The Story of an Orphan Girl
The Story of the Orphan Girl focused on misunderstanding which might cause danger and dissociating monstrosity from physical appearance. The classical saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is evident in the narrative, especially during the confrontation part. This is where a creature called manamat, which is depicted as something horrible, told their account with regards to the death of the girl’s parents.
According to the manamat’s account, she only wanted a shade for she will give birth to her son. However, the girl’s parents viewed the manamat as a monster. The two parties had a fight leading to the death of the girl’s parents. It is imbedded in this situation that when people associated fear and bad physical appearance to someone or something, they will always jump into conclusion that it is doing something evil; thus, it is a monster.
Through the confrontation between the manamat and the girl, we can realize that not all people who have bad physical appearance are wrongdoers. At the end of the story, acceptance and forgiveness are presented as a resolution.
In summary, this narrative taught us to be more aware and open-minded to everyone. We must be sensitive and reasonable when jumping into conclusions or in having a certain judgement to other people or creature. We have to dissociate evilness from bad physique because not all good-looking are good and vice versa.
How the Angels Built Lake Lanao
How the Angels Built Lake Lanao is a rich folktale which depicted the Muslim beliefs because it mentioned Allah and angels. In the story, we will dive into an authentic account presenting how the people told the creation of the famous Lake Lanao.
The narrative centers on saving people to preserve the balance; however, with that particular gesture, a great responsibility and critical consequence followed. Great responsibility is shown when the Archangel Diabarail consulted Allah about the emerging problem of the Sebangan region. This is where the responsibility of the angels to evacuate the Sebangan people to the center of the Earth started to occur. The angels mightily lifted the whole region and place it at the center to avoid dis-equilibrium. However, when the original region is left empty, the area turned into a basin of blue water—which later on became the Lake Lanao.
Upon the creation of the lake, we can see the collaborative work of the angels and other deities involved. We can also infer that in every action, it requires a specific reaction; therefore, the goodness of their action brought the creation of Lake Lanao.
Overall, what we may have as takeaway from this tale is that in every creation, there are other tales about it which highlights the cultural root of the area where it originated. Also, the story taught us that in ever good deeds, there will be goodness harvested.
Tuwaang Attends a Wedding
At first, I thought that this story is something fun to read; however, it turns out to be a narrative where jealousy and pride took over.
Tuwaang serves as a trigger of jealousy to Binata ng Sakadna. In the story, Tuwaang attempted to save Binata ng Sakadna from humiliation through creating a gold flute, guitar and gong which ought to be the dowry of Binata ng Sakadna. Instead of being grateful, Binata ng Sakadna challenged Tuwaang into a fight. In this scene, there is an establishment of ‘men’s pride’. Generally, some men are like Binata ng Sakadna, someone who received help but grew mad to whom the help originated.
With this personality of Binata ng Sakadna, his bride, Dalaga ng Monowon, started to dissociate herself. She gave a warning to Tuwaang in order for him to succeed. In this situation, we can observe that because of the rising establishment of jealousy and pride, it makes Binata ng Sakadna and Dalaga ng Monowon’s relationship in jeopardy—which in the finale, their relationship ended. Dalaga ng Monowon accepted Tuwaang’s wedding invitation instead.
At the end of the story, we can realize that anything may be broken or put to end because of jealousy and pride. Just like Binata ng Sakadna, many men became unreasonably jealous; thus, sometimes became the problem of the relationship.
Tags: Philippine folk literature, literary samples, literary analyses, myths, legends, fables, oral traditions, LifeThinker.
Author: Christian Loid Valenzuela
