Magnificence analysis

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 Before I start with telling the story and stating my reaction, let me give give a little background of the author. Estrella Alfon was born in Cebu City around 1917. She joined a group named the Veronicans that is composed of writers including Francisco Arcellana and NVM Gonzales during college at the University of the Philippines. Due to her poor health condition, she wasn't able to finish her studies and received an Associate in Arts. She made a compilation of her stories titled "Magnificence and other stories" in 1960. 1979 and a year before her death, she handled the fiction part of the Philippine Writing Contest conducted by the University of the Philippines.

The "Magnificence" talks about the magnificence shown by the mother in the story. Let's start with the flashback first so the flow of the story could be understood easily. The mother and Vicente met in a neighborhood association meeting. After the meeting, Vicente told the mother that he is willing to to tutor her two children (The boy is eight years old and the girl is seven years old) and his reasons were the smartness of the children and his vacant time during the evenings (for he was a bus conductor). Vicente promised the two children that he will be bringing two pencils for each of them. Vicente has what we call favoritism because he plans to give the girl more by buying her the biggest pencil he can find. But why give something like pencils? Pupils or kids were crazy over pencils and they always want to show it off. Two weeks later after his first tutor with the children, he brought along with him the pencils he promised. The next evening, Vicente was earlier than the usual time he goes there to tutor the children. After asking the boy to get a glass of water for him, he was left alone with the girl. A little while, the girl got frightened and got away from Vicente. As she got away, the mother came and saw what was about to happen. After telling the children to go to their room (and the children complying to what she said), she kept on slapping Vicente until he was brought to the door and he ran away to the shadows. The mother took the girl a bath before the girl slept. And that's where the story ended.

This time, the author combined language and point of view. The language was kind of confusing

because the narrations include the dialogues of the characters and the point of view was no one in the story. In the past, this story is really unthinkable. But now, who wouldn't have taught that this kind of story could happen in our generation? Well, that's the sad part and has been included in reality. Anyway, the part that I liked was how the mother controlled the situation first than doing things by force immediately and how she cared for her child in spite of what happened. I hope we learned something important from this story.? ? ? ?
 ??????????The descriptions of the mother and Vicente are contrastive not only against each other but also against stereotypes of their genders. The story opens with Vicente being described as ³so gentle, so kind,´ a phrase usually used for women. Vicente is a dark ³little´ man whose ³voice [was] soft [and] manner slow.´ On the other hand, the mother is a ³gloating´ mother whose ³eyes [held] pride.´ She is barely described at the start, as absent as the father except for short delivered lines, which are also in a tone not in sync with stereotype mothers. Only later is the mother completely revealed: a ³tall woman´ who spoke in a voice ³very low, very heavy´ and with an ³awful timbre.´ The contrast emphasizes the darkness of Vicente and the mother¶s magnificence. This contrast is also displayed in the metaphor of light or illumination. At the start, Vicente was described as slowly advancing into the circle of light. During the crucial moment, the mother is ³transfigured [by a] glow´ (note the connotation of Jesus/God, images of magnificence). She had been ³in the shadow´ literally, and figuratively, about Vicente¶s ³queerness´ that ³crouched´ inside him. In her anger, she ³advance[s] into the glare of light´ and reveals her magnificent self. Vicente is then forced ³out of the circle of light´ and ³into the shadows that ate him up.´ The mother¶s sense of control with Vicente is set against her inner disposition once with her daughter. Her touch is ³heavy«kneading´, eyes with ³angered fire´, her actions ³almost frantic.´ The reversal of gender assignments is not only incidental. The story is not just about one magnificent woman but of all women and mothers who have been in shadows but ³raise [their] hand[s]´ against male abuse. This is shown in how throughout the story the mother is referred to as ³mother´ but at the moment she was punishing Vicente, she is called ³woman.´ When she gets back to her daughter, she is seen as ³mother´ again, but in exploring her disposition and rage she is again ³woman.´ Finally, upon calming down, she becomes ³mother´ and tucks her child in.

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