GENERATION GAP CONFLICT IN THE SELECTED
SHORT STORIES OF NICK JOAQUIN
Jessa Mae R. Bedro, Mary Angelie J. dela Pena, Gabriel T. Tatlonghari
INTRODUCTION
Literature expresses myriad notions
and each generation sets its own
characterization, breadth and limitation.
This is illustrated in Ralph Waldo
Emerson’s presentation of the opposing
ancient precepts, “knowing thyself,”
and the “environmentally located self-
consciousness” (Soto, 2004). Hence, the
attitude and behavior leading to argument
and misunderstanding due to the age
difference, also known as generation gap,
arises. Generation gap is difference in
behavior, tastes, and preferences among
people of different generations. This is
about the difference in perception of
young people, middle-aged individuals, and
seniors. Likewise, the phrase generation
gap seems to explain how age groups
differ in terms of choice of dress, hair style,
manner of talking, among others Moreover,
the phrase generation gap is widened by
technological advances, especially the gap
between very elderly and the youngest
generation (children or teenagers). More
importantly, it marks the difference in
ideologies, way of life, perception and
even introspection (Reinhold, 2002).
This paper discusses forms of
generation gap revealed in the selected
short stories of Nick Joaquin.
Joaquin is a historian, journalist,
and writer. Locsin (1991) calls Joaquin
the Filipino Writer. Joaquin is publicly
honored given the rank of National Artist
of the Philippines for literature. He joined
journalism in 1960 from being a fiction
writer. He began to publish reportage in a
literary journalistic style under the name
de Manila.
American Literary Classic (2004)
defines short story as a brief fictional prose
narrative, shorter than a novel. It has few
characters with a single effect in only one
important episodes or scenarios. It deals
with minority of characters: a brief work
of fiction or an ingenious prose narrative
as brief than a novel and aims a unified
effect concentrating on the creation mood
than plot. A short story is a fiction, and
fiction is a prose writing about imagined
events and characters. Prose writing is
different from poetry because it does not
depend on verses, meters or rhymes for its
association and presentation. Shaw (1983)
explicates the short story as a freestanding
yet out crossed category connecting other
art forms. Novels are another example of
fictional prose and are in full-length than
short stories. Other short stories are quite
longer; it is already called novella if it has
fifty to one hundred pages.
22 |
Specifically, conflict as triggered by
generation gap is the primary focus of this
paper which is revealed in the selected
short stories of Nick Joaquin. Conflict on
generation gap describes the difference
between young generation and the elders
that was themed in the selected short
stories of Joaquin. Further, generation
gap conflict occurs when older and young
people misunderstand each other because
of varied exposures that tend to different
views, manners and behavior. Generation
gap is considered by Agarwal and Vaghela
(2018) as a serious problem observed
in youth and their elders due to various
factors. Basically, it occurs more between
children and parents. The gap between
grandparents and grandchildren is widely
observed, particulalry when associated
with problematic behavior.
Additionally, the selected short stories
of Joaquin are examined using Mannheim’s
theory of generation in sociology (McCourt,
2012). Mannheim’s theory postulates the
differences across generations, particularly
in the transition of youth into adulthood.
This theory is also supported by Margaret
Mead who explained generation gap as
the discrepancy of values, attitudes, or
behaviors between members of an older
generation and a younger generation.
At the societal level, there is parent-
child disharmony estranging each other
(Psychology Research and Reference,
2020).
In this examination, the conflicts on
generation gap on the selected short stories
of Nick Joaquin are discussed wherein the
characters are faced with complications
Generation Gap Conflict in the Selected Short Stories....
and struggles.1 Specifically, it sought to
analyze the selected stories to evaluate
its literary and story elements. Hence, this
study focused on two concerns: How is the
conflict of generation gap revealed in the
selected short stories of Nick Joaquin?,
and How does generation gap conflict
develop the theme in the selected stories
of Nick Joaquin?
METHODS
Qualitative design was used because
the examination was aimed at gaining a
deep understanding of specific stories in
literature through a firsthand reading which
provides a better meaning in literature and
its influences in culture, in Filipino values,
and in Philippine economic context.
In this paper, the textual analysis of
the stories was presented by examining
a literary work regardless of generally
established terms such as the name of
the author, the author’s background, or
any biographical context. Thus, the short
stories Mayday Eve, After the Picnic,
and the Three Generations authored by
Nick Joaquin were analyzed. Moreover, a
formalist approach was utilized wherein
the primary goal is to deliberate how
elements work together with its content
to shape its effects upon reading. The
elements of short stories such as plot,
setting, character, point of view, and theme
were considered in the analysis.
Further, the complications used in the
1 This paper gained so much from Dr Geldon L Inte, the ad-
viser; and the review of Dr Jospehine O Oted.
Convergence Journal 2018
short stories and how these complications
were depicted in each story were analyzed
and identified by the use of the Theory of
generations or sociology of generations
by Karl Mannheim. Ideas of the conflict
on generation gap among the different
characters of the selected stories were
shaped. The identified conflicts such as
Man vs. Man, Man vs. Circumstances,
Man vs. Himself were considered in the
discussion on how it is projected in the
story.
Finally, the selected short stories of
Nicomedes “Nick” Joaquin were analyzed
to come up with an analytical type of
research. Mayday Eve, After the Picnic,
and the Three Generations are the stories
considered because these stories revealed
about the conflict on the generation gap
which was the focus of the study.
CONFLICT OF GENERATION GAP
UK Essays (2018 in Newman 1997)
states that generation gap is an unavoidable
obstacle in communications between the
youth and the elders. The lack of consistent
connection between the youth and their
elders causes misunderstandings and
misperceptions. The following presents
the analysis of the generation gap conflict
evident in the selected short stories of
Nick Joaquin, namely: “Three Generation”,
“After the Picnic,” and “May day Eve”.
THREE GENERATIONS
In this story, there are three major
characters: the grandfather, the father
| 23
Celo, and the son Chitong. The major
conflict evident in the story is Man vs.
Man. Foote and Perkins (1989) pointed
out that in Man vs. Man conflict, the main
character struggles with his physical
strength against other character. There is
a conflict of generation gap between the
grandfather and the son. Later on, there
was a conflict between the main character
named Celo and his father, then Celo’s
son named Chitong against Celo. The first
conflict was depicted when the grandson
Chitong decided to enter priesthood while
his father wanted him to be a lawyer. The
second conflict was when Celo reflected
the unhappiness he experienced during
his childhood when he and his mother had
been beaten and abused by his father. It
was during the pre-Spanish period that
men ruled their houses and patrimony
ruled over anything.
His own youth had been very
unhappy, ….He could not remember
that any of his brothers had found
the system particularly oppressive.”
The story revealed that the role of
women is to take care of men’s needs
and their children. The sick father acted
wild when his latest woman was driven
away by Celo. Thus, the setting of this
story exposed that having concubines is
acceptable because Celo’s wife, Sofia,
convinced him of allowing the old man’s
girl to be back.
As the story unfolds, the same event
happened no matter how the father tried
to avoid it, but the same conflict he had
with his father was repeated with his son. A
24 |
conflict between Celo and his son Chitong
arises because aside from being dictated
of what he wants, Celo for the first time
hit his son because the son wanted to
bring back the mistress of his grandfather
which his father Celo hated the most. The
very thing Celo hated his father for having
bad temper; he had it within himself. He
manifested it in his argument with the son
Chitong. No matter how hard he tried not
to be like his father, he became his father
in the end. That is how generation gap
revealed in the story.
AFTER THE PICNIC
This story presents a Man vs. Man
(physical) conflict. This is because
the struggle of the leading character
was physical strength against another
character. It is because the characters
in the story fought over each other’s
principles and beliefs in life.
The conflict on generation gap was
revealed when each character argued
about and showcased the traditional
versus the non-traditional way of how a
man and a woman should be treated in a
relationship. The characters manifested
their own principles and each of them
stood firm to their beliefs.
Dr. Chavez together with his daughter,
Fe Chavez, was traditional in keeping
the practice on how a man and woman
should be treated and should behave in
a relationship. Wwhile young Pepe Valero
and Profesora Chedeng Dacanay believed
otherwise.
Generation Gap Conflict in the Selected Short Stories....
The 60 year old Dr. Manuel Chavez,
was the father of Fe Chavez. The doctor
categorized women in such a way because,
according to him, women have certain
roles to play in a particular relationship. He
was insistent in his own beliefs as to how
a woman should behave as a wife. In the
story, he said;
“Once married, they became a part
of their men. They suffered when we
suffered, they could be happy only
when we were happy. She could
have no feelings separate from his.”
The story has the character of Pepe
Valero, a young man who fell in love with
the doctor’s daughter. Chedeng Dacanay,
a 30 year old woman and the piano teacher
of Dr. Chavez’s daughter, disagreed to the
old doctor’s point of view. Pepe Valero said
that the doctor lived in one world, and they
were living in another, and that a system
that worked in his world will no longer
work in theirs. Pepe Valero states that:
“The reason, Doctor, is that woman
have become human beings, too—
not just another piece of male
property—not just something to be
whipped into line, like a horse, when
disobedient.”
Chedeng Dacanay also disagreed with
the doctor’s principles. Chedeng believed
that women who are submissive to their
men were nothing but poor, blind and
unhappy. To her, she will never look up to a
man, and she stated that;
Convergence Journal 2018
“I refuse to let him rule any of it at
all. I will not make myself the mere
mimicking shadow of the most
perfect man in the world.”
The conflict about generation gap
is evident in this story because the
characters believed in the principles they
have in their life, and the characters stood
firm and no one wanted to back down.
They fought over the traditional way in
which the character of Dr. Chavez and Fe
Chavez believed. They believed that the
man should rule over the house, and he
should be the one who will dominate the
family versus the non-traditional way in
which Chedeng Dacanay and young Pepe
Valero was in favor of. They believed that
a woman is equal to man, and that what a
man can do, woman also can.
The characters are struggling because
they go against with each other’s own
ideas, beliefs and practices.
MAYDAY EVE
May Day Eve of Nick Joaquin depicted
four generations, namely, Old Anastasia’s
generation, young Agueda and young
Badoy’s generation, their daughter’s
generations, and their daughter’s son’s
generation.
This story presents Man vs. Man
(physical) type of conflict wherein the
leading character struggles with his
physical strength against other person
(Sinodlay et al., 2013). Apparently, the
conflict of generation gap revealed as
Man vs. Man when Agueda bit the hand of
| 25
Badoy Muntiya down the sala one Mayday
eve.
The superstitious belief on “you will
see something evil on the mirror,” linked
that generation gap. There is conflict
because the younger ones do not believe
in superstitions. That is why the older
ones cloak it in certain mysterious way -
a magical effect to frighten the younger
ones. It is evident that the conflict of
generation gap was revealed in the story
through the willfulness of the young ones
against the older ones. It means that
the younger generation does not follow
the advice of the old folks. As what was
depicted in the story, Agueda as a young
woman did not follow the warning of Old
Anastasia.
When Doña Agueda became old, she
warned her daughter about it, but her
daughter did not listen.
On the other hand, Don Badoy’s
grandson, Voltaire, was also warned, but
despite the warning, still he did not follow.
This was the cycle, and it goes on from
the older generation, to their daughter’s
generation, and down to their grandson’s
generation. The older folks give advice for
the good things of the young ones, but
the young ones did not follow it because
they think they have nothing to lose.
The ideas of the older generation run in
contrast against the younger generation,
old beliefs vs. new beliefs, old activities vs.
new traditions which caused generation
gap.
26 |
The type of conflict apparent to
the three selected short stories of Nick
Joaquin was Man vs. Man. It is the conflict
between two or more persons. The Three
Generations characters are Celo versus
his father and Celo against his own son. In
the story After the Picnic, the characters
Chedeng Dacanay versus the Dr. Manuel
Chavez fought over their beliefs and
principles in life. The Mayday Eve story
was about the characters of Doña Agueda
and Don Badoy Muntiya who had a clash
with each other on one mayday eve.
HOW GENERATION GAP CONFLICT
DEVELOPS THE THEME
Conflicts develop the theme by further
giving emphasis to the factors that may
cause discrepancies between generations
such as technological innovations, religion,
culture, fashion, communication, career,
attitude, and sex. These aspects cause
people to change in different ways such as
change in human opinion of what is right
and generally acceptable or change in
making distinction between good and bad.
The same as the first problem, three
of Nick Joaquin’s short stories have been
analyzed. These are “Three Generations”,
“After the Picnic”, and “May day Eve”. The
researchers analyzed how the generation
gap conflict developed the theme in the
selected stories.
THREE GENERATIONS
The story “Three Generations” focuses
its theme on sexuality, tradition and
inheritance.
Generation Gap Conflict in the Selected Short Stories....
The theme on sexuality was developed
when patrimony ruled over anything.
The theme on tradition occurred when
there was inequality between mean and
women, where women were expected to
give pleasure to men and to look after the
family’s domestic needs. During Celo’s
time and even to his father’s time, women
were just second to men and neglected to
have the power. The concept of men was
having more than one woman, and the
woman having one man only was a proof
that inequality is evident in the story. Also,
the story presented a typical Hispanic
oriented family wherein the father is the
head and has the final say of all the things
that will happen in the family. Further,
inheritance was identified as a theme of
the selection, where history repeats itself
was manifested through grandfather’s
action to the father and eventually of the
father to the grandson.
AFTER THE PICNIC
The theme of this short story was the
kind of upbringing they had that caused
them to stand firm of their principles. The
character, Dr. Chavez, is a very stiff person
because he was an army and had practiced
the military discipline even in his old age.
He did not really regard the younger
generation as his equal because for him,
the young man of the new generation was
not like the man he was. Another character,
Fe Chavez, grew up with her father. Her
mother died 10 years ago. She witnessed
how her mother submitted to her father,
and because of her father’s very strict
upbringing, Fe was boxed by the ways and
Convergence Journal 2018
principles of her father. Because of the
old ways that her father believed, Fe did
not really have the freedom to do her own
thing.
Chedeng Dacanay is another character
who was the only daughter in a family of
cultured but consisted of ineffectual males.
Her father and brothers did nothing at all
and she was the only one who supported
them even if she hated them. Though part
of her crave for tenderness, her attitude
on being a woman who is independent,
hard and cynical had matter more to her
over anything.
MAYDAY EVE
The theme that is apparent in the
selection was hatred. There was a silent
hatred between the husband and wife,
Don Badoy and Agueda, which actually
divided them. It was manifested through
their words, though on the other hand, the
daughter of Doña Agueda and Don Badoy
including the grandson Voltaire did not
know about it. Only the reader is aware that
they both have a conflict. The characters,
other than the couple, are not aware that
they had that conflict between themselves.
There is a relational conflict between the
husband and wife, Doña Agueda and Don
Badoy, because of hatred.
Hatred is evident through their thoughts
and words. Just like what Agueda’s
conversation with her daughter, “I saw the
devil that is why good little girls do not look
into mirrors except their mothers tell them.
You must stop this naughty habit, darling, of
admiring yourself in the mirror you pass- or
| 27
you may see something frightful one day.”
“But the devil Mama, what did he look like?”
“Well, let me see... he has curly hair and a
scar on his cheek” “Like the scar of Papa?”
“Well yes, but this of the devil was a scar
of sin, while that of your Papa is a scar of
honor.” Through this conversation, we can
see that Agueda is referring Don Badoy
as the devil. With Don Badoy’s encounter
with his grandson Voltaire, he told Voltaire
that he saw a witch in the mirror which
also at the back of his mind, refers to
Agueda. This was the words Voltaire told
Don Badoy, “Well, you saw this witch in
it, and Mama once told me that Grandma
once told her that Granda once saw the
devil in this mirror.”
The ones who are not happy with each
other are Agueda and Don Badoy. As what
was the warning told by the old folks “Do
not look into the mirror because you might
see evil”, Agueda and Don Badoy did and
saw each other. And so, they described
each other as the devil and the witch.
To sum up, there were different themes
evident in the stories. The story, Three
Generations developed three themes
in relation to the conflict on generation
gap, namely: sexuality, traditions and
inheritance. The story After the Picnic
showed the theme on upbringing. The same
with the first story (Three Generations), it
also talks about traditions. Apparently, the
story Mayday Eve depicted hatred as the
theme.
The study of Reddy (1983) revealed
that rural and urban adult groups had
significantly more authoritarian attitudes
28 |
than rural and urban youth groups. Since
no significant differences were found
between age groups in metropolitan
areas, it is suggested that age difference
is not the only contributing factor and
that exposure to different environmental
conditions narrows the gap in attitudes
toward authoritarianism between the
groups.
CONCLUSION
This examination of the selected
short stories of Nick Joaquin concludes
that situations of conflict resulting
from generation gap arises because of
differences in culture, beliefs and traditions,
sexuality, inheritance, and attitude, among
others. Moreover, man versus man conflict
is dominant in Nick Joaquin’s stories.
Cultural differences exhibited by the main
character with other characters causes
this conflict. Conflict is evident in the story
with Nick Joaquin’s use of hurtful words to
show the presence of conflict. However,
conflict is also presented in such a way
that not one of the characters is blamed.
Nick Joaquin is a master to this, playfully
and clearly projecting the agency of every
character and where this agency comes
from, such as in particular the generation
he belongs to.
Finally, there are other forms of conflict
evident in the stories of Nick Joaquin but,
so far, the examination focused only on
generation gap conflict.
Generation Gap Conflict in the Selected Short Stories....
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