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The God Stealer by F. Sionil Jose

A. Summary of the story

This story starts with two characters: Philip, an urbanized Ifugao from Baguio and Sam, an American businessman. The story sets place in the Philippines and tackles the difference between rural and urban life. Philip was once resided in the mountains as an Ifugao but then went to Manila to pursue city life as a Catholic.

Both of them go through a journey back to the mountains because Sam wants a god as a souvenir and Philip was to assist him to find an authentic one through his local connections. However, despite his kind gesture to go with Sam – Philip was actually indifferent towards his roots and didn’t have any respect towards the culture of the Ifugaos. It was also likely that he didn’t want to go there in the first place but was left with no choice because he wanted to help Sam. Unlike Sam who was clearly very interested in idols and the Ifugao’s way of living, Philip no longer possesses any kind of affection for the customs that he used to practice before he escaped to the city.

When they got there, Philip’s grandfather was very delighted when he saw his grandson. His grandfather loved him dearly and was so excited that he threw a huge party for his return. However, the two friends weren’t there to celebrate at all – and so they tried to find an Ifugao who would sell a god. Unfortunately, no one wanted to sell their god and they were running out of options. So instead, Philip proposed to steal his grandfather’s god as a last resort. But then, when Philip’s grandfather found out that his god was stolen, he died. Sam searched for Philip only to find him in his grandfather’s house; Philip then tells Sam that he would no longer be going back to the city because he was guilty for his sins.

Now dressed in an Ifugao attire, Philip carves a new god to replace the one that Sam will soon take home to America.

B. Analysis of the story

I personally feel bad for Philip’s lack of gratefulness towards his grandfather and it is something that I have noticed even after his grandfather died. It bothers me that he needed to be hit that hard to finally realize where he went wrong. It shows that you shouldn’t wait for something emotionally devastating for you to have some character development.

Ifugaos treasure their idols a lot just like how Catholics treasure their statues of Jesus Christ in their homes and somehow Philip missed this even after converting. Regardless of how one praises their god and no matter what a person believes in, he or she must respect it. I mean, so long as we’re not stepping down on other’s beliefs and so long as we don’t impose certain practices upon them – there’s no need to do something malicious. But that’s exactly what Philip did, he lost respect and stole what he knew was so important to his grandfather being an Ifugao before he came to the city. If he didn’t like being an Ifugao, he could have at least left it alone.

I could say that F. Sionil Jose did a wonderful job in showing his readers what it’s like to be someone who’s blinded by colonial mentality. This story makes the reader think that regardless of the culture, we are still human beings who have one thing in common: we all have something that we want to protect and take care of.

C. References used

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmzo304uxe8&t=5s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Stealer

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The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

A. Summary of the story

Edgar Allan Poe starts the Cask of Amontillado by giving the reader a look of Montresor’s thoughts. The protagonist is shown to be the antagonist of the story at the same time after it is revealed that he is plotting revenge against Fortunato by murdering him. The cause of his plot against his friend is because of the fact that Fortunato has been insulting Montresor’s family name. Montresor takes so much pride in his family name and emblem that’s why he felt the need to go to great extent.

First, Montresor approached Fortunato telling him of the greatest wine that has ever existed. Fortunato was very intrigued because he was a huge fan of wine and had a weak spot for it. At first, he seemed hesitant but when Montresor mentioned that he can ask someone else to drink it with him, he immediately agreed upon not wanting to miss the chance to get a taste of the Amontillado. Montresor raised his curiosity even further by teasing him about the Amontillado and said that they may postpone it another time as it was cold and dark already; he even said that Fortunato’s health is a priority above the Amontillado. But again, knowing that Fortunato could never resist wine, he told Montresor that he could go to their wine vault at that very moment.

When they got there, Montersor asked Fortunato if he was sure about this and that they could go back some other time. This got Fortunato impatient and walked forth. The wine vault was dark and cold for the two men so Montersor offered Fortunato wine along the way. The deeper they went, the more drunk Fortunato got. And of course, this was all a part of Montresor’s plan. Everything was going smoothly when they got into this hole where Montresor asked Fortunato to go in as the Amontillado was there. Being out of his wits because of the alcohol, Fortunato went in and then Montresor chained him. He was too drunk to stop Montersor and get out of there – all this time he thinks that this was all a joke. The next thing Montresor did was cover the hole with rocks to trap Fortunato inside.

The story ends as Montresor narrates that nobody has ever been to where he trapped Fortunato in for about half a century.

B. Analysis of the story

The Cask of Amontillado is a revenge story that poses a great impact on the reader for how unique it is even though the plot was very simple. Out of all the three stories, this was the one that entertained me the most as someone who’s very interested in psychology.

I find Montresor very interesting not because of how loyal he is to his family emblem but because he appears to be a sociopath. But even if his actions interest me, that doesn’t necessarily justify the fact that he murdered someone out of spite. Obviously, being a sociopath isn’t always dangerous but the issue here is that I’ve heard other people describe him as a psychopath for murdering just because of petty insults. But like I have said, he is more of a sociopath because in order to acquire what he wants, he went through tremendous measures to influence Fortunato using his charms and by using Fortunato’s weakness.

I also find it interesting that he planned this murder so carefully to the point that nobody probably suspected him for murdering Fortunato because no one found out where he was chained up. Even Fortunato wasn’t aware that he was being murdered at that very moment!

C. References used

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGLqeMpSPBU

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-sociopath-380184

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/261240.The_Cask_of_Amontillado

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Six Feet of the Country by Nadine Gordimer

A. Summary of the story

This tackles a part of the life of Baas where he encounters dealing with Petrus. Baas is a white man with a white wife named Lerice and they moved to a farm where they have black servants running the place. They moved here to improve their marriage, unfortunately it doesn’t do much. One day, Baas was alerted by Albert that Petrus’ brother from Rhodesia died. Baas didn’t like hearing this because he knew that people from Rhodesia wasn’t allowed there in the first place. And he didn’t want to deal with trouble.

They later find out that the brother died from exposure and suffered pneumonia beforehand but then, they were informed that the body was buried without their permission. This angered Petrus but of course was powerless to do anything on his own. He begged Baas to contact the authorities to bring back his brother’s corpse so that they may give him a traditional burial. Next, Baas struggles to take the corpse from the authorities but in the end they succeeded after paying 20 pounds.

Once the body was returned, the father comes to the funeral and realizes that the casket was heavier than usual. When they opened it, they discovered that they received the wrong body after all. Petrus demanded for the authorities to return the 20 pounds but unfortunately it was all a waste of time

B. Analysis of the story

I watched a YouTube video to understand the story and found out what it was like for blacks in that era. Blacks were definitely discriminated back then because they weren’t granted the same amount of rights than white people. Not to mention, most were put under slavery simply because they were black. Stories like this remind me of Stephen’s King “The Green Mile” and although the inspiration for that was quite more violent and heartbreaking, the idea still remains that blacks were definitely put through cruel treatment by people who felt more superior than them.

Upon knowing that Petrus and the rest were farmers, it showed a glimpse of the fact that blacks were only qualified to work low paying jobs and jobs that required so much physical labor. It was probably quite rare to see a black man in an office during those times because of how bad racial segregation was.

One thing that I also noticed was that Petrus didn’t have the power to have influence over the body of his family. He even needed another man to do this for him which only implies that Baas had greater power over them even if they weren’t related at all. During those times, no matter what your social status is or you job is – if you were black, you probably would never have the chance to sit on a higher spot in the “pyramid”. What I also found rude was the fact that the authorities lacked commitment to their job in returning the body of Petrus’ brother even if they paid full and fair just because they knew that what they were dealing with was a black man. And the fact that this kind of discrimination still happens today is very alarming, it doesn’t matter how much people have fought for equality because racism still exists in this time.

That’s why I truly praise the author for her dedication to give the readers an insight of what black people have been experiencing this whole time. People are fighting for a good cause and this story can serve as an eye opener to those who still aren’t aware of the advocacies that exist in our time.

C. References used

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ8XtOfnMLk

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96335.Six_Feet_of_the_Country