Sunday, July 5, 2009

PERSONAL REACTION ON THE SHORT STORY
DEAD STAR:


(by: Jessica Mae C. Eva BSA - 2b)


When I first heard of the title Dead Star, I thought it was all about something in connection with the field or study of Astronomy. But, I was wrong. Instead, it was all about "LOVE". According to some, it is a short story only so I was very eager to really read it because I thought it was only short but when I saw how many pages it occupies on the book, plus the very small font size of the texts, the short story turned to into a long one. But, nevertheless, I read it still. In my first reading, I was not able to really understand it very well because of some words used by Paz Marquez - Benitez which are unfamiliar to me like filigrees, prosaicalness, capitulation and sober. But when I read it again for the second time, I was able to understand it already with the aid of the dictionary. The "short story" Dead Star is all about the forbidden love between an engaged, groom - to - be man which I can say belong to the upper class of the society and a lady who was just in town for a vacation. I liked the story because it was all about love, forbidden love specifically which I could relate, not with my personal experience but with those that I oftenly watched on television or I can say even in reality. Both the lovers, even if they did not turn to be real lovers, have experienced love at first sight. I said did not turn into real lovers because they were not able to let each one feel and show what really their feelings for each other. I really like things like this, love at first sight, direct to the point. The guy really pursue to show and express his love for the girl he had only meet 6 weeks ago even if he knew that he is hurting another woman in the name of Esperanza.In the case of the character, I do not like the character of Julia in the sense that she even do not have the courage to express her feeling, her love for Alfredo. She did not have the perseverance to return the love that Alfredo give to her. But in some way, I like her because she did not become a destroyer of the relationship already binded even only by agreement. She chose not to create a mistake of destroying another woman by deciding to just live the town and go back and live with her parents. Alfredo, in some way, is correct and in the other way is wrong. Correct, for me ,because he only followed what his heart is saying and that is love Julia because he found a different happiness with her especially when he is besides Julia. Wrong, because he was untruthful with another woman who believed that he do not have any other woman except for her. If I were Alfredo, I will just tell Esperanza what I really feel for her, that he already love another woman and he did not want to hurt her and why they will just be friend. But he did not have the courage to really confess to Esperanza because he was worried of what the society might said. When I came to the part of my reading where Alfredo was already doing "neighboring" with another woman, I felt sad for Esperanza because she was living in the untruthfulness of the man she love, the man she believed still love her. Esperanza tried to remember the regenerative virtue of institution, that Alfredo who belongs to a high - class family of the society would not do it to her. In the end, they two chose to cross different paths of life. Julia returned with her parents and Alfredo got married with Esperanza. Also after years of being married with Esperanza, he was still thinking of Julia and when they faced each other again, Alfredo realized that the Julia he met in the past was already vanished and that the "Magical Love" he felt during those happy moments with Julia were no longer there. So he just let Julia and realized that they were not destined for each other, that there love for each other was already dead.The setting of the story was beautiful. It was during the American period because the story was wrote during the year 1920. It featured what is the setting of the Philippine society during that period when the Americans were still here.Paz Marquez - Benitez was really a great writer. She deserved to be a Carlos Palanca Memorial Awardee for this great writing. Philippine Literature in English should be made known to every Filipino because it really features our culture, values and traditions.

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