In the World so Cruel, There’s a Devil that Rules
In the World so Cruel, There’s a Devil that Rules.
An Analysis of a 21st Century Philippine Literature entitled
Lengua Para Diablo (The Devil Ate My Words)
by Merlinda Bobis
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the subject of
21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World
INTRODUCTION
The short story “Lengua para Diablo” is all about the unfortunate events that happened to a father who recently lost his job, and a family who lives in poverty. The features real life situation that may happen to a person who loss a job. The story numerous things about poverty and unemployment that the Philippines were facing. “The Hardest Work In The World is Being out of Work”.
Lengua Para Diablo means “The Devil Ate My Words.” “Lengua is a Spanish word meaning “tounge,” which in the story, symbolizes the words eaten by the devil. Lengua (Beef tongue) is also a dish made of cow’s tongue. Lengua is often seasoned with onion and other spices, and then placed in a pot to boil.
Have you eaten Lengua? Would you like to try it or eat it agian? Why or why not?
BACKGROUND
Authorial information:
l Author:
Ø Merlinda Bobis
l Region and Province:
Ø Legazpi City, in the Philippines province of Albay
l Educational background:
Ø Bicol University High School then completed her B.A in Aquinas University in Legazpi City.
l Awards :
Ø Australian Classical Music Award for Best Vocal/Choral Work of the Year for Daragang Magayon Cantata (2007)
Ø Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas (National Balagtas Award: a lifetime award for author's poetry and prose in English, Pilipino, Bikol) from the Unyon ng Manunulat ng Pilipinas (Union of Philippine Writers) (2006)
Ø Gintong Aklat Award (Golden Book Award: Philippine publishers' award) for Banana Heart Summer (2006)
Ø Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for Banana Heart Summer (2006)
Ø Nomination: Best in Foreign Language in Fiction from the Manila Critics' Circle for Banana Heart Summer (2006)
Ø Judges' Choice Award, Bumbershoot Bookfair, Seattle Arts Festival for The Kissing (collection of short stories published as White Turtle in Australia and the Philippines) (2001)
Ø Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award (for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, joint winner) for White Turtle (2000)
Ø Philippine National Book Award for Fiction (Joint winner) from the Manila Critics' Circle for White Turtle (2000)
Ø NSW Ministry for the Arts Writers' Fellowship for novel in progress, Fish-Hair Woman (2000)
Ø Canberra Writing Fellowship jointly from the Australian National University, the University of Canberra, and the Australian Defence Force Academy (2000)
Ø Prix Italia (international award) for Rita's Lullaby (radio play) (1998)
Ø Australian Writers' Guild Award (AWGIE) for Rita's Lullaby (1998)
Ø Pamana Philippine Presidential Award for achievement in the arts (for Filipino expatriates) (1998)
Ø Shortlist: The Age Poetry Book of the Year Award for Summer Was a Fast Train Without Terminals (collection of poems) (1998)
Ø Winner, Out of the Ashes Trans-Tasman Short Story Competition for White Turtle (short story) (1998)
Ø Commended: National Short Story Competition, Society of Women Writers for The Sadness Collector (short story) (1998)
l List of Works and Year Published:
Poetry:
Ø Rituals: Selected poems, 1985-1990. (1990)
Ø Summer was a Fast Train without Terminals. (Melbourne: Spinifex, 1998)
Ø Usaping ina at anak
Short stories:
Ø White Turtle. (Melbourne: Spinifex, 1999) ISBN 1-875559-89-2 review
Ø The Kissing (Aunt Lute, 2001) ISBN 1-879960-60-5 [US reissue of White Turtle] review
Novels:
Ø Banana Heart Summer (Murdoch Books, 2005) ISBN 1-74045-590-8
Ø The Solemn Lantern Maker (Sydney: Murdoch Books, 2008) Fish-hair
Ø Woman (North Melbourne: Spinifex, 2011)
Ø Locust Girl: A Lovesong (North Melbourne: Spinifex, 2015)
l Beliefs:
Ø She believed 'painting with words' was cheaper.
Textual information:
Ø Banana Heart Summer (Murdoch Books, 2005) ( Random USA, 2009) (Anvil Manila, 2005) .
Ø Lengua Para Diablo is an excerpt from the book “Banana Heart Summer”.
Ø Banana Heart Summer was written by Merlinda Bobis.
Merlinda Bobis
COPY OF THE LITERARY TEXT
Lengua Para Diablo (The Devil Ate My Words)
I suspected that my father sold his tongue to the devil. He had little said in our house. Whenever he felt like disagreeing with my mother, he murmured, ‘The devil ate my words.’ This meant he forgot what he was about to say and Mother was often appeased. There was more need for appeasement after he lost his job.
The devil ate his words, the devil ate his capacity for words, the devil ate his tongue. But perhaps only after prior negotiation with its owner, what with Mother always complaining, ‘I’m already taking a peek at hell!’ when it got too hot and stuffy in our tiny house. She seemed to sweat more that summer, and miserably. She made it sound like Father’s fault, so he cajoled her with kisses and promises of an electric fan, bigger windows, a bigger house, but she pushed him away, saying, ‘Get off me, I’m hot, ay, this hellish life!’ Again, he was ready to pledge relief, but something in my mother’s eyes made him mutter only the usual excuse, ‘The devil ate my words,’ before he shut his mouth. Then he ran to the tap to get her more water.
Lengua para diablo: tongue for the devil. Surely, he sold his tongue in exchange for those promises to my mother: comfort, a full stomach, life without our wretched want . . . But the devil never delivered his side of the bargain. The devil was alien to want. He lived in a Spanish house and owned several stores in the city. This Spanish mestizo was my father’s employer, but only for a very short while. He sacked him and our neighbor Tiyo Anding, also a mason, after he found a cheaper hand for the extension of his house.
We never knew the devil’s name. Father was incapable of speaking it, more so after he came home and sat in the darkest corner of the house, and stared at his hands. It took him two days of silent staring before he told my mother about his fate.
I wondered how the devil ate my father’s tongue. Perhaps he cooked it in mushroom sauce, in that special Spanish way that they do ox tongue. First, it was scrupulously cleaned, rubbed with salt and vinegar, blanched in boiling water, then scraped of its white coating — now, imagine words scraped off the tongue, and even taste, our capacity for pleasure. In all those two days of silent staring, Father hardly ate. He said he had lost his taste for food; he was not hungry. Junior and Nilo were more than happy to demolish his share of gruel with fish sauce.
Now after the thorough clean, the tongue was pricked with a fork to allow the flavors of all the spices and condiments to penetrate the flesh. Then it was browned in olive oil. How I wished we could prick my father’s tongue back to speech and even hunger, but of course we couldn’t, because it had disappeared. It had been served on the devil’s platter with garlic, onion, tomatoes, bay leaf, clove, peppercorns, soy sauce, even sherry, butter, and grated edam cheese, with that aroma of something rich and foreign. His silent tongue was already luxuriating in a multitude of essences, pampered into a piquant delight.
Perhaps, next he should sell his esophagus, then his stomach. I would if I had the chance to be that pampered. To know for once what I would never taste. I would be soaked, steamed, sautéed, basted, baked, boiled, fried and feted with only the perfect seasonings. I would become an epicure. On a rich man’s plate, I would be initiated to flavors of only the finest quality. In his stomach, I would be inducted to secrets. I would be ‘the inside girl’, and I could tell you the true nature of sated affluence
ANALYSIS
A. Literary Genre
Ø Realistic Fiction
Realistic fiction is a genre consisting of stories that could have actually occurred to people in a believable setting. These stories resemble real life, and fictional characters within these stories react similarly to real people. Stories that are classified as realistic fiction have plots that highlight social or personal events or issues that mirror contemporary life, such as falling in love, marriage, finding a job, divorce, alcoholism, etc. It usually depicts ordinary people going about the business of daily living, with all its joys, sorrow, successes, and failures. A story that seems real but isn’t real.
The short story “Lengua para Diablo” is indeed written in a realistic fiction genre, because the story is about real-life occurrences, just like the poverty and unemployment that the Filipino’s were facing. The story shows how unemployment and poverty greatly affect the situation of the family, particularly if the father is the unemployed one. We can say that this is a real issue that happens in real life, but due to the heavy usage of fictionally based figurative language like “The devil ate my words” that is why we can hypothesize the literary as realistic fiction that seems real but isn’t real. The devil is an imaginary creature or a supernatural element that we cannot see, so it is impossible that the devil has eaten his tongue and his capacity for words.
B. Analysis Guides
l Reader Response
This is our first time reading a short story written uniquely, uses different techniques, and uses figurative language deliberately. I like the story, I like every context it's trying to deliver, the story is very likable if you really understand every little detail of it. The second time reading the story really affects my understanding of the story, it really brings out a hidden image that the story tries to convey. Often some text can be really hard to fully comprehend but sometimes you just have to read it multiple times to really understand what the text is trying to deliver.
l Plot and Structure
The main occurrence of the story was the father's sorrowful days and demoralization after he lost his job. The main conflict of the story was the loss of the father's job causing him to not speak about it for 2 days. Eventually he tells his wife about his fate.
l Setting
The story takes places in somewhere in the Philippines, that is affected by poverty.We can say this because Poverty in the Philippines has persisted for almost three decades even as Malaysia and Thailand which had similar economies to the Philippines in
the 1960s, have almost eradicated it. The World Bank saw the poverty rate in the Philippines further declining to 19.8 percent in 2020. The author correlates numerous of events that happened or may happen about real-life occurrences. These real-life events are unemployment in
our country and the high rate of people living poverty. Unemployment rate in July 2020 was estimated at 10.0 percent. This is higher than the unemployment rate of the same month a year ago placed at 5.4 percent, but lower than the record high 17.7 percent during April 2020.
l Tone
The creator utilizes a serious tone in the story, we can say that since Poverty and the high unemployment rate in the Philippines are actual issues that the nation's is facing at this moment. The serious tone affects the mood and the atmosphere of the story. The author shows that these issue is not to be facile about.
l Character
The story mainly focuses on the unfortunate events that happened to the Father. We can say the antagonist was the Spanish mestizo, He is the boss of the father and also the devil in the story he’s the one who took the tongue of the father metaphor for words. The character interacts with each other with anger and sorrow, this indicates the unfortunate circumstances that the main character faces.
l Point of View
The story depicted a point of view of a little girl, she narrates the story’s events and what she witnessed. The girls tells us about how his father lost his dignity and continuously murmured whenever her mother complains about their situation. The author was unbiased through the story since she doesn’t favoriza and remains impartial to the ideas and characters.
l Diction and Style
The author presented the story informally, The sentences are made up of conversational language such as ‘I’m already taking a peek at hell!’, the mother says, she complains about their tiny house being too hot and stuffy. While Merlinda Bobis used ‘I’m already taking a peek at hell!’ in describing the feeling of heated temperature some authors might use “Hotter than a go-cart muffler.”, African heat or desert hear and even “are we getting close to the sun”.
l Images and Symbols
The author uses several figurative and symbolic languages, these uses of languages allow you to see the bigger picture of the text. “The devil ate my words” is one of the examples of figurative language that was used, it means the father forgot what he’s about to say causing him to murmur this phrase. “Lengua” was one of the symbolic words that were used, it’s a beef tongue, whence the story illustrated "Lengua" as the father's ability to speak. Also “Lengua” represents the tongue or language. “Para” represents the words and “Diablo” represents the devil. When put together: "The Devil Ate my Words."; the devil has eaten his capacity for words.
l Theme
The story’s theme was penuriousness and unemployment. We can assure that due to the fact that the story mostly verbalizes about how impecuniosity affects the family and the role that the father have to take. The underlying message of the story was to give us a clear understanding of how deprivation and joblessness might influence an individual.
C. Contextual Analysis
For us Lengua Para Diablo is applicable for Sociocultural context, that tells us about a life of a man during this new society that having a change in the nature of work that women now work for the family and the father is being enclosed in the house for the family just like switching places in between. For us its true today because some father accept the role in the house and the mother is more easily to pick the job for the family. Lengua para diablo is a story behind the different faces of an individual in the Philippine Society. It is about a father whose right is abolished. It highlights the man, who is unemployed and his power to run the family. Considering the characteristics of men from the past up to today, we can conclude that they are not the one who easily let go of their pride. They are being described as strong and hardworking and also defined as the provider. But then in this story, it is the total opposite. Unemployed men were not treated properly and their capability to express themselves is somehow grasp away. Despite rapid economic growth in the Philippines in recent years, unemployment remains a persistent problem for the sprawling Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 million people.
The Philippines faces many issues inside the country in most scenarios' poverty and unemployment. As of 2018, a quarter of the 105 million Philippine population lived in poverty, that is, over 26 million people. This adequate lifestyle causes uncertainties such as illness, homelessness, inadequate nutrition, unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools that adversely impact our nation's children.
SUMMARY
The story "Lengua para Diablo" (The Devil ate my Words) is all about the real-life situation and occurrences of the people who live in poverty and how's one man's decision greatly affects an individual. It’s about a father unemployment resulting him to speak with stutter words and murmured every time he speak. The father can speak as if the devil took his tongue, the lounge as a metaphor for words. And the devil who took his tongue as the Spanish mestizo he used to worked for. This job is substantial to the family since the family in poverty, having a job is enough to provide to a family. It took two miserable days after he spoke about his unfortunate dismissal in his job. In poverty having a job is essential and really the first thing you need to have, but losing a job is not the first thing you really demand. Poverty in the Philippines is major issue in the country causing inadequate nutrition to the people and cashing people to live in unsafe areas therefore if we really want to fix this issue we need to something, somebody needs to action, and even a little and sincere help or deed it may affect someone life.
REFERENCES
Down below are the citations that we used to utilize the veracity of every information that we put and to accomplish an absolute and profound accumulation of the finished paper.
Bobis, Merlinda Banana Heart Summer “Lengua para Diablo” (The Devil ate my Words)(Murdoch Books, 2005) (Random USA, 2009) (Anvil Manila, 2005)
Retrieved from:
https://www.scribd.com/document/354569066/Lengua-Para-Diablo
© 2009 Asian Development BankAverage Gross Domestic Product Growth Rates, 1960–2007Average Gross Domestic Product Growth Rates, 1960–20076 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines
Retrieved from:
(Sgd.) DENNIS S. MAPA, Ph.D Employments situation in July 2020Highlights of the July 2020 Labor Force Surve
Retrieved from:
AnonymousBlogspotThe image of Reality
Retrieved from:
http://jonalpdcritique.blogspot.com/2018/08/lengua-para-diablo.html
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