LITERATURE, COLONIZATION, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR PHILLIPINE SOVEREIGNTY - Research Paper Example

The story of ‘The Scent of Apples’ which is told in a first person point of view is the story of a Filippino immigrant named Celestino Fabia. Both have the sufferings and alienation of Filipino people. The story ‘The day the dancers Came’ centers around Filemon Acayan , a fifty year-old, naturalized Filipino citizen and Antonio Bataller, a former Pullman porter who is suffering from a rare skin disease. Fil is eagerly waiting for the dancers who are to come on that day. Tony comments that Fil is too excited as if the dancers are coming for him.

Fil is ready to reach the hotel where the dancers came. He tries to get noticed and even invites them to visit his place also. But he is rejected without even noticed by them. Thus ‘The Day the Dancers Came’ is a blow to the great expectations of Fil. Fil felt inferior and poorer than ever. The strong detachment from the roots in the Pilippines is a painful experience for him at these moments. He recognizes that he is far away from the Filipinos and Filipanas who have arrived in his new found land in Chicago.

But still he has the love and admiration for the young dancers. The story tells us about a waiting, but actually it is a departure. It is the story of failure to preserve the culture, nativity etc. The theme of preservation is the leading reflection of the story. The story is rich with powerful elements of metaphor which are apt to express the theme. For example Tony mentions to Fil that the snow will be liked by the dancers. “They will walk in the snow and love”, the disease of Tony is another metaphor of his failure to preserve is origins.

Due to the skin disease his body gradually peels the skin which makes him somewhat like the white man, I am becoming a white man”. The white snow and the disease together represent otherness. The link to the past is necessarily the memory. For both of them the memory becomes weak as they grew older. The