Literary Reading

through
Sociocultural
Context
Objectives
To be able to What did N.V.M.
identify and Gonzales write about
examine the mostly?
sociocultural How did they
context in the present Filipino in their
works of two works?
major writers.
 N. V. M.
Gonzales
(1915-1999)
N. V. M. Gonzales In 1950, he returned to
became a Rockefeller the country and began his
Foundation fellow in teaching career. Then he
1948 and attended went back to California
Stanford University in in the 1960s to teach and
California and stayed there until 1983.
Columbia University Despite those travels,
though, he never gave up
in New York City.
his citizenship.
Throughout his The Bread of Salt and
teaching career, he Other Stories (1993).
produced fourteen He received many
books, including the awards for his
short story collections achievements
Children of the Ash- including the National
Covered Loam (1954) Artist of Literature in
and 1997.
 “The Tomato Game”
“The Tomato Game” is In the letter, he tells about a
written in an epistolary colleague named Sophio
style. The narrator, a Arimuhanan, whom
lecturer at a university he refers to as Sopi, and his
called Transpacifica modus operandi. Sopi calls
University in the US, is himself “Importer-Exporter
writing to a man of Brides,” that is, he make
named Greg.
 At first the narrator
arrangements for
thought they were going
people who wanted to
to watch a cockfight, but
get married. He is
he soon found out that
called “Attorney,” but
they were meeting an
he is not legally
old man whom Sopi
allowed to practice
referred to as “Lolo.”
law. One Sunday in
This old man was
the summertime, the
arranged by Sopi to
narrator and Sopi went
marry a young Filipina
to a tomato farm.
named Alice.
In their arrangement, Hearing about the
the old man would arrangement made the
take Alice as his narrator angry. Later
wife and some on, when the narrator
young man named realized his role in
Tony as his nephew. Sopi’s scheme, he felt
Then the old man terrible. As hinted by
would send Tony to Sopi, he would need
school. the narrator’s help as
he was a lecturer at the farm. Sopi said, “To
Transpacifica. The old think that old man
man had already paid hasn’t even met the
eight hundred dollars boy.”
for Tony’s tuition in
advance. Towards the
end of the letter, the
narrator tells Greg what
Sopi said to him when
they left
In 1972, the short In 1993, the short
story “The story was
Tomato Game” published along
won the first prize with other works
in the Carlos in the collection
Palanca Memorial The Bread of Salt
Awards for and Other Stories.
Literature.
 Explanation
Gonzales presented One is a lecturer who
different facets of the regrets to be part of a
Filipino immigrant scheme that deceives an
experience. In “The unsuspecting old man,
Tomato Game,” while another, an
Gonzales portrayed unlicensed lawyer,
Filipinos trying to deceives people for a
make it in the US. living.
The social
It includes the culture
environment, social
that the individual
context, socio-
was educated or lives
cultural or milieu
in, and the people
refers to the
and institutions with
immediate physical
whom they interact.
and social setting in
which people live or
in which something
happens or develops
 Chinua
Achebe
(1930-2013)
He is a prominent Igbo
novelist acclaimed for his
unsentimental depictions
of the social and
psychological
disorientation
accompanying the
imposition of Western
customs and values upon
traditional African society.
His particular concern
was with the emergent
Africa at its movement
of crisis. His works
include: Things Fall
Apart, Arrow of God,
No Longer at Ease, A
Man of the People,
Anthills of Savanah.
(1930)
Things Fall Apart by once a respected
Chinua Achebe depicts chieftain who loses his
a vivid picture of Africa leadership and falls
before the colonization from grace after the
by the British people. coming of the whites.
The novel laments over Cultural values are
the disintegration of woven around the plot
Nigerian society, to mark its authenticity:
represented in the story polygamy since the
by Ok-wonko, character is Muslim;
tribal law is held
supreme by the community life is
gwugwu, respected shown in drinking
elders in the sprees, funeral wakes,
community; a man’s and sports festivals.
social status is
determined by the
people’s esteem and
by possession of fields
of yams and physical
prowess;
 Explanation
Achebe in Things Fall assertions of some
Apart focuses on post- uninformed European
colonial and Philosophers on
sociocultural Africans and the black
perspectives who is continent. The novel
writing back from an also examines the
empire to debunk the theme of clash of
ignorant and cultures, the
discriminatory
Cultural practices and African countries
solidarity of the Igbo confronted by
people before and problems of clash of
during the obnoxious cultures and socio-
colonial rule. cultural development.

The Ibo/Igbo In the novel, the

(Nigerian) society African people lived in
represented in the peace and harmony
novel represents and were
well organized before Key Words
the arrival of the
colonial masters, and it Influences
was their arrival that Clash of cultures
brought about Duties and
confusion and disarray responsibilities of
to their community. Achebe as a socially
and culturally
committed writer
Society and Key Point
culture strongly
Context is the
influence a
background of the
writer’s work. To
text which may have
understand the text
been influenced by
better then,
the author’s life,
identify its
language, society, and
sociocultural
culture.
context.