Filipino People and Alfredo Salazar free essay sample

Bienvenido Santos (In which I display my mediocrity. The author, Mr. Santos, was asked to speak before an audience in Kalamazoo, MI one October when the war was still on. On the same night he met another Filipino – Celestino Fabia, a farmer. Mr. Santos was surprised to see a man who travelled really long just to hear him talk. In the course of the discussion, the man asked, in sporadically incorrect English, how the Filipino women of today were different from the stereotype he was familiar with. Mr. Santos replied that although they differ in the exterior, both women of different eras bear the heart and soul of a modest Filipina. Mr. Fabia was pleased. After the lecture, Mr. Fabia told Mr. Santos about his farm and his family and invited him over to his house, repeatedly saying that his wife, Ruth, will be pleased to meet â€Å"a first class Filipino†. We will write a custom essay sample on Filipino People and Alfredo Salazar or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He also told him about his son, Roger, with pride. Mr. Fabia picked Mr. Santos up the next day and during the course of what seemed to be an endless journey to the distant farm, Mr. Santos became aware of Mr. Fabia’s life in the Philippines. He was a spoiled brat and the black sheep of the family. He lived in an old Visayan town where there are no apples. But there are coconut trees and roosters cooing early in the morning, and there was his family. They finally arrived in the farm, the fragrance of apples diffusing all over the place. Mr. Santos noticed how Ruth’s hospitality and kind-heartedness was almost Filipino and how adorable Roger really was. In their humble home, he also found a picture of an anonymous Filipina wearing a traditional costume – another manifestation of how dire Mr. Fabia’s nostalgia is. He bade farewell to the family and Mr. Fabia took him back to the hotel. He offered to send news to his family when he got back to the Philippines but Mr. Fabia refused, saying that they might have already forgotten him. They shook each other’s hand and said goodbye. - The scent of apples in the story  The Scent of Apples  refers to the low paying ype of jobs that Filipinos had to take when they came to America. Picking fruit was one type of job; therefore, the literal scent of apples indicates the profession of the worker who spends all his time in the orchard picking apples Alfredo Salazar son of Don Julian, a more than 30 years old man and a bachelor. He is engaged to Esperanza but him still fleeting to Julia Salas Esperanza wife of Alfredo Salazar. She is a homely woman, literal minded and int ensely acquisitive. She is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty Julia Salas sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. She is the other girl of Alfredo Salazar that remains single in her entire life Don Julian an old man, a father of Alfredo Salazar and Carmen. lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;\ Carmen sister of Alfredo Salas Judge Del Valle brother-in-law of Julia Salas Donna Adella sister of Julia Salas. She is small and plump, a pretty woman with a complexion of a baby with a expression of a likeable cow Calixta note-carrier of Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza Dionisio husband of Donna Adella. Vicente husband of Carmen Brigida Samuy She is the illusive woman whose Alfredo is looking for. Paz Marquez-Benitez, in her masterpiece Dead Stars, did not only write about a love story. Most importantly, her writing reflects the time in which the literary work was written along with the language, the norms and the way people think. It serves as a literary time machine for readers as it enables them to understand how courtship, marriage and fidelity were viewed through the early 1900 standards. It renders a sound comparison between the past and the present, the existing modern culture and the fading, almost obsolete tradition. Although the comparison and contrast provides a good critical foundation, another highly significant aspect of this short story involves the main character, Alfredo Salazar, which, always applies to whatever era, hence the focus of this paper. His confusion, weakness and unreasonableness are innate flaws of humans. Perhaps one of the many reasons why this work is timeless is that readers never fail to see a part of them in Alfredo Salazar’s character, making the