Banana Heart

Summer
By: Merlinda Bobis
Presented by:
Divine Mujar
Lay Gene Murillo
Monique Noga
 Background of the Author
Merlinda Carullo Bobis

• was born on November 25, 1959.

• A contemporary Filipina-Australian writer and

performer.

• Born in Albay, Merlinda has written and published in

English, Filipino, and Bikol, integrating Philippine and
Australian cultures and experiences with a wider global
vision.

• A multi-awarded author, she has four novels, six poetry

books, a collection of short stories, and nine dramatic
• She attended Bicol University High School then completed her BA at
Aquinas University of Legazpi and her Master of Arts in Literature at
the University of Santo Tomas, Manila.

• She taught English and Literature for 10 years in the Philippines then
did a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong,
where she went on to lecture in creative writing for 21 years.

• She is currently Honorary Senior Lecturer at The Australian National

University.
 Background of the Text
• Merlinda Bobis’ first novel, published in 2004.

• a lyrical narrative of a girl growing up in the Philippines

during an eventful summer for her and the people living on
her street.

• Banana Heart Summer is packed with signs and

metaphors that never fail to arouse the senses.

• The novel was shortlisted for the Australian Literature

Society Gold Medal, nominated and received the Philippine
Golden Book Award.

• It was published in Australia (Murdoch Books), the US

(Bantam, Random), and the Philippines (Anvil), where it
was well reviewed.
 Times and Milieu
• It is the hottest summer of the 1960s, in her small town reeling with the songs
of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, and The Beatles. Banana Heart Summer recalls a
summer in the childhood of Nenita on Remedios Street, in a small Philippines
village with a Catholic church at one end and an active volcano at the other.
These two powerful presences compete for Nenita’s, and the villagers’
attention as they struggle constantly for love, for acceptance and for
nourishment – body and soul.

• “A lot of the issues in the book are the same as those of the Philippines”, says
Bobis.

• “I wanted to write the divide between those who love to love and eat and
those who long to love and eat. And I wanted the book to evoke, for anyone
from any picture, from any culture or any places, tender things: the love of the
mother, the hunger for that love, the hunger for the food”, Bobis said.
SUMMARY
ANALYSIS
"For those who love to love and eat
For those who long to love and eat"
 DIVISION OF BANANA HEART SUMMER NOVEL:

- The Heart of the Matter

- The Spleen of the Matter

- Becoming a Heart

The novel traces Nenita’s coming of age in 50 chapters, each discourse on

a local cuisine.
An excerpt of the first 10 chapters:

Chapter 1: "For those who love to love and eat

For those who long to love and eat"
Chapter 2: Turon: the melody
Chapter 3: Shredded heart in coconut milk
Chapter 4: Tomato lemon carp with hibiscus
Chapter 5: Lengua para Diablo (The devil ate my words)
Chapter 6: Floating faith (palitaw)
Chapter 7: Seaweed salad and the Calcium Man (with pilinut husk on
the side)
Chapter 8: Halo-halo: mix mix
Chapter 9: Not quite mixed (sugar and salt)
Chapter 10: Clear clam soup
 STRUCTURE AND STYLE
Structure refers to the presentation of the story. It is the
manner by which the author presents the chronology of
events.

Style, according to Abrams (1999: 303) “is the manner of

linguistic expression in prose or verse- as how speakers or
writers say whatever it is that they say.”
 STRUCTURE AND STYLE
- to hold her tightly at night, whispering over and over again, I love you
Maring, I love you. Then a baby always arrived from the armpit (p.71)

- which clung to the waist of our father who clung to our mother and
whispered, I love you, I love you, while she kept her face turned away,
breathing precious air from the vent (p.73-74)

- This was a story that he would tell me years later in his weary letters,
which always asked whether I could send the family’s a little bit of help
(p. 202)
 STRUCTURE AND STYLE
- Two guavas, two guavas, she said swallowing a fresh burst of
giggles. I looked up. My cheeks were on fire. Was it a fruit of a
vegetable? Up there, Manolito Chong’s shorts were too shorts indeed.
(p. 122)

- But how can I save that twelve-year-old from these arguments? Of

course I love my own? Even today, it takes great effort to believe myself
(p.131). I could climb any tree at my time (p. 132).

- That summer I was twelve, lihi made sense. Mother vented her spleen
on me because she was pregnant, and she couldn’t help it. Today,
twenty years later, and so far away from home, I understand and I
forgive (p. 103).
 LANGUAGE
The novel is written with the use of English language.
 TONE AND MOOD
“SENSOUS”

“Banana Heart Summer is a sensous, poignant, and quirky feast. Smoky

coconut chicken in green papayas, sticky rice with sweet anise, or spicy
sorrowful peccadillos whet challenge and palate and the heart”,
 SYMBOLISMS

• Banana Heart
• Heart
• Summer
• Food recipes
• Lengua para diablo
• Volcano and Church
 Themes

• The nourishment of body and

soul

• Child Labor and

Child Abuse

• Poverty