his son. He tells Pilar to

return to the hotel since he won’t be back until dawn.

The next day, they drove to go to the Pyrenees. Pilar is conflicted

between wanting to return to Zaragoza and continuing her journey with her

friend. After a short stop to San Martin de Unx, they arrived in Saint-Savin.

They explored the town looking for a place to sleep. They prayed

together, but Pilar doesn’t say amen because of her lack of faith due to her
past relationships. So her friend tells the story of “The Exercise of the

Other”.

They eventually find a house, and went outside drinking wine on the

edge of the well. When Pilar asked her friend about his life, he tells about

the story of Bernadette and the Immaculate Conception.

They then returned to the plaza, as Pilar thinks about her life in

Zaragoza. Her friend went to sleep, but Pillar stayed awake and decided to

do “The Exercise of the Other”. She realized that she really loved her friend,

and slept.

In the next morning, they wander for hours as they ate breakfast in a

village. They spent the rest of the day wandering through the forest and

mountains. As the sun began to set, they went to Lourdes. When they

arrived, Pilar’s friend talked about a woman who had left the house to the

seminary. He also told his superior in the seminary about his feelings for

Pilar.

When they reached the cathedral, they met with many people. One of

them told Pilar about her friend’s ability to perform miracles. Together, they

go to the grotto to worship the Virgin Mary.

As midnight approached, everyone began to say their prayers. Pilar,

however, wanted to be alone with her friend to talk about their life together.

As the Charismatics also arrived, they began to spoke in tongues, with Pilar
trying to imitate them. After all of this, Pilar and her friend returned to

Saint-Savin.

When Pilar woke up in the morning, she couldn’t find her friend. She

thought he abandoned her until she read a note saying he went to the

seminary. Then she realized she had the key to a woman’s house. As she

goes to unlock the door to the house, a priest calls her name in the fog.

When the priest introduced himself to Pilar, he wanted to see her

friend but Pilar tells him he is the seminary. And when the priest said he

wasn’t there, he and Pilar went to go find him. While finding him, they go to

a house where a woman said that Pilar’s friend cured her husband. Pilar

recalls what she was told about her friend back in Bilbao and Madrid.

After that, the priest warns Pilar about the dangers of the path her

friend takes. Despite the priest trying to convince her to persuade her

friend, Pilar refused since it’s best for her friend to choose his own path.

She later returned to Saint-Savin only to see her friend waiting for her

at the car. As they leave Saint-Savin, they stopped at a restaurant in San

Martin de Unx. To stop the inner conflict that her friend also had, Pilar asks

him to break the glass of wine at the edge of the table. As her friend breaks

the glass, Pilar realized that he truly loved her.

The next day, Pilar no longer wanted to return to her own life in

Zaragoza. So she suggested they go to the monastery in Piedra. As they went

there, Pilar talks about all the adventures they had during their childhood.
When they went to a cave, her friend reveals to her that he gave up his own

path to be with her in Zaragoza.

After all the journeys they had over the week, Pilar was devastated. So

she ran away from the cave and laid down on the garden of the monastery.

She almost froze to death before a man saved her and took her to a convent

where a nun takes care of her. There, Pilar recalls a funeral she saw the day

before. She thought that her journey was over, until the nun told her that

her life was just the beginning.

Suddenly, Pilar wanted to write all about her journey. So the nun gave

her a pen and some papers. For many days, she wrote besides the river

Piedra pondering her one-week spiritual journey. Eventually, her friend

found her. Ever since Pilar left the cave, her friend had been looking for her

everywhere. And now that they found each other again, Pilar lets him read

about all they have been through.

The story ends as Pilar’s friend recites a psalm and leave the river

Piedra together.

IV. IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS

1. Explore the protagonist's character development as she confronts her

fears, confronts her past, and explores her spirituality. How does she

evolve from a person who feels lost and disconnected to someone who

finds purpose and self-empowerment?

 At the beginning of the story, we see Pilar as a woman who has a

normal life in Zaragoza. And when she visits her friends at a conference

in Madrid, she sees him as a different man. Despite this, she was still

happy to meet him again. When her friend offered her to go on a trip with

him, Pilar reluctantly accepted. Even though she would rather return to

Zaragoza, there was a part of her that wanted to be with him.

At the first part of their journey, Pilar became conflicted with

herself. Her friend realized this and told her about “The Exercise of the

Other”. It is when one confronts their fears and unwillingness. So when

Pilar decided to do that, she finally overcame “the Other” inside her.

Throughout the rest of their journey, not only did Pilar’s love for

her friend grew, but also her faith in God. One event that occurred

during her journey was the ritual she took in Lourdes, along with her

friend and some other people. At the end, she becomes a believer who

fully loves her companion.

2. Examine the protagonist's initial quest to reconnect with her childhood

love and the emotions and motivations driving her. How does her journey

in search of love set the stage for her larger spiritual awakening?

Even though Pilar had already found a life in Zaragoza, she felt

something was missing from her life. So when she reunites with her

childhood friend, a part of her wanted to have a relationship with him.

 But since she had a life in Zaragoza, another part of her wanted to

simply return and not take any risks.

Despite this, she went with her friend anyway. As they travel

through the Pyrenees, she becomes conflicted. There were times when

she almost decided to stop the journey with her friend. But the reason

she kept going was because her friend knew about her inner conflict. So

he tells her about “The Exercise of the Other” when one confronts their

fears and unwillingness to take risks. Once she does “The Exercise of the

Other”, she no longer felt conflicted.

And as she feels her love for her friend growing stronger, so does

her faith in God. Her friend had different views when it comes to religion,

as he believes in the feminine side of God. When they go through a ritual

in Lourdes, Pilar becomes spiritually enlightened as she experiences joy

in worshipping the Virgin Mary.

And when the priest tried to convince her to persuade her friend to

be with her instead of his path, Pilar refused as she believes that her

friend’s path is important to him.

Overall, it was her religious friend combined with their journey

together that made Pilar become faithful.

3. Explore the significance of love and spirituality in the journey of self-

discovery. How do the characters and their experiences in the novel

illustrate the interplay between love, spirituality, and personal growth?

Provide specific examples from the text to support your analysis.

Love and spirituality are the main themes in this story. They play a

significance in the journey of the protagonist with love as her motive in

accepting the journey and spirituality as another aspect of her personal

growth.

When Pilar reunited with her childhood friend, she realized that

her friend had different beliefs when it comes to religion. One thing he

believed in is the feminine side of God.

As Pilar goes through a journey with her friend, she slowly learns

about her friend’s ability to perform miracles and what he learned in his

travels. Back in Bilbao, her friend helped a man as she goes back to their

hotel. Another instance was in Saint-Savin, when she finds a woman

who said that her friend healed her husband.

At the same time, Pilar’s love for her friend grew as the journey

went on. As her friend helps her in overcoming her inner conflict, Pilar

also became curious of his beliefs. In one instance, she asks her friend

about his life as they sit on the edge of the well. In response, her friend

tells her stories about a girl named Bernadette and the Immaculate

Conception.

And when they finally went to the grotto in Lourdes, they began to

participate in rituals along with hundreds of pilgrims. As Pilar finds her

 spirituality strengthened, she also felt like wanting to be alone with her

friend as they talk about their lives.

As for her friend, he also experienced personal growth during their

journey. Despite traveling all over the world learning about different

religions and living in a monastery for a few years, he felt something was

still missing in his life. So as Pilar joins him on their trip, he talks to her

all about his beliefs and helps her with her inner conflict.

But near the end of their journey, he finds himself seeking the

Virgin Mary for guidance through his inner conflict. Eventually, he

eventually decides to forsake his old life to be with his lover. And to prove

his decision to Pilar, he breaks the glass that represented all their fears.

Overall, it was Pilar’s desire to be with her friend that led her to

rediscover her spirituality. While it was her friend’s spirituality that led

him to be with Pilar.

4. Did they break the glass? What does it symbolize? Expound their

meaningful journey on December 8, 1993.

As Pilar and her friend leave Saint-Savin, they stopped at a

restaurant near San Martin de Unx. Despite their journey together, Pilar

still fears of getting rejected. So to prove his love for Pilar, her friend was

asked to break the glass of wine at the edge of the table.

 The glass symbolized their inner conflict in their relationship and

life. For Pilar, it was her love for her friend and her life in Zaragoza. And

for her friend, it was his love for Pilar and his life in the monastery.

As her friend finally breaks the glass, their inner conflict finally

stopped and their relationship became even more stronger.

5. Interpret: Love is a trap. When it appears, we only see its lights, not its

shadow.

Love is a very deep and emotional feeling. It is a state of mind

when a person wants to have an intimate relationship with another

person. While the idea of having a relationship seems rather appealing, it

can also become difficult as it requires commitment. Knowing all of this,

a person can become doubtful and unwilling to take risks in having a

relationship with someone.

Love can also be a burden, as it leaves people with lots of

emotions. Due to her experience with past relationships, Pilar was

initially fearful of having a relationship with her childhood friend, as she

didn’t want to go through her past relationships. But as her journey went

on, she slowly went from being afraid of her love for her friend to fully

embracing it.

6. How did the story end?

 After their trip together in France, Pilar and her friend went to the

monastery in Piedra where they experienced their childhood. They talked

about their memories and the background of this place. As they reached

a cave, Pilar’s friend revealed to her that he wished to return to Zaragoza

with her.

After everything they went through over the week, Pilar felt

devastated and ran away from the cave. She ended up sleeping near the

banks of the river Piedra where she nearly froze to death, if not for the

man who saved her and took her to a convent. There, a nun took care for

her.

Still sad from earlier, Pilar told the nun about her experience and

compared it to the funeral she saw the day before. The nun, however,

saw it in another way. When Pilar also realized it, she went to write all of

her journey for many days.

Eventually, her friend found her sitting near the river as he was

looking for her everywhere. When they found each other again, Pilar let

her friend read all of what she wrote. The story ends as they leave the

river Piedra.

V. CONCLUSION

The book “By The River Piedra, I Sat Down And Wept” is an overall

inspiring story that talks about the journey and conflict of love and life. It has
positive religious themes that can convey deep messages and inspires readers

to take risks in life.

An important theme in this story is the struggles of relationship. While

intimate love is overall positive in strengthening personal growth and self-

discovery, it can also be a burden that leaves one with lots of emotions.

Another aspect in this story is the interplay between love and spirituality as

they lead the protagonist into self-discovery.

Overall, the book is a very good story to read and I recommend it as a

love story with inspiring themes.