THE VISITATION OF THE GODS (Analysis)

By: Gilda Cordero-Fernando

Analysis of the elements

PLOT
The conflict of the story is that visitation as viewed by Ms. Noel is done in a
not so natural manner, that behind this visitation are hidden agendas. The principles of the
school and the teachers particularly Ms. Noel are being risked and compromised just to
have a high evaluation result, but then that’s the way it is all the time. What’s worse is that
both parties knew that everything’s a farce, scripted and planned yet it comes out naturally.

Conflict occurs to be both internal and external. Ms. Noel being a teacher
with her beliefs and principles and being the one who participated in the preparation of the
visitation created a battle between herself and her environment, on what she believes
and how things work around her. These two opposite things created the conflict. How is it
resolved? I think acceptance, accepting that you cannot change things that have been
practiced and done mostly by everyone. You cannot control such acts, instead of worrying
all these things, be the start of change.

The story can be divided into the traditional plot of a story.

Exposition: Arrival of a letter announcing the upcoming visitation of Pugad Lawin School
where Ms. Noel is working.
Rising Action: Preparation for the visitation.
Climax: Defying the purpose of visitation, given a month before, results are usually not
reliable and true as Ms. Noel said.
Falling Action: As for Ms. Noel, accepting that you can’t change and control things the way
you wanted them to become is one way to cope up.
Resolution: Seeing the determination of her students to succeed is one of the things that
motivated Ms. Noel to continue teaching in spite of such issues. Knowing that there’s
more aside from these problems keeps Ms. Noel on tract.

The plot of the story is unified and interrelated. The sequence of the story is not
confusing, the way how it was narrated is comprehensive and you can easily follow and
cope up with the turn of events.

CHARACTERIZATION

The protagonist in the story is Ms. Noel while the antagonists in the story are
the gods as defined in the story. Ms. Noel is an English teacher who did her best to live
up to her ideals and a teacher who devoted herself in teaching- she gets everything
through her hardworks and not from any recommendations or gifts. On the other hand, the
gods in the story refer to the superintendents who made visitations in Pugad Lawin.
They’re known for having that hidden agendas beside visitation and they are characterized
as being unfair in doing evaluations, like what Ms. Noel overheard, she overheard that one
of these ‘Gods’ saying that if Pugad Lawin’s lechons were crispier than other schools and
their pabaon were more lavish, Pugad Lawin would get a higher efficiency rating. It only
tells us that their motives are not aligned with their objectives.

Ms. Noel as a character is the Dynamic or Round type. At first she is

simply just a teacher who participates in the preparation until, she was able to transform
into someone who was toughen by her choices and decisions. While Mr. Sawit as a
character is the Static and Flat type, as he was described as boor like Mr. Sawit in terms of
matters about visitation and the way it is done.

This story is a dramatic type in terms of characterization techniques. It

does not directly describe the characters but simply through the situation or the scenario
of the story readers are able to find out what kind of characters they are, accordingly.

After I read this story, I would consider Ms. Noel as a credible character.
She is credible in such a way that of all teachers who has been teaching in Pugad Lawin and
of all teachers who has been brought up with that kind of set-up, only Ms. Noel got the
courage to take a move and to at least affect change, regardless to the fact that she was
being asked by Mr. Sawit.

SETTING

The setting of the story is in the School of Pugad Lawin itself. The setting was
elaborated of how it was (the school) before the visitation and how it became or changed
after the preparation. It talked about the big changes that had been made and done for the
purpose of visitation.

School (Pugad Lawin) as the setting of the story is not just a mere backdrop;
it’s not just a picture of a school being drawn in a piece of a paper in roleplays. In its true
sense, it makes us see the sides of the story, like defining what school is. It is where we
learn and where we, as individuals are being molded and transformed to be not only
intellectual people but also individuals with character and values. That definition
itself didn’t justify how school in the story was being portrayed, it tells us the other
way around. Just like what was said in the story, “It was ironic that even in education,
you found the highest and the meanest forms of men.” This sets the true motive or aim
of the story, the message it wanted to deliver to the readers.
 The atmosphere of the story is somewhat sad. It’s so sad that we are aware of
the whole thing but we chose to just go with the flow.

POINT OF VIEW

The story is in Third Person Omniscient Point of View and as the story goes
by, conversations of the character have been included but its P.O.V. remained the same.

First thing I noticed about the story is that, the narrator narrates it in a very
detailed manner especially the preparation part. Too detailed that you can imagine how
does it really looks like, like there’s no unimportant thing in the room. As I continue
reading, I found statement of how the narrator reacted on the situation like, “It was ironic
that even in education, you found the highest and the meanest forms of men.” The narrator
commented on the part where temporary teachers had to court in favor of their
supervisors with lavish gives of sweets, etc. for a favorable recommendation.

I think the perspective used is appropriate enough to let us see or visualize

the whole scenario being presented in the story. If it uses first person point of view in favor
of Ms. Noel, I think it would only be limited on her perspective of course and we will not be
able to understand how Pugad Lawin prepared for the visitation which is one of the most
important things in the story.