The National Teachers College
School of Advanced Studies
Master of Arts in Education in English
LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM
Mr. Allen Dave B. Arboleda
Professor
A TRIDIMENSIONAL SURVEY OF WILFREDO PA. VIRTUSIO’S VOICE TAPE
(Moral-Philosophical, Formal and Feminism)
ARMA B. CANTRE
INTRODUCTION
Voice Tape is a prize winning short story of Filipino author, Wilfredo Pa. Virtusio. It is found in the book, Bilanggo At Iba Pang Akda published in 1992 with an introduction by no less than 2006 National Artist of the Philippines Bienvenido Lumbera. The story is a contemporary fiction set during the advent of Filipino workers migration abroad. The narrator is a taxi driver who was tempted to open a clutch bag left by a passenger with the hope
…show more content…
It was an exciting time for ordinary, strong-hearted Filipinos looking for a way out of poverty. The story sympathetically portrays the sad plight of these ordinary people just trying to improve their way of life.
In the story of Voice Tape, economic pressure forces the family head to seek a better life abroad. However, this has an evil twin. Loneliness, fear, and worry leave both parties alone to battle. Nevertheless this battle becomes doubly harder on the wife left behind to take care of the children and to face creditors on account of debts.
The story also forces us to look closely into the effect of a father’s separation to his family through the eyes of his children. We hear them asking their father to buy them chocolates and toys. This tendency to view their abroad father as a kind of Santa Claus who will give their wants is one dangerous effect of migration. It threateningly constricts authority of an absent parent as evidenced by Dely’s complaint that the children grow up to be hard-headed without a father in the house. The father becomes a one-dimensional figure with just one purpose: to provide material and financial support. The most important negative effect of workers’ migration, though understated in our society but highlighted in the story, is the loneliness experienced by both partners. What Mente asked Dely to do is unnatural and the listener’s cheeks burn with shame in behalf of the poor woman. Like a kid
Marisela reinforces some of Ravenstein’s laws which consist of, moving within proximity, big cities, more females migrate than men and the major causes of migration is economic. Marisela’s family relationships did grow apart and she still misses them very much. But she has no regrets of deciding to migrate to America
Johnson provides a brief account of the novella 's plot, together with his own perspective on the fact that so much of literature and literary analysis concentrates on the relationships that the characters have. In this case, the author examines the family as composed of children of ineffectual parents. While this writer does not know this with certainty, it is possible that many cases requiring family therapy are due to this very cause. The author then goes on to discuss the family in the context of the greater social system.
Edwidge Danticat uses her memoir to show how powerful a voice is to have, how it makes a difference in not only your life, but the ones without a voice, the ones who cannot speak for themselves. In the book, Brother, I’m Dying, written by Edwidge Danticat, which tells us how her younger life growing up in Haiti with her uncle, affects her after she moves to the US to be with her parents at the age of 10 years old, this drastically changes the relationships she has with her uncle and father, creating a new family dynamic. The suggestion of voice is shown in many ways, while her reasoning is constant, Danticat faced many situations in her life that have shaped her beliefs and formed her opinions on individual standings. Danticat’s memoir
This story represents both physical and emotional alienation as the separation of the younger brother was detrimental to both. In the story it states “For 20 years the little family I left behind wondered if I was alive, where I was and what I was like.” (81) showing that the family was deprived and missed the physical presence of the younger brother. They had no clue on what kind of a person he was and little to no recollection of his existence. The same thing can be said about the younger brother having no recollection of his family as he was taken away from a very young age. It was after twenty years, that the older brother was able to track the younger brother home; however the damage was already done. The older brother became quieter and more refined as he was deprived from a healthy brother relationship as stated by the author “It was hardest on my brother”(81). Also, the younger brother was completely isolated from his true family from an age of four, thus affecting him dearly as the author writes “… we don’t get that much time to visit anymore … brothers who never had the chance to age together” (82). The author also writes “At first it was tentative … we didn’t talk much” (82) showing how the isolation of the younger brother resulted in minimal conversations and alienated
"Sometimes a Voice" by Don McKay describes the want to rise above a current state. The first stanza introduces this idea as a voice wanting to be more than a voice. The second stanza takes the idea even further and places the reader inside of a situation, almost like a story. Furthermore, figurative language is used constantly by McKay to help get this theme into the reader's head. Even in the first few lines, McKay employs vivid imagery and personification to heighten the effect. The voice "wants not to be voice any longer,"(li. 2) He also describes how a voice "will hearken back to breath, or even farther" (li. 6) and is sometimes "a flight path still looking for its bird" (li. 8-9).
How not having a father figure affected their emotional and phycological well-being. Also, it taught the readers that sometimes having a father does not necessarily, mean they are a father figure, for example Mr. Clutter, he was there for his family and children, but he chose other things to be proud of instead of his children, he felt that his achievements were more important than his children’s
The first passage reveals the parallel suffering occurring in the lives of different members of the family, which emphasizes the echoes between the sufferings of the father and the narrator. The narrator’s father’s despair over having watched
“Migrant Hostel”, gives the responder a perspective of the plight of migrants and the trouble they face in building relationships due to the events in their past and the lack of understanding in the world around them. The metaphor of the “barrier at the main gate… Pointed in reprimand or shame” demonstrates how their housing affects them. A person cannot belong if they feel shamed, furthermore they consider themselves “birds of passage” with constant “comings and goings.” The constantly fluctuating events in their life results in an in-ability to form relationships as they have in-adequate time to form them, hindering belonging. Despite this shared “memories of hunger and hate” allowing some belonging, the alliteration emphasises the hardship of
In Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” tells of an individual reminiscing about their father and the sacrifices he made to provide for them. In the poem, the father was not appreciated for his contribution but the narrator seems to now acknowledge the hard work of the father. As the poem progresses the tone of the narrator is one of regret and remorse. The relationship of the parent and child is often one of misunderstanding and conflict until the experiences life more and come in grasps of the parent’s intention. So, the relation between a parent and child evolves as the child emerges to adulthood.
Ronald Takaki’s chapter in his sweeping 1989 text, Strangers from a Different Shore, “Dollar a Day, Dime a Dance: The Forgotten Filipinos”, outlines the experiences of primarily male Filipino immigrants to the U.S in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The author did a good job showing what the Filipino went through. Like many immigrants before them, they came seeking work and a better livelihood. They faced backbreaking work, low wages, and at time, extreme racism. However, in many ways the Filipino immigrant experiences were extremely different from other ethnic groups, the Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
“The Sound of a Voice” by David Henry Hwang is a one act play telling the story of two characters, Man and Woman. These characters both live alone and isolated. Woman is rumored to be a witch, and Man is a soldier without a purpose who comes in hope of killing Woman. They both have a fear of silence and love. These unusual fears result in their fatal downfall. This play explores deep emotions, such as the fear of silence that Man and Woman share which pushes Woman to commit suicide. A fear of intimacy, felt exceptionally strong by Man, results in unfortunate timing leading to Woman’s death. Loneliness displayed by both characters is the underlying cause of the outcome. These feelings play together to contribute to Man and Woman’s tragic love.
become a tedious mass of words. Voice is a logical facet of writing which, when
This collection of stories begins when the narrator Yunior and his brother Rafa who are 8 and 12, are sent to live with their uncle for the summer so their mother can work. Their father abandoned them when Yunior was 4 and their family lives in poverty, sometimes having to forgo food for clothes and other necessities. Their mother works sometimes 14 hour shifts, at a local chocolate factory while their grandfather watches them. When Yunior is 9 his father returns from the United States to bring them back. They live in an apartment and set up a new community in New Jersey. Although they still live in poverty, they do not want for food or other basic necessities. The stories then jump forward years to when Yunior is in high school and living with his mother. He works and helps pay the rent and other bills
The poem Suicide Note, written by Janice Mirikitani (1987), talks about a young lady, who has studied in an Asian-American female college. The lady, unfortunately, committed suicide by jumping through her dormitory’s window. She left behind a note, citing reasons that led to her actions. After a critical analysis of the note, her parents were held responsible for her actions; they were pressurizing her to perform better in her exams. The poem, thus, describes the real feelings and the emotions of this young lady, who believes that committing suicide is the only option left to please her parents and to escape the enormous pressure placed on her. The persona uses voice in the poem to bring our attention to the sufferings she was going through, and that led to the devastating event. Voice in poetry is the strong words of a line, stanza or a page that creates a relationship between the audience and the persona. Voice can, therefore, be categorized as imagery, patterns of sounds created, rhythm, tone, and diction (Gahern 166). The following is a description of how the voice in Mirikitani’s suicide note helps the reader understand the persona’s reasoning.
Father?s departure for the North Pole marks the beginning of what the family would have viewed as a decline in their quality of their lives. In truth however, they are merely opening their eyes to a world that is not as perfect as they had perceived. As Father?s ship left the harbor, a passing immigrant ship caught his gaze and he could not remove his eyes from them. He saw ';Thousands of male heads in derbies. Thousands of female heads covered with shawls. It was a rag ship with a million dark eyes staring at him. Father, a normally resolute person, suddenly foundered in his soul. A weird despair seized him.'; (12) At the first sight of hardship in his sheltered life, Father finds himself not knowing what to do, or to feel. He has never seen such poverty at such a close distance, and its very existence causes him to feel afraid almost. In the following chapter, Doctorow proceeds to speak of the immigrants: ?They were filthy and illiterate. They stank of fish and garlic. They had running sores. They had no honor and worked for next to nothing. They stole. They drank. They raped their own daughters. They killed each other casually.'; (13) Father?s unnerving brush with poverty leaves him stricken with hopelessness and a feeling of despair. Yet even then, the family had not witnessed the full truth of the lives of the impoverished immigrants. Doctorow then proceeds to describe in harsh, uncensored terms the