Beast in the Beauty: A Formalistic Approach on Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters

I. Jessica Hagedorn
As both a student and instructor, I traditionally present first a little background of the author before I discuss the work. So I researched Jessica Hagedorn’s biography on the internet. Like the other previous authors presented in class, Jessica Hagedorn is one of those that I admire the most. The proceeding paragraphs, which include facts about her life and works, are taken from and based on www.wikipedia.com.
Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn was born and raised in Manila, Philippines in 1949. With her background, a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Filipino-Spanish father with one Chinese ancestor, Hagedorn adds a unique perspective to Asian-American performance and literature. Her mixed media style incorporates song, poetry, images, and spoken dialogue.
In 1963, she moved to San Francisco and she received her education at the American Conservatory Theater training program. She likes arts, especially writing and music. To further pursue playwriting and music, she then moved to New York in 1978. Her first play, Mango Tap, was produced by Joseph Papp in 1978. Her other productions include Tenement Lover, Holy Food, and Teenytown.
In 1985, 1986, and 1988, she received Macdowell Colony Fellowships, which helped enable her to write the novel Dogeaters, which illuminates many different aspects of Filipino experience, focusing on the influence of America through radio, television, newspapers, and movie theaters. In the novel, she shows the complexities of the love-hate relationship of Filipinos in diverse culture and language feel toward the past and even the future. After its publication in 1990, the novel earned a 1990 National Book Award nomination and an American Book Award. In 1998, the novel was adapted and staged, produced by the La Jolla Playhouse.
At the moment, she lives in New York with her husband and two daughters. Still, she continues to be a poet, storyteller, musician, playwright, and multimedia performance artist.

II. Introduction to Dogeaters
Dogeaters is a fictional novel written by Jessica Hagedorn. It was published in 1990. Hagedorn also adapted her novel into a play by the same name. Her mixed ethnic background, with a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Filipino-Spanish father, allows her to have a unique point of view of her homeland. The novel addresses several social, political, cultural, religious, and gender issues present in the Philippines during the 1950s. This book, as mentioned earlier, has won an American Book Award in 1990 and was nominated for the National Book Award in 1991.
Now, let me try to explain the possible reason for Jessica Hagedorn’s use of dogeaters as the title. The word Dogeaters is a common derogatory term referring to Filipino natives who eat dogs instead of pork or chicken. This may be due to poverty but the primary reason is that this has become a part of the culture and tradition of some Filipino natives. The term shows the attitude toward Filipino culture and society, as well as their attempt to move towards a more Westernized society. The title Dogeaters also accurately portrays the characters’ dreams (like that of Romeo’s and Joey’s) of trying to remove themselves from poverty and their hopes of living a glamorous, prosperous life in the United States. Within the novel, there are some references to slaughtering of dogs to illustrate the undeniable poverty and corruption in the country. The term Dogeaters, therefore, refers to the poor Filipinos (represented by a junkie DJ Joey and an arrogant waiter Romeo) who dream of travelling and working in foreign countries like America and Germany, and even the rich Filipinos (represented by the Alacrans, Avilas, and Gonzagas) who try to socialize with foreigners to make them feel superior, in a sense that they are also foreigners themselves.

III. Setting
The novel is set in Metro Manila. To be specific on the location, I roughly estimate that 90% is in Makati-Mandaluyong, 5% in Tondo, and 5% in other places like America, Quezon City, Quiapo, Bagiuo, and on the mountains. The Christmas season, however, is not made clear until the middle part of the novel, where Socorro “Abuelita” Pertierra Gonzaga pays visit from Spain during the holiday season.
The story happens during the turbulent period of the Philippines’ late dictator Marcos. Although the Marcos family ruled in the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, the novel is set in 1956 or 1959 (Rio Gonzaga, one of the story tellers, is uncertain of the date, she is even arguing with her cousin Rio on the year: Was it 1956? or 1959?). This is to show Jessica Hagedorn’s creativity as a writer. Had she set the novel in the exact period the Marcos ruled, the novel would have become a history book.

IV. Characters
There are more than sixty-five distinct colorful characters in the novel. The inclusion of a broad range of characters is for an important purpose. As I understand, the short descriptions of many characters show the relationship between high-class characters and low-class characters. More importantly, through many characters, the novel is able to demonstrate the connections and relationships between each other. These are the characters in the novel:

Major Characters
A. Rio Gonzaga
Rio is the first narrative voice in the novel. She sets the tone for the entire book. In the beginning, she reveals her thoughts and fantasies as a ten-year-old girl. While Rio belongs to the high class, she is unpretentious and has compassion for the lower class, unlike her cousin Pucha and the rest of her relatives. Consequently, she enjoys the company of her grandmother Lola Narcisa (the Filipina type of a grandmother as oppose to Socorro “Abuelita” Pertierra Gonzaga, who is self-acclaimed Spanish) and all the servants, like Aida (helper), Pacita (cook), and Macario (driver). Later in the novel, by her mother Dolores’s will, she leaves from Manila to the United States to study. She goes to America with her mother who wishes to improve her skills in painting. She only revisits her childhood home as an adult. Upon returning to her old home, she is nostalgic of the old times. She may be the most popular among the characters because among the set of point of views, she has the first, middle, and last part of the novel. This might give her the protagonist role. However, I don’t think that she is the protagonist. She merely narrates her story in relation to the big events in 1950s: the rise of the Alacrans, the beauty pageant crowning Daisy Avila, Senator Avila’s assassination, and the First Lady’s Film Festival. Also, she tells the readers how she misses the country and her relatives. That’s pretty much about her story. There is a change in her but that is not enough to make her the protagonist.
B. Pucha Gonzaga Alacran
Pucha is Rio’s closest cousin (in fact, throughout the novel, they act and talk as sisters). She enjoys being the center of attention and grabbing boys’ attention. She craves the glamorous life at a young age and desires to be on top of the social ladder. In an attempt to reach her ambitions, she becomes too liberated. As a result, Rio’s parents (Freddie and Dolores) are afraid of her bad influence on Rio. Years later, Pucha makes her dream come true: She marries a very wealthy man, who is her childhood crush and fantasy, with good connections—Boomboom Alacran, Severo Alacran’s nephew. The marriage, however, barely lasts a year. Even though Pucha gets a divorce, she still keeps the last name of Alacran.
C. Severo Alacran
Severo Alacran is like the Donald Trump and probably the richest man in Manila (according to the novel). He is a self-made man who owns biggest corporations such as TruCola Soft Drinks, SPORTEX (a country club and a futuristic department store, probably the Mall of Asia that time), and controls interests in Mabuhay Movie Studios. Even though he is married to a beauty queen, Isabel Alacran, he has many mistresses including Lolita Luna and sleeps with many of his servants. A very detailed description of him (with some allusions to Ferdinand Marcos) is explicit in chapter three “The King of Coconuts.”
D. Isabel Alacran
Isabel is the wife of Severo Alacran. Her exceptional beauty is her biggest asset. She meets Severo at a social party and marries him out of self-interest. As the wife of Severo, she enjoys her new social status and the pampering that accompanies it. She is fond of correcting mistakes by foreigners (chapter “Luna Moth”). Many times in the novel, she is alluded to Imelda Marcos (this is made obvious during the latter part of chapter three).
E. Rosario “Baby” Alacran
Rosario, nicknamed Baby, is the daughter of Severo and Isabel Alacran. Unlike her mother, she does not possess feline allure. She is ugly, plump, shy, and awkward. Baby must shower three times a day since she sweats uncontrollably, which causes her a terrible disease that even Dr. Ernesto Katigbak (a heart surgeon) and his wife Dr. Emilia Katigbak (a skin specialist) diagnose it as “an extreme case of nonspecific tropical fungus” (p. 28). At seventeen, she meets Oswaldo “Pepe” Carreon and falls in love with the way he talks to her. She soon gets pregnant and elopes with Pepe. Despite the disapproval of Baby’s mother, Pepe and Baby get married in order to avoid scandal.
F. Daisy Avila
Daisy Avila is Senator Domingo Avila’s daughter. She is a beauty pageant queen (like a Bb. Pilipinas). After winning the title of Miss Philippines, she becomes depressed. She later publicly denounces the pageant and becomes involved with political leftist Santos Tirador to find the one who assassinated his father. Consequently, Daisy is arrested, raped, and tortured by General Ledesma and his military men. Aiming to avenge her father, she later becomes a refugee or a guerrilla on the mountains. She then changes her name to Aurora, who teaches Joey Sands “how to use a gun” (p.233). In my opinion, she is the protagonist. She is the one who changes (although many characters change in the novel, she has the most change: from a beauty queen on stage to a guerrilla on the mountains, and from a daughter of the Senator to a mother of the rebels, from Daisy to Aurora, from a mansion to a camp on the mountains, and from a feminine figure to a boyish rebel leader). Her story is told by an omniscient point of view. Among the main characters, she is the only one with a chapter in the novel entitled “Epiphany.” With these, I strongly believe she is the protagonist.
G. Joey Sands
Joey tells his own story (a first person point of view). He grows up without parents. He is a gay prostitute who fortunately works as a number one DJ at CocoRico, the most famous and probably the biggest disco club in Manila. (The club is owned by Andres Alacran, a cousin to Severo Alacran.) He is the paid escort for several steady clients, including a famous German director Reiner and an American tourist Neil. Later, Joey decides to end his relationship with Reiner without a formal good-bye and by stealing his wallet and a bag of money and cocaine. After fleeing from his former lover, he witnesses the assassination of Senator Domingo Avila. Thus, he now becomes both a witness and a criminal. Consequently, he hides out at Uncle’s shack. After realizing that Uncle has betrayed him, he escapes from the shack by killing first Taruk (Uncle’s dog) and then hiding at Boy-Boy’s apartment for quite a while to escape from the law. Eventually, he has gone, without an option, with the guerrillas led by Aurora (Daisy Avila) to seek justice.
H. Uncle
After Joey’s prostitute mother Zenaida abandons him and commits suicide, Uncle adopts Joey, together with the other orphans Boy-Boy and Carding, as his own son. Even though Uncle has a fatherly figure, he is not a man of good morals. Instead of teaching Joey the rewards of working hard, Uncle teaches him the art of stealing, making Joey the I-was-never-caught robber. Later, when he finds out that Joey is the witness to the assassination, he betrays Joey by attempting to sell him out to the authorities through Sergeant Planas. He never succeeds because before he is able to do it, Joey escapes from his shack.
I. Orlando “Romeo” Rosales
Orlando’s story is told by an omniscient point of view. He is known as Romeo (19 years old), a lover to Trinidad “Trini” Gamboa (28 years old). He is a self-absorbed man, who believes his beauty will grant him fame. In attempt of pursuing an acting career through his old friend Tito Alvarez, he decides one day to end his amorous relationship with Trinidad “Trini” Gamboa, a sales lady at SPORTEX. On that very day, he is mistaken for someone in a group of subversives based in the Cordilleras. Orlando is fatally shot and thus becomes part of the aftermath of the Senator’s assassination. He is detained in General Nicasio Ledesma’s camp and nobody is allowed to see him even his girlfriend Trini. Although she explains to the military that her boyfriend Romeo has nothing to do with the assassination, still nobody believes her. During the interview by a foreign newscaster Steve, The First Lady points her finger at Romeo, who, according to her, has assumed his identity because he is a genuine “intelektwal” (p.219). She lies that he has all these planned, that being a waiter is part of the plan and that his girlfriend is his accomplice.

Minor Characters
A. Andres Alacran
Andres is the homosexual owner of CocoRico, a prestige bar that attracts many foreigners and famous people. As a member of a high-class family, he makes sure everyone remembers he is an Alacran. He is old-fashioned and arrogant.
B. Boy-Boy
Boy-Boy is an orphan taken in by Uncle. He works as a shower dancer at Studio 54, a gay club. During the assassination scandal, Boy-Boy helps Joey escape from Uncle and arrest by the police. His good nature is shown through this act of kindness.
C. Sergeant Planas
The Sergeant works for Pepe Carreon and is Uncle’s contact in the government. He has dealt with Uncle before, and Uncle goes to him when Joey is hiding out in his shack, asking the Sergeant to pass along a message to Pepe that Uncle has confidential information regarding national security, which is “A matter of life and death” (p.200).
D. The President and the First Lady
Both characters are intentionally only mentioned by their positions and never given specific names. Although the powerful couple has minor roles, they portray the corruption of the government. The characters are also illustrated to show how they live in luxuries, while the rest of the country suffers from poverty.
E. General Nicasio “Nicky” Ledesma
The General is a powerful figure who cheats on his wife Leonor Bautista, who is extremely religious, with the famous movie star Lolita Luna. He pays for Lolita’s house, clothes, and other amenities, but also controls her. During the scandal of Senator Avila’s assassination, he is involved in the arrest and interrogation of Miss Philippines, Daisy Avila. His actions show the corruption of politics.
F. Lolita Luna
Lolita is a famous movie star known for her sexuality and magnificent body. She uses her fame to manipulate powerful men like General Ledesma. She is the one who dares call the General as Nicky. Even though she is considered wealthy and part of the upper class, she wishes to leave the Philippines for the United States in order to get “more shoes and more drugs” (p.177).
G. Oswaldo “Pepe” Carreon
Pepe is a twenty-seven year old man who works with General Nicasio Ledesma. He later becomes Rosario “Baby” Alacran’s husband. Baby’s mother never approves of Pepe because of his army career, and his inherent ugliness. His presence during Daisy’s interrogation links him to the political controversy involving Senator Avila’s assassination. He acts mysteriously as he never goes back home after the assassination. This made Baby Alacran “The Weeping Bride.”
H. Rainer
Rainer, the famous German director, is a foreigner fascinated by gay pornography and the simple life of Filipinos. He has a short two-week relationship with Joey Sands and gains Joey’s love, which Joey denies, by flaunting his BMW and luxurious lifestyle.
I. Senator Domingo Avila
Domingo is a politician in Manila. He is a human rights activist who is labeled a leftist by the government. His assassination becomes a great mystery since it is unclear who shot him. Even at the end of the novel, his assassination remains a mystery. Consequently, those people who got in the way are also never released from the camp of the General.
J. Trinidad “Trini” Gamboa
Trinidad is a twenty-eight year old woman who is attracted by Romeo’s beauty. She conquers Romeo on the first night by buying his love. Trinidad is a sales associate at SPORTEX who enjoys being associated with the prestigious and wealthy.
K. Cora Camacho
Cora is like the Oprah Winfrey of the Philippines. Her talk show is very popular and touches its audience. She interviews important figures such as Severo Alacran, the First Lady, and Daisy Avila.




V. Point of View
The story is told from three perspectives of a variety of characters, two of whom are interconnected in this Filipino society. The first narrator is Rio Gonzaga, who tells the stories of the Gonzaga clan in relation to the big people in the country, like the Alacrans, the Avilas, General Ledesma, the celebrities (like Lolita Luna, Nestor, and Joselito Sanchez), The President and The First Lady, and foreigners (like the ambassadors Howard and Joyce Goldenberg). The second narrator is third person omniscient. He tells the stories of the Alacrans, Romeo Rosales, The President and The First lady, and the Avilas. The third and last narrator is Joey Sands. He narrates his stories with Uncle, mother Zenaida, childhood friends Boy-Boy and Carding, the Alacrans, gay clients like Neil and Reiner, and his “old friend” Tito Alvarez, a movie star.

VI. Plot
Dogeaters follows the stories of several characters in the Philippines, including upper-class members of the Alacrans, Avilas, Gonzagas, celebrities, politicians, and The First Family. It also delves into the lives of the lower, working class, including a waiter at Monte Vista (Romeo), a club junkie DJ at CocoRico (Joey), and a store clerk at SPORTEX (Trinidad). The story generally revolves around these characters.
The book begins with lengthy introductions and character descriptions. Rio Gonzaga plays the role of narrator for her family. Then, another narrator introduces other important characters, such as the wealthy Severo Alacran, and his wife Isabel through a third person omniscient point of view. However, the omniscient narrator also contrasts the upper-class lives of the Gonzagas and Alacrans with poorer characters, providing an accurate portrayal of the disparity among the different classes in Filipino society. Another narrator is Joey Sands, a local DJ at a gay club and a male prostitute, who offers a cynical glance at the homosexual social circles in Manila, as well as his personal experiences as a prostitute with wealthy foreigners. The omniscient narrator also explores the relationship between Romeo Rosales and Trinidad Gamboa. Romeo is determined to become an actor, which demonstrates the way in which Filipinos idolize celebrities and actors. The omniscient narrator also shows that despite the beliefs of many Filipinos, the lives of actresses such as Lolita Luna are anything but glamorous, but are rather a spiraling trap of drugs and sexual exploitation by powerful men.
The novel intertwines these characters and stories through a series of events, including the “Young Miss Philippines” annual pageant, the Manila International Film Festival, and the assassination of human rights activist Senator Domingo Avila. Daisy Avila, the Senator’s daughter, wins the beauty pageant, but instead of rejoicing in her victory, she becomes depressed and withdraws into her family home. She locks herself in her room and hangs up the phone whenever someone calls her. The entire country wishes to know what happens but she keeps hiding from the media. She herself couldn’t understand why she becomes depressed when she’s now a beauty queen. She simply is not satisfied being such. A lot of productions are cancelled because she doesn’t show up. A number of companies go down because of her not cooperating with the endorsement. Her father approves of her decision and so with her mother. Finally, she breaks the walls and reveals herself to the media through allowing herself to be interviewed by Cora Camacho on Girl Talk. She later publicly denounces the pageant and enters into a tumultuous relationship with foreign banker Malcolm Webb. The relationship doesn’t last. They end the relationship sooner than expected because Malcolm Webb finds Daisy’s publicity useless. Later, she then gets involved with political leftist Santos Tirador, son of Horacio, the hired painting teacher to Clarita (Daisy’s cousin, who is an artist). After this, she is temporarily off the scene.
Meanwhile, the Manila International Film Festival, a project spearheaded by the First Lady of the Philippines, brings about superficial changes to Manila. The changes include the construction of a cultural center and the attempts to improve the slums by building walls. During the construction, one of the structures collapses, and kills many of the Filipino workers (like hundreds of them). Despite a brief mass, the First Lady orders cement to be poured over the bodies and the continuation of construction. Rainer, a German director, is in Manila for the Festival, and ends up in CocoRico. There he meets Joey Sands. At first look, he falls in love with Joey. He can’t take his eyes off him so he orders the owner Andres to request Joey to be his escort for two weeks. He just wants Joey to be with him. Despite the advances of actress Lolita Luna, Rainer takes Joey back to the house the government has provided for his stay in Manila. He then convinces Joey to stay with him for the rest of the two weeks. The novel then skips forward to the day that Rainer leaves Manila. While Joey and the German are having breakfast at the Intercontinental Hotel, Joey steals the bag of money and drugs from the German. Joey does this because he is sick and tired of becoming just a DJ. He wants to become rich and go abroad—work and live there successfully. As he is leaving the hotel, at the entrance, Joey suddenly becomes the witness to the assassination of Senator Domingo Avila, a political and human rights activist.
Soon after, Romeo is on his way to meet Trinidad “Trini” Gamboa, determined to break up with her simply because he never loved her. He keeps on telling his mother and himself, “I don’t love her [Trinidad]” (“Last Chance,” pp.159-168). Flashbacks fill the chapter. While he is waiting for Trini, he recalls how his mother wants him to stay with Trini because she is his future. “You’ll never find anyone like her [Trinidad], believe me…” his mother always reminds him (p.162). Still, he insists that a girl like Trini is not worthy to be his wife. If he gets married, his dream of becoming a movie star would become impossible. He believes that when he is over with Trini, he is free from poverty because he can continue joining auditions and screenings to become a big time star and travel around the world (his childhood dream). His only hope is Tito Alvarez, whom he claimed to be his old friend and who is now a big star in the movie and radio industry. Problem is: Tito Alvarez seems to forget him (or never knew him at all). However, in a cruel twist of events amidst chaos in the streets, the innocent Romeo is shot, and taken into custody by the police as a suspect in the assassination of Senator Avila. Basically, this is how Romeo’s life ended in the novel—he is held in custody.
The novel next provides insight into the relationship between Lolita Luna and General Ledesma. Apparently, the General takes control of the relationship. In chapter “Movie Star,” the first part shows how powerful the General is over Lolita. The proceeding section of the chapter, however, provides the readers with a shocking revelation about the General: He hates “to admit his awareness of her [Lolita Luna] treachery, but he can’t help himself” (p.174). He is aware that his power and money are the only interests of Lolita. She stays with him because of what he has—not because of who he is. Here is an emotional line from this chapter: “He [the General] wants to make love to her [Lolita]. He dreams she will come to him out of desire—not for drug money, rent money, or access to his power” (p.176). Despite the fact that Lolita wants to leave Manila forever, and begs the General to help her leave, he refuses and she resorts to the other option of being sexually exploited in pornographic films in order to earn the money to leave the country. She insinuates that everyone knows that he was involved in the killing of Senator Avila, and that this is partially the reason why she wants to leave the Philippine. She believes that her life is in danger because she is the General’s mistress. At the end of the chapter, the General helplessly and pathetically gives Lolita Luna whatever she asks and wants from him.
In chapter “Golf” (pp.179-186), Pepe Carreon then reveals in conversation with Boomboom Alacran, Tito Alvarez and other characters that a man has confessed to a crime, insinuating that it is Romeo Rosales who has been forced to falsely confess that he assassinated Senator Avila. Then, the only lady in the group, Girlie Alacran, sister of Boomboom and the first runner-up to Daisy Avila (now, the reigning Miss Philippines), after hearing this gossip from the guys, walks out.
The novel then returns to Joey, who is fleeing from the scene of the assassination. He hides out in Uncle’s shack. While doing drugs, he makes the mistake of telling the old man what he has witnessed. At first, Uncle is so angry at him for betraying the German director and for being such stupid. Yet later as he reveals the key details about the assassin, Uncle’s mood is changed. He suddenly becomes extremely accommodating to Joey. He gives him comfort, food, cigar, and drink. He requests him to stay in the shack, sleep, and watch for the dog Taruk. While he is sleeping, Uncle leaves him the next morning to meet with Sergeant Isidro Planas and betray Joey to the authorities. He asks Isidro to pass along the message that he has vital information about the Senator’s assassination. Meanwhile, Joey wakes up and realizes that Uncle has purposely tied his dog up outside the shack to prevent Joey from escaping. In return for Uncle’s betrayal, Joey brutally kills Uncle’s precious dog Taruk then escapes to Boy-Boy’s apartment.
After a long period of silence, Daisy Avila is back on the show in chapter “The Famine of Dreams” (pp.211-216). As a result of her relationship with Santos Tirador, a pregnant Daisy is arrested, raped, and tortured by General Ledesma and his military men at Camp Meditation, a military complex. She is first interrogated but she gives no single answer. This infuriates the General, so she is ordered to be harassed, taking advantage of the sexy body.
In chapter “Bananas and the Republic,” the First Lady is interviewed by an American journalist Steve, through which it is revealed that Orlando “Romeo” Rosales has been arrested for the assassination of Senator Avila. The entire interview is filled with lies and false information. She says that Romeo was in possession of the same gun that killed the Senator, which shows that someone framed him. The American reporter also asks her about the capture of Daisy Avila, on which she does not comment. She also denies that the Philippines is a corrupt regime ruled by a dictator, and states that the opposition falsely invents human rights issues. Here are some of the things she claims: “I am a nationalist when it comes to fashion” (p.217); “I am cursed by my own beauty” (p.218); “Who am I to steal from those who have nothing? Why should I? Nothing can be gained from nothing” (p.222); and the irony of all, “Together we [the President and she] served the country, and together we sacrificed everything. We were chosen by God to guide and to serve” (p.224). She also states that the leftists double-crossed Senator Avila and they were the ones who executed him. She ends the interview by making the interviewer feel her husband and she are poor victims of the opposition.
In chapter “Terrain” (pp.225-233), Boy-Boy arranges for Joey to escape to a refugee camp in the mountains, where he meets Daisy, under the pseudonym Aurora, who is also a refugee hiding from the government with other men (like Edgar, Rudy, Tai, Father Francisco “Tikoy” the priest, and Lydia, who is Daisy’s cousin Clarita Avila). Daisy Avila has been released from Camp Meditation under the condition that she remains in permanent exile, however, she has returned to the Philippines. The novel also reveals that her child with Santos Tirador was born prematurely, and died (presumably as a result of Daisy’s torture in Camp Meditation). The chapter ends with: “They are together all the time. She [Aurora] teaches him [Joey] how to use a gun” (p.233). That’s pretty much how Daisy’s and Joey’s lives ended in the novel.
Rio Gonzaga then narrates the rest of the story (“Luna Moth,” pp.234-247), explaining the life stories of her family members. She describes the marriages of her brother Raul Gonzaga to Belen Garcia and then to Erlinda. Then, she tells about the short marriage of her cousin Pucha to Boomboom Alacran (her childhood crush and fantasy). Moreover, she states that her mother has left her father and took her to New York and then to Boston for her to study and for her mother to further develop her skills in painting. She often visits Manila, mostly to see Lola Narcisa, but returns to America. She concludes by asserting: “I never marry” (p.247). That seems to be the ending of the novel.
However, the author also inserts two last sections (“Pucha Gonzaga,” pp.248-249; and “Kundiman,” pp.250-251), one of which is narrated by Pucha Gonzaga. The chapter is like a reaction/response/correction letter to Rio Gonzaga’s novel. Generally, it contradicts most of the things that have been previously stated during the novel by Rio, which gives the readers a doubt and confusion about the entire novel. She strongly affirms that Rio has lied about many things—almost 85% of the novel. She states that their grandparents are still alive, and are living in Spain, but rather that Lola Narcisa is dead. Pucha also states that Rio’s parents are still together and married. This section causes the reader to have some doubts about the validity of Rio’s accounts, and the reliability of Rio as a narrator (which is to me a mystery). The final section of the novel is a cynical version of a prayer, which highlights political and social issues discussed during the novel, which wraps up everything: Now and forever, world without end. Now and forever” (p.251).

VII. Themes

A. Dictatorship and anarchy are never reconciled.
One theme that the author addresses in the novel is the clash between dictatorship and anarchy. The President and the First Lady have a foreboding presence throughout the novel and they are never referred by their names, but only by their titles. Another example of the clash between these two ideals is the human rights march led by Senator Domingo Avila in the beginning of the novel (p.98). The Senator is a human rights activist who protests because of “crimes against the people” and is labeled a “leftist” by the government (p.99). Later in the novel, the government assassinates the leftist opposition leader. As a result, Orlando “Romeo” Rosales, an innocent ambitious waiter who works for the Alacrans, is framed and forced to lie and confess to a crime that he did not commit (p.182). This is an explicit and overt demonstration of the oppression of the Filipino people by the government. The author juxtaposes these events with an interview with the First Lady, who lies throughout the interview, denying that the Filipino government is a dictatorship (p.220).



B. Women marry for money and power.
Another theme illustrated in Dogeaters is the achievement of high social standing for Filipino women through marriage. Jessica Hagedorn presents several female characters (Isabel Alacran, Lolita Luna, & Pucha Gonzaga) whose main motivation to marry or to be in a relationship is for financial security and improvement of their place in society. For example, Isabel Alacran was a hostess at a nightclub, but after winning a beauty contest, she becomes a star (p.20). She meets Severo Alacran at a party when they are both drunk, but she later realizes that he is an extremely powerful and wealthy man, and they marry. The author makes a point to emphasize that Isabel is a social asset to her husband, and in return, he pays for her shopping trips and travels. She no longer acts, but her main job in life is to always appear flawless and polished. Pucha Gonzaga Alacran also exhibits this mindset for women. From an early age she learns to overlook minor flaws if a potential romantic interest is of high social standing and comes from a wealthy family. For example, she states: “That’s Boomboom Alacran, stupid. He’s good enough for me” (p.6). She ends up marrying Boomboom Alacran, and despite the fact that they get divorced, she keeps his last name (the readers know better).

C. Beauty is power.
Another theme evident in Dogeaters is the importance of beauty for men and women. The novel shows how beauty can be used to manipulate others. For example, Rio’s mother Dolores Gonzaga follows a strict beauty regimen and uses various products and services in order to remain her youthful (p.82). She also employs a personal dressmaker, Uncle Panchito, and a personal manicurist, Salvador (p.80). (Both personal assistants are high-class.) She warns her daughter and her niece about the dangers of old age and ugliness, thus imparting these same beliefs into the younger generations in the novel. The idea of beauty is also epitomized in Joey, who uses his exotic looks to infatuate customers and procure money, gifts, and drugs from them.

D. Religion runs so deep.
Religion seems to be an underlying theme in Dogeaters. The extent of religious piety varies with each individual in this Filipino society, but a few key characters are described as extremely religious. For example, General Ledesma’s wife, Leonor Bautista, exhibits a monastic lifestyle, with much fasting and prayer, and strives for sainthood (p.68). Another character that is described as being extremely religious is Rio’s paternal grandmother, Soccoro “Abuelita” Gonzaga. Rio says that “she prays before eating, after eating, and when there is a lull in the conversation and she forgets we are all there” (p.92). Actions such as crossing herself, and objects such as a glow in the dark rosary are associated with Socorro. When Abuelita died, she “leaves everything to her priest and her church” (p.242). Religion runs so deep, especially in the Gonzaga family, that even when Rio’s grandfather, an avowed atheist, is dying, the family priest is called (p.17). Although Rio does not directly address the role of religion in her life during the novel, in the end she states that her “belief in God remains tentative” (p.247) and that she “long ago stopped going to church” (p.247). This conclusion insinuates the importance of religion in Filipino society, and that through Rio’s immigration and consequent Americanization, she has lost touch with this aspect of her native culture.

E. Filipinos embrace American influence and admire the culture.
A prevalent theme in the novel is the effect of American influence. From the beginning of the novel, the author shows the bombardment of the media. Through American movies and music young characters such as Rio and Pucha begin to desire American glamour and its brash style. For example, the media invokes in young girls the desire for curly hair like Shirley Temple. Through different outlets of the media, Filipinos learn to imitate the glamour of American lives. The importance of the media is also illustrated when the first lady states in an interview, “What would life be without movies?” (p.224). Clearly, Filipinos embrace American influence and admire the culture. Americanization is not only portrayed through the media, but also through the appearance of American products that state, “Made in de USA” (p.234). By mentioning the desire for American products such as “Jiffy Peanut Butter,” “Kraft Mayonnaise,” and “TruCola,” the author shows the emphasis Filipinos place on becoming an American-like country.

F. Women are either beautiful or intellectual.
Within Dogeaters women are divided into two main groups: beauty (Isabel Alacran, Dolores Gonzaga, Lolita Luna, & Daisy Avila) and intellects (Maria Luisa Batungbakal, Clarita Avila & Aurora Avila). Women are either preoccupied with beauty and climbing the social ladder or are more concerned with their education and the arts. This division shows the expectations society places on women. According to the novel, women are supposed to put marriage as a top priority. However, not everyone follows these social expectations. For example, Daisy Avila’s cousin Clarita chooses to paint “miniature landscapes of bright yellow demons with giant erect penises hovering over sleeping women” in order to release her frustration with the role of women (p.113). Also, Daisy Avila’s mother Maria Luisa Batungbakal, a professor at the University of the Philippines, protests her daughter’s involvement and victory at the “Miss Philippines Beauty Pageant” (p.102). It is clear only a few women are not influenced by Hollywood dreams.
G. People of all classes are associated with gay men.
Homosexuality is a strong undertone of the novel. The novel’s gay pornography and sexual acts can be interpreted as society’s acceptance of homosexuals. For example, women of high social standing (Dolores Gonzaga, Lolita Luna, & the First Lady) consort with homosexual men for fashion and hair advice. In addition, society accepts young homosexual men “lathering their bodies with soap” by paying to watch such kinky acts (p.141). One shower dancer is Joey’s childhood friend Boy-Boy who works at Studio 54. An interview with the First Lady also states that she believes her homosexual constituents to be loyal to her regime (p.217). The recurring images of homosexuality and people of different social standings show that people of all classes associate with gay men.

VIII. Allusions
The majority of allusions in Dogeaters are to fictional characters. However, some references are made to actual people and places. A section of the novel presents President William McKinleys “Address to a Delegation of Methodist Churchmen” (p.71), which provides a stereotypical American view of the Filipino people. Furthermore, the setting of the novel is in Manila, the actual capital of the Philippines. Also, the first part of the novel is called “Coconut Palace,” which refers to an actual palace in Manila that First Lady Imelda Marcos ordered to be built in honor of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the Philippines.
During the novel, the names of the President and the First Lady are never explicitly mentioned. However, there are several insinuations that they are in fact Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and his wife, Imelda Romualdez Marcos. For example, in the novel the First Lady orders a “cultural center” (p.130) to be built. This can be interpreted as a direct reference to the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which was commissioned by Ferdinand Marcos. In an interview in last part of the book, the First Lady discusses her shoes, which can be interpreted as a direct reference to Imelda Marcos’ extensive shoe collection. However, this is not the only possible interpretation, because the setting of the novel is in the late 1950s, and Ferdinand Marcos did not become President of the Philippines until 1965.

IX. Mood
The mood throughout Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters is somber, brooding, and profoundly contemplative (especially if the reader is a Filipino like me). As the reader gets into the stories of Romeo Rosales and Joey Sands (both belonging to the lower class), it is truly saddening because it seems that they are stuck in their jobs and they can not do anything to go up higher in the society—They currently work, and soon, will die as waiter and DJ respectively. Worse: in the midst of poverty, it is a sad reality that first, there are rich people (Alacrans and Gonzagas) who just squander their money on leisure like golf, drugs, drinks, food, clothing, women, etc.; second, others would still corrupt the poor people to make them even richer (like The President and The First Lady); and finally, others would make the poor suffer even more just for their own sake (like the General, Alacrans, and Pepe Carreon).
There are, however, some parts in the novel which are light and cheerful. These parts include the happy childhood lives of Joey Sands with Carding and Boy-Boy, and the adventurous stories of Rio Gonzaga with Pucha.

X. Language and Style
Jessica Hagedorn is one great writer. She is so great that I feel not worthy describing the language and style she has used in her novel Dogeaters. She, as a seasoned, born writer, has a lot of artistic and original styles. In this section, I will just present two from my observations.
One of which styles is the mechanics (spelling, punctuation, & capitalization). Because she has an excellent facility of the English language, Hagedorn can easily play on it. As a reader, I can without a doubt identify the narrator in a particular chapter because of a distinct, unique style. If the chapter presents some run on sentences and fragments with bit errors on the spelling and punctuation, I can say that it’s Joey. If it’s good yet informal, conversational English, it’s Rio. Then, if it’s perfect formal English, it’s the omniscient narrator. This is a big help to me as I read the novel—I easily identify the narrator through the mechanics.
The other one is the use of varied languages, which Filipinos acquire during the history of trading system, colonization, and war. Generally, the novel is written in English, Hagedorn’s second language and the language she masters when she finally settles in New York, USA. Nevertheless, one cannot deny that fact that code-switching is apparent (88% English, 8% Filipino, 4% other languages like Spanish, Chinese, & Latin), a manifestation of Hagedorn’s inheritance from diverse races. The use of code-switching in the novel is effective to aid the author in painting and creating a vivid picture of a country with diverse culture and language. It greatly contributes to the development and establishment of the themes in the novel on politics, religion, gender, and social status in the Philippines.
Truly Jessica Hagedorn, as a Filipino writer abroad, has proven that she deserves merit and that her works, like Dogeaters, is worthy of time, effort, money, and the awards: the National Book Award and the American Book Award. All the knowledge and insights that she, through her book, has taught me as a student and instructor will forever remain in the fibers of my being.

Knowing One’s Identity by Knowing Others’ Culture and Literature

The story of Balzac and The Little Seamstress is that at the height of Mao's infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for “re-education.” The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of the Phoenix mountains, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down the precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin and, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. However, it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. In addition, after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed.
The historical background of this novel was Mao's Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966 and continued until the dictator's death a decade later. It was intended to get rid of the educated class and directed specifically against the “Four Olds”: (1) old ideas, (2) old culture, (3) old customs and (4) old habits. The urban bourgeoisie were deemed enemies of the people, and so-called young intellectuals, youths who had attended secondary school, were sent to the country to be “re-educated” by the supposedly virtuous peasantry. Between 1968 and 1975, some 12 million youths were thus “rusticated.”
Born in China in 1954, Dai Sijie is a filmmaker who was re-educated during the Cultural Revolution. In 1984, he left China for France, where he has lived and worked ever since “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” his first novel, was an overnight sensation when it was published in France in 2000, becoming an immediate bestseller and winning five prizes. Rights to the novel have been sold in nineteen countries, and it is soon to be made into a film. I think the author is able to write this award-wining novel because he is first, Chinese author and filmmaker. Then, has lived and worked in France since 1984. Finally and most importantly, was one of these young intellectual men. He spent the years between 1971 and 1974 in the mountains of Sichuan Province. Thus, turned his experiences into a poetic and affecting novel “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” which was first published in France a year ago, to huge acclaim.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is more like a fable with a theme of hope. Moreover, this novel is saying that if we keep ourselves only in our very own literature and culture, we will makes ignorant, impotent, and illiterate of who really we are, and the way for us to achieve a total understanding of ourselves is through learning and embracing the Western Ideologies. We know our identity by knowing others’, so to speak. Ironically, the seamstress is only enlightened of her identity by knowing the Western culture and literature.
To analyze and prove these statements, I used the thematic analysis (in a way of trying to bring forth the theme of the novel) and characterization (in a way of studying and analyzing the motivation and actions of the characters). Along with this analysis are some of the literary criticism approaches like post-colonialism, in general, and the theories of post-colonialism by Homi K. Bhaha.
Post-colonialism is an approach to literary analysis that concerns itself with literature in formerly colonized countries. This theory (1) looks at the canon and (2) rejects the universal Western canon, (3) points out colonization, (3) deals with hybridity, (4) depicts ethnic differences and perspectives, and (5) exposes “the other”. In this study, side-by-side with Bhabha’s theories, from the Post-colonialism, I would only use numbers three (3) and four (4). The term ‘post-colonial’ is used to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is because there is a continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression.
Bhabha is a leading voice in postcolonial studies and is highly influenced by Western poststructuralist theorists, notably Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Michel Foucault. In Nation and Narration, he argues against the tendency to essentialize Third World countries into a homogenous identity. Instead, he claims that all sense of nationhood is narrativized. He has also made a major contribution to postcolonial studies by pointing out how there is always ambivalence (fluctuating choice whether to accept Western Ideologies or not) at the site of colonial dominance. In the Location of Culture, Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry (tendency of the Third World countries to imitate the Westerns), interstice (the overlap and displacement of domains of difference), hybridity (the national identity being not pure but a mixture), and liminality (the in-betweeness, the middle of two conflicting and competing cultures). All of these are influenced by semiotics and Lacanian psychoanalysis to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent.
I have three major objectives in this paper. First, I would present the bird’s-eye view of the novel, to prove that it is more like a fable. Then, a thematic analysis would be presented to extract only one theme from the novel and that is hope. Finally, I would have critical analysis using the post-colonial approach and the theories of Post-colonialsm by Homi K. Bhabha to prove that the novel is saying that if we keep ourselves only in our very own literature and culture, we will makes ignorant, impotent, and illiterate of who really we are, and the way for us to achieve a total understanding of ourselves is through learning and embracing the Western Ideologies.
“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” is a worthwhile book, but in many ways an unsatisfactory one. Its problem is that the tale is more interesting than the telling. The author has elected to present his story as a fable rather than a realistic novel, a perfectly respectable choice except that the descriptions of life in this strangest of times and places are so fascinating that the reader longs for more. His decision to streamline his narrative, withholding all but the most significant details and his coy habit of giving his characters epithets rather than names, work against the very real power of his material. However, he delivers an important message: “Any system that fears knowledge and education, any system that closes the mind to moral and intellectual truth, is evil and will prove in the end to be impotent.” This message will be discussed further in the latter part of the paper. This is brought beautifully home to us when the narrator meets a doctor who has also read Balzac. Their brief conversation makes the narrator weep, and it takes him a moment to understand why “It was hearing the name of Fu Lei, Balzac's translator -- someone I had never even met. It is hard to imagine a more moving tribute to the gift bestowed by an intellectual on mankind.” Somewhere along the line, as mainstream Western culture “matured,” we seem to have determined that the fable is a lesser form of literature. Like children, we have outgrown “fairy tales” and, indeed, think of fables merely as kiddie lit. In other cultures, however, the fable remains a respected literary form, and in the hands of artists who understand that its simplicity can be provocatively deceptive, the fable can be both vital and compelling, even for contemporary Western audiences. The dictionary defines fable as “a narrative designed to enforce a useful truth.” Yet, in literature, we generally prefer either that our useful truths be sublimated in three-dimensional characters and realistic plot development, or, heavier in the truth department than useful. Our general disregard of the fable in literature is not only misplaced but can cause us to lose out on the chance to experience thrilling and occasionally truly great novel just like this one that is even award-wining.
The theme of this novel is hope. Nonetheless, hope is not always a positive force. If we think Sijie is going to tell us how the books give the boys hope, which in turn empowers their salvation, we find that his “useful truth” is more complicated and, accordingly, more challenging. The narrator begins to learn that hope can be not only cruel but also corrupting. When Four-Eyes receives a letter from his mother telling him that she has secured a job for him with a revolutionary journal if he can give the editor the lyrics to authentic mountain songs, Luo and the narrator strike a deal to get the lyrics from a hermetic miller in exchange for more books. Nevertheless, when they return with less-than-satisfactory material, Four-Eyes lashes out at them, “The change he had undergone since receiving his mother's letter was truly remarkable. A few days before it would have been unthinkable for him to snap at us like this. I hadn't suspected that a tiny glimmer of hope for the future could transform someone so utterly.”
Moreover, this novel is post-colonial and thus, can be analyzed using post-colonialism. This is how it goes. The novel’s narrator is the son of hard-working doctors. “Their crime”, he states blandly, “was that they were ‘stinking scientific authorities’ who enjoyed a modest reputation on a provincial scale.” His friend Luo, who shares his adventures in the countryside, is the son of someone altogether more dangerous – Mao’s personal dentist who actually had the nerve to tell his friends about his exalted patient. For this, the narrator says, “Here was an eminent dentist stating publicly that the Great Helmsman of the Revolution had been fitted with new teeth, just like that. It was beyond belief, an unpardonable, insane crime, worse than revealing a secret of national security.” Luo and the nameless narrator are packed off to the damp, remote mountain known as the Phoenix of the Sky, whose vistas will be recognizable to anyone familiar with the stylized landscape painting of pre-Revolutionary China. Their re-education is entrusted to a group of illiterate former opium farmers, whose wisdom is guaranteed by their peasant status. No books, except for scientific works and those by Mao and his cronies, are allowed in their village, nor any ideas that do not come from the ruling Communists, nor any Western music. This is the major concept presented in the novel that the government is trying to get rid of, going away from, eradicate and terminate the other cultures that have been mixed into their very own. For this reason, the government decided to “re-educate” the intellectuals. The irony of it all is that the one who is educating them are the ignorant in the peasantry. Obviously, the government is against the Western ideologies and culture. However, according to Bhabha, no one can really “essentialize” a nation once it is being mixed. Moreover, cultural identities cannot be ascribed to pre-given, irreducible, scripted, ahistorical cultural traits that define the conventions of ethnicity. Nor can “colonizer” and “colonized” be viewed as separate entities that define themselves independently. Instead, he suggests that the negotiation of cultural identity involves the continual interface and exchange of cultural performances that in turn produce a mutual and mutable recognition (or representation) of cultural difference because it is a complex, on-going negotiation that seeks to authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation. Thus, their national identity and their education, ideologies and knowledge are and will always be hybrid. With this, it is predictable that later or at the end of this novel, the government’s plan and purpose might not be fulfilled for it seems to be impossible.
Later, the two young men are given backbreaking and exhausting work in a coalmine. Meanwhile, one of their fellow laborers is the son of a well-known poet, and in his hut, he has hidden a suitcase filled with Western classics (the covers of Balzac, Dumas and Romain Rolland, and with knowledge of the world beyond their mountain comes hope for the future) because all these are forbidden and are not allowed to be read. After much nagging, bullying and barter, they manage to get their hands on one of these books, Balzac’s “Ursule Mirouët.” The effect is revolutionary in the true sense of the word – even in their home city, the only Western literature in the bookshops had been the complete works of the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha. “Picture,” the narrator says, “a boy of 19, still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, Communism, ideology and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me.” As a means of restricting people from being educated with the Western Ideologies, the government has forbidden people from reading Western books and things to erase completely the West cultures. Indeed, what I have predicted from the start (that the plan or purpose of the government might not be fulfilled) are true because obviously, the unnamed narrator and his friend, Lou, have found and even read these Western classics by Balzac, Dumas and Romain Rolland. After reading, they seem to be saying that “why are these forbidden when in the first place, this is good, educating, and enlightening us with love, rights and many other things?” I believe that as they see and read the books, ambivalence started to creep into their minds if they would accept the truths they learned or not. This also is a picture of the liminal space where the two major characters are caught in the middle – they are now in the middle of the competing and conflicting Chinese and Western cultures.
Then, the two young men share their new-found riches with a local beauty, the daughter of an itinerant tailor. Luo will carry the books in his stinking hood to the nearby village to enlighten the little seamstress and thereby woo her. Like the narrator, she remains nameless and is referred to only as the “Little Seamstress”. She and Luo fall in love, and although the narrator acts as their mediator, he too lusts after the girl. The three young people’s discovery of sensual and romantic love – a subject studiously ignored by Communist propaganda – is intensified and justified by Balzac and by the suitcase’s other forbidden authors. So is their understanding of real, as opposed to ideologically correct, personal choice. The narrator’s own favorite book, for example, is Romain Rolland’s “Jean-Christophe.” “Without him,” he explains, “I would never have understood the splendor of taking free and independent action as an individual.” This part of the story is where we can see the interstice in the context of Bhabha’s theories. He defines interstice as the overlap and displacement of domains of difference. I can say that they are in the interstice because they not only accumulate the western culture in them but also applied it in their lives with the former life they have. They do not, of course, fully leave behind their Chinese culture. They still live it up yet mixed with the new truths and knowledge they gained from their reading with the seamstress. This is a clear picture that the Chinese and Western cultures are overlapping, competing and conflicting within the characters and dispositions of the two boys and the little seamstress. According to Bhabha, the Third World countries tend to imitate the Western Cultures – the theory on mimicry. This is true to this novel. After the narrator, Lou and the little seamstress have learned something from their reading of the Western books, they imitate. They imitate love relationships and even lovemaking, which these things have been forbidden in their culture and yet present in the other culture. They still have with them their original culture yet with the new culture learned. Nevertheless what dominates or what is mostly manifested in them is the strong and dominant culture, the West. This is proven in the activities they do and the things they talk about.
In the end, Luo and the narrator discover the true potency of imaginative literature and why it is hated and feared by those who wish to control others, for the Little Seamstress, transformed by her contact with Balzac, comes to understand her own sexual power and leaves the Phoenix of the Sky for the city. “Had we ourselves,” the narrator asks, “failed to grasp the essence of the novels we had read to her?” Thus, the seamstress who started ignorant now becomes more intelligent than the two boys who supposed to be educated. Because the two boys are restricted and limited from the truth and in learning Western culture and literature, what happens to them is really bad (evil) because they are left by the woman they both love. It really is not good being ignorant and all that. For the side of the little seamstress, she has gained a lot more knowledge and ideology that makes her see her rights, freedom and self-consciousness, which is very much impossible if she did not embrace and be influenced by the Western culture and literature. For this, her life turns better compared to the two boys.
Therefore, the novel brilliantly reflects Chinese upbringing and the more recent understanding of Western culture and literature. As a product of China’s re-education program from 1971-1974, the author knows first-hand the evils of repression. However, if he had written only from that viewpoint, “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” would not have been the richly complex fable that it is. The boys have learned bitter lessons by the end of this very small gem, lessons that they could have only learned through the loss of something very precious. Does their new knowledge, which led directly to that loss, leave them better off? Nevertheless, the plot really turns on Western books, not music. Though all books are forbidden, the boys manage to unearth some Western classics translated into Chinese, and fall in love with a landscape of reading they had not known existed. They also fall in love with the tailor's exquisite daughter, whom Luo seduces by reading Balzac to her. Dai Sijie, in his novel, shows himself out of touch with his country, rendering it through an excessively precious literary optic. Hopelessly out of place in the mountain’s peasant culture, both young men find clever ways to bend the rules made against Western influences. In one particularly funny moment at the beginning of the book, the protagonist entertains the locals with a violin piece by the forbidden Mozart, because Luo convinces the audience the piece is entitled Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao. When not doing hard labor, the two also entertain the people of the village with storytelling. One of their most ardent listeners is the little seamstress in the town, a lovely young countrywoman. The two teenagers come to learn that another intellectual young man, Four-Eyes, has a suitcase filled with forbidden books. They manage to borrow Four-Eyes’ copy of Balzac’s Ursule Mirouet, and find an enchanting new tale to use to attempt to woo the little seamstress. When Four-Eyes will not lend them any more books, they resolve to steal the suitcase. It seems that the author wanted to show how much impact culture could have on an isolated mountain village, and especially for the seamstress. It was a revelation of freedom, of self-consciousness. The little seamstress had seen more in Balzac learned that men could flirt with women, that it is natural. This is what she had never learned during her days of being instructed that life could be filled with many nice things. Obviously, the author is against this repression and stopping people from learning others’ culture and literature, especially the Western. For him, this lack of freedom and individualism is the essence of his generation. As to how a young woman could suddenly be changed through foreign literature – the part of the story most criticized by Chinese authorities and the main reason the story was not released in China – he has an apolitical answer, “The influence of literature is universal. The story was not only an ode to the literature we had read, but also simply to show that in a difficult situation the youth had a yearning to learn, to see new things and nice things.”
In this paper I have presented first, that this novel is more like a fable and no matter how “fable” it is, it gives entertainment and pleasure to the readers and audience as manifested in the numerous awards and marvelous remarks received worldwide. Then, to give a complete picture and to scrutinize both sides, its theme is hope, not only on the positive side but also on the negative side. Finally and most importantly, using Homi K. Bhabha’s theories of post-colonialism, I have seen that to restrict and keep ourselves from the Western cultures and literature are but an evil for it will just make us more and more illiterate and ignorant. More especially, I have proven that we can define ourselves, know our freedom, rights and achieve self-consciousness not only by our culture and literature but also by learning, understanding, accumulating and being influenced by the Western culture and literature because we are but a hybrid. Therefore, we know our identity by knowing others’ culture and literature.

Freedom that Costs Lost of Independence

“The Portrait of a Lady” concerns a young American woman, Isabel Archer, who comes to England after her father dies. Archer is ardent, vibrant, hungry for experience, and committed to her personal freedom. She forms a friendship with an older woman, Madame Merle, who introduces her to Gilbert Osmond, the man Archer marries. Archer believes Osmond to be a man of impeccable taste with whom she can share an intense but liberated life. Instead, he turns out to be a cynical dilettante and very conventional. Eventually Archer learns that Osmond and Merle have been lovers and have plotted her marriage to get hold of her fortune.
Generally, the novel manifests Henry James’ principles and theories on novel written on his “The Art of Fiction” so that it can give a vivid picture on how one can achieve freedom through losing independence. Specifically, it demonstrates the life of Isabel Archer who, because being neglected in childhood years, longs and yearns for freedom and independence. However, the more she tries to reach it, the more she falls into a miserable and unhappy life. It explores the conflict between the individual and society by examining the life of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who must choose between her independent spirit or her freedom and the demands of social convention (the society). It also depicts the life of an innocent expatriate American among sophisticated Americans and so with their representations as innocent and decadence respectively.
To analyze and prove these statements, I used the thematic analysis (in a way of trying to bring forth the theme of the novel) and characterization (in a way of studying and analyzing the motivation and actions of the characters). Along with this analysis are some of the literary criticism approaches like feminism, psychoanalytic criticism, and basically, Henry James’ “The Art of Fiction” and psychological realism. By using the Feminism, I consider only some of its methodologies: (1) revalue women’s experiences; (2) examine power relations; (3) the role of women in the text; (4) the character and reputation of women in the story; and (5) the attitude of men toward women. By using the psychoanalytic criticism, I only pay attention to the unconscious motive of the character, as one of its methodologies. Then, Henry James as a great psychological realist believes that a text must be realistic, recognizable to the readers. In his “The Art of Fiction”, to have a realistic novel, an author must select, evaluate and use the “stuff of life” (the facts or pictures of reality). He also asserts that a work of art is organic (it has life of its own that grows according to its own principles and themes). Finally, this analysis includes his dominant and important ideas revealed through the downfall of Isabel Archer.
This novel explores the conflict between the individual and society by examining the life of Isabel Archer, a young American woman who must choose between her independent spirit or her freedom and the demands of social convention (the society). After confessing and longing to be an independent woman, autonomous and responsible only to herself, Isabel falls in love with and marries the evil Gilbert Osmond, who wants her only for her money and who treats her as an object (almost as part of his art collection). Isabel must then decide whether to honor her marriage vows and preserve social decency or to leave her miserable and unhappy marriage and escape to a happier, more independent life, possibly with her American suitor (Caspar Goodwood). In the end, after the death of her cousin Ralph, the staunchest backer and supporter of her independence, Isabel chooses to return to Osmond and maintain her marriage. She is motivated partly by a sense of social responsibility, partly by a sense of pride, and partly by the love of her stepdaughter, Pansy, the daughter of Osmond and his controlling lover Madame Merle.
As the title of the novel indicates, Isabel is the primary character of the book. Thus, the most important focus of the novel is on presenting, explaining, and developing her character (manifesting James’ work of art as organic). Henry James is one of America's great psychological realists, and he uses all his “creative powers” to make sure that Isabel's conflict is a natural product of the realistic mind, and not merely an abstract philosophical consideration. In short, Isabel's spirit of independence is largely a result of her childhood, when she was generally neglected by her father and was allowed to read any book in her grandmother's library. In this way, she managed her own haphazard education and allowed her mind to develop without discipline and order (a manifestation of James’ “stuff of life”). Her natural intelligence has always guaranteed that she is at least as smart and lively as anyone around her. In Albany, New York, she has the reputation of being a remarkable and impressive intellect. After she travels to England with her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, it becomes clear that Isabel has a woefully or unhappy formless and shapeless imagination, as well as a romantic aspect and element that suit her position as an optimistic, innocent American. Moreover, for Henry James, throughout the novel, America is a place of individualism and naïveté, while Europe is a place of sophistication, convention, and decadence. Isabel often considers her life as though it were a “novel”. She also has the tendency to think about herself obsessively and has a vast faith in her own moral strength (a manifestation of psychological realism). In fact, recognizing that she has never faced hardships, Isabel actually wishes that she might be made to suffer so that she could prove her ability to overcome sufferings without betraying her principles. When she moves to England, her cousin Ralph is so supportive and concern with her spirit of independence that he convinces his dying father to leave half his possession to Isabel. This is intended to prevent her from ever having to marry for money (because he is against Lord Warburton, a prominent wealthy man) but ironically, it attracts the treachery and deceitfulness of the novel's villains (Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond). They conspire to convince Isabel to marry Osmond in order to gain access to her wealth. Her marriage to Osmond effectively suppressed Isabel's independent spirit when her husband treats her as an object and tries to force her to share his opinions and abandon her own.
This is the thematic background of Portrait of a Lady, and James skillfully intertwines the novel's psychological and thematic elements. Isabel's downfall with Osmond, for instance, enables the book's most sharp and keen exploration of the conflict between her desire to conform to social convention and her fiercely independent mind. It is also perfectly explained by the elements of Isabel's character: (1) her haphazard upbringing has led her to long for stability and safety, even if they mean a loss of independence; and (2) her active imagination enables her to create an illusory picture of Osmond, which she believes in more than the real thing, at least until she is married to him. Once she marries Osmond, Isabel's pride in her moral strength makes it impossible for her to consider leaving him because she once longed for hardship, and now that she has found it, it would be hypocritical for her to surrender to it by violating social custom and abandoning her husband.
In the same way that Henry James unites his psychological and thematic subjects, he also intertwines the novel's settings with its themes. Set almost entirely among a group of American expatriates living in Europe in the 1860s and 1870s, the book relies on a kind of moral geography, in which (1) America represents innocence, individualism, and capability; (2) Europe represents decadence, sophistication, and social convention; and (3) England represents the best mix of the two. Isabel moves from America to England to continental Europe. At each stage, she comes to mirror her surroundings, gradually losing a bit of independence with each move. Eventually she lives in Rome, the historic heart of continental Europe, and it is here that she endures her greatest hardship with Gilbert Osmond. In this novel, Henry James explores the difficulty negotiating between individual liberty and the constraints of social conventions. He locates these opposing forces in America and Europe respectively. However, the equation isn’t as simple as that (America equals liberty while Europe equals social constraint). James divides Europe in his moral universe. England constitutes the middle ground between the ungrounded freedom of America and the extreme restraint of Italy. It is no mere chance that James chooses a woman as the protagonist of a novel with such a moral landscape since women are so much the “storehouse” of the social values of a culture, functioning both to enforce social norms and to reproduce them.
In the narratives, Henry James uses many of his most characteristic techniques in Portrait of a Lady. In addition to his polished, elegant prose and his dignified, slow pacing, he utilizes a favorite technique of skipping over some of the novel's main events in telling the story. Instead of narrating moments such as Isabel's wedding with Osmond, he skips over them, relating that they have happened only after the fact, in peripheral or sideline conversations. This literary technique is known as ellipses. In the novel, he most often uses his elliptical technique in scenes when Isabel chooses to value social custom over her independence: (1) her acceptance of Gilbert's proposal, (2) their wedding, and (3) her decision to return to Rome after shortly leaving for Ralph's funeral at the end of the novel. He uses this method to create the sense that, in these moments, Isabel is no longer accessible to the reader. In a sense, by choosing to be with Gilbert Osmond, Isabel is lost.
Going back to the characterization, Isabel Archer is one more of the many innocent Americans with whom writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries found themselves preoccupied. Her innocence is the primary element of her sense of her freedom. In other words, Henry James seems to be saying that Isabel only thinks she is free and capable of living her life freely. In America, she can nurture these fantasies. She has spent a childhood being neglected by her father, neglect that is embedded in terms of freedom. She has been free to read anything in the library and she has done so, but she has been unable to balance freedom and the discipline necessary to get through the formal education. Sent to school as a young girl, she decided quickly that it was not the place for her and she was allowed to stop going. In her adult life in America, she seems to have no place to go besides marriage to the ever-stiff Caspar Goodwood. She sits alone in the little-used library of her grandmother’s almost abandoned house. Both of her sisters have married quite conventionally despite their free childhood. There’s no reason to think Isabel wouldn’t have done the same if not for her aunt’s timely rescue. In the American scene then, Henry James demonstrates that unrestrained freedom will lead the protagonist nowhere: (1) she will be isolated and bored; (2) she will not progress in her studies because she will have no direction; and (3) she will be wasted on a marriage to a man so inarticulate who cannot express feelings in any terms other than proprietary ones. In England, Isabel is indulged by the kindly Mr. Touchett, his kindly son Ralph and their kindly neighbor Lord Warburton to express all the ideas she can gather and collect. In England, she sees two kinds of women. One kind is represented by the sisters of Lord Warburton who are so restrained and so tamed that they seem almost insubstantial. Despite her own beliefs that the free life is the best life for a woman, Isabel is attracted to these women and finds their life a lovely one. For their part, the Misses Molyneux finds Isabel perfectly charming and seems to find in her a kindred spirit. The second kind of woman represented in England for Isabel Archer is Mrs. Touchett, an American ex-patriot who lives in Florence, Italy, and visits her husband for a month out of each year in England and who has not been accepted by the English aristocracy as her husband and son has. While she lives according to the strictest observance to established social proprieties, she has made up so many of her own social proprieties that she doesn’t fit into English society. Aside from Henrietta Stackpole, Mrs. Touchett is the most independent female character in the novel and she is so depicted that the reader is not encouraged to see her as a possible model for Isabel Archer to imitate and to be followed. When Isabel gets the chance to make England her home, she rejects it, imagining her life as the wife of the eminent Lord Warburton to be life in a gilded cage. Even Mr. Touchett doesn’t think Isabel should marry Lord Warburton.
In Isabel Archer’s downfall (his marriage with Gilbert Osmond, resulting into miserable life), Henry James reveals several of the dominant ideas present throughout his fiction. First, it is quite clear that the English country house estate is the best of all possible worlds for the author. In leaving Gardencourt for a tour of Europe, Isabel was stepping out of the world which perfectly balanced rational conventionality and indulgence of liberty. She was moving into a world of such severe social constraint that good sense and good fellow feeling were regarded as provincial sentimentalities. Second, it seems impossible for Henry James to imagine a good marriage (1) that of the Touchetts is functional, but it makes Mr. Touchett unhappy and Mrs. Touchett an unconventional; (2) that of the Countess Gemini is dry with self-indulgence and trapped “meanness”; and (3) that of Madame Merle who is also dreadfully unhappy (while marriage seems to be the only respectable occupation for a woman, it is one which certainly ends her career as a semi-free agent). The best example of this notion is what happens to Henrietta Stackpole, the most courageous of the “Jamesian” version of feminism in the novel. While her prospects for happiness with Bob Bantling are brighter than any other character’s in the novel, her plans to marry strike Isabel Archer as a sad capitulation, a giving up on the part of her adventuresome friend. The third and most important element of James’ ideas which is revealed in Isabel’s downfall is that social constraint always wins out over the impulse to freedom, that freedom is only an idea which, as soon as put into practice, fails utterly. The best possible world for the balance between individual liberty and social constraint is the English country house life where liberal politicians like Lord Warburton retain their country estate while theorizing the need for its dissolution and where ex-Americans like Mr. Touchett can become connoisseurs of English country houses and English teas.
Therefore, throughout the novel, James’s principles and theories like “the stuff of life”, “work of art as organic” and his “psychological realism” have been obviously and noticeably present. He uses real, logical, believable and recognizable experiences to give vivid pictures of life and reality. In addition, he shows the characters, actions and emotions to the readers to create a greater illusion of reality rather than telling about them. These methods are used to convey the process of achieving freedom through losing one’s independence. Then, eventually and ultimately, results into a miserable and unhappy life.

Heart of Darkness: A Voyage of Discovery and Self-discovery

“I’ve seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire…”
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Chapter I

Written by Conrad on 1890 and set in the jungles of African Congo, The Heart of Darkness tells the story of Marlow’s journey – a voyage of discovery and self-discovery. The actual narrator of the novel is the man who aboard the Nellie anchored at the mouth of the Thames, who hears Marlow’s story. He sits down and tells the story of Marlow. It is actually a narration in a narration.
The story centers on Marlow, an introspective sailor and a riverboat captain with the Company, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities. While he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, he encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations – the native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents. He arrives at the Central Station, run by the general manager. As his interest in Kurtz grows, his steamboat has been wrecked. Marlow eventually gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents (pilgrims and cannibals). Not long after, Marlow and his companions arrive at Kurtz’s Inner Station. The manager brings Kurtz, who is quite ill, aboard the steamer. As they steam back downriver, Kurtz's life slowly ebbs away. On his deathbed, he has what seems to be a moment of illumination, of complete knowledge, and he cries out, "The horror! The horror!" before he dies. Eventually, Marlow returns to Europe and goes to see Kurtz’s Intended (his fiancée who’s still mourning). She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her that Kurtz’s last word was her name.
Obviously, there are white/black and light/dark in the story. Traditional interpretations of lightness and darkness tend to correlate lightness with goodness and purity, and darkness with evil and corruption. However, in Heart of Darkness, the definitions of lightness and darkness can be reversed. Darkness means truth, whiteness means falsehood. Darkness can be interpreted to stand for the purity and innocence of the natives’ lifestyle, while lightness can be seen as the corruption, greed, and exploitative ways of the white men.
The native's lifestyles are dramatically changed when their land is dominated by the overpowering white men. The whites expect the natives to follow and comply with their demands once the natives homelands were invaded because the whites considered themselves civilized and thought of the natives as savages. Color of skin is used by the whites to rationalize their actions towards the natives. In the journey, Marlow discovers massacre, turtore, cruelty, slavery, a crew of sickly African workers who have crawled away to die, he sees “a nigger [was] being beaten,” he recognizes that Kurtz, who made himself god to be worshipped, seized ivory from the Africans through violence, brutality, and intimidation, and natives are murdered, killed, and stolen of their ivory. Aside from his discoveries, we, as readers, can also discover and gather evidences and proofs about the evil colonizers. There is a dehumanization when Conrad (or Marlow) describes the native Africans as “moving around as ants.” This kind of dehumanization is harder to identify than colonial violence or open racism. While Heart of Darkness offers a powerful condemnation of the hypocritical operations of imperialism, it also presents a set of issues surrounding race that is ultimately more troubling. He is stereotyping the Africans as savage and primitive who deserve our compassion but not our respect. Also, he is underestimating the natives when he say “I don’t think a single one of them had any clear idea of time…. They still belonged to the begginings of time – had no inherited experience to them as they were.” They may not have watches or clocks but they have their own way of reading the time, days, months and years. We see the Whites completely dominate the Blacks, who were forced to work till physical exhaustion. The blacks are not given any personal traits or uniqueness unless they possess a similarity to the Whites. Even then, we see no glimpse of humanity in their characters. Thus, it is very clear that colonizers or the Whites feel superior because they are civilized, educated and their skin is light and white; and the natives are inferior because they are animal-like, black, uneducated, uncivilized and savages.
In Chapter Two, Whites think they own whaterver land they land on. “Why not? Anything – anything can be done in this country.” As Marlow met Kurtz, he heared him saying, “’My Intended, my ivory, my station, my river, my –‘ everything belonged to him.” These passages show that they, Whites, seem to own the country because, like possession, you can do anything about it. They are just colonizers, now, they think they have already owned the land? Hence, they are not only oppressing the people but also they take advantage of the situation to own and possess the ‘country’ or the ‘land’. Their so-called reason is to civilized and educate the savages. However, once they get there, they would take advantage of the situation to enjoy and possess the richness and fatness of the people and the land. European colonizers are worst types of “devils” because they are hypocritical about their own evil, perpetrating it in the name of civilization.
It is quite vivid that women or females do not play a very prominent and major role in the novel Heart of Darkness. Whenever woman is part of the conversation, they don’t totally speak (I mean no dialogue is included in the novella, kind of speechless) or if they do, they only speak a bit, only a short phrase. One main reason for this is that a steamboat plodding down the Congo River during the Imperial Age wasn't a popular place for women. Throughout the book, three women are mainly mentioned: Marlow's aunt, Kurtz's intended and Kurtz's African mistress. The mention of Marlow's Aunt came at the beginning of the book in Chapter One when she offers to help him find work on a ship. When Marlow gets the job on the steamboat, he has tea with his aunt to say goodbye. Afterwhich, his aunt comments about how Marlow will be bringing civilization to the savages. In response, Marlow is quick to correct her that "the Company was run for profit." It is here that the reader first learns of Marlow's attitude towards women. He, thus, thinks women are "out of touch with truth" and that "they live in a world of their own," a world, that if exposed to the conditions of man's world would quickly deteriorate.
Later, we notice of Kurtz's intended. Kurtz spoke of her as his Intended – his property. The view of women during this time was that they were extremely fragile creatures and needed to be protected from the dangers of the world. Also, when Kurtz is boarding the steam ship, his African mistress, heavily adorned in ivory is seen standing on the shore. Hence, it is apparent here that Kurtz viewed women as a way to showcase his wealth and success (in both societies).
Conrad's African version of womanhood and sexuality as real and potent while the Intended is a pure Victorian fantasy, a tradition of the English novel which includes such stereotypes of the fair, insipid heroine. Furthermore, by depicting the native woman as speechless, Conrad places her at the center of issues of colonialism.
It is important to take in to consideration the historical context of this book: The Victorian Era when women were viewed as sweet and naïve which is important to the overall meaning of the book, because this naivete is what justifies colonial expansion and empirical economic growth.
Marlow and Kurtz are the light and dark selves of a single person. Marlow is what Kurtz might have been, and Kurtz is what Marlow might have become. Kurtz represents what Marlow most fears about himself as he undertakes this journey into the interior of Africa. Kurtz, like Marlow,originally came to the Congo with noble intentions. Kurtz might never have revealed his evil nature if he had not been cornered and tortured by the manager. Both of these men were intrigued by mystery, by the Darkness of the Congo and both are changed from the same aspect of the vast enigma. Kurtz shows us the consequence of inadequate self-knowledge. He journeys to Africa eager to do good, and completely unaware of the dark side of his nature, the side that will respond to the call of the primitive. This is the dark side of every man. Every man has his own Heart of Darkness. It's Marlow who comes to know this side of himself. Marlow learns that he has to acknowledge his own heart of darkness, the call of the primitive in his own nature. This is the spiritual journey that he takes. He is not just journeying physically, but also spiritually – knowing and discovering his self and the darkness within him. Like him, we are on a journey and hopefully in this voyage, we can discover our self and so with our darkness. If you aren't aware of the darkness within you, you won't know how to fight it if you ever need to.