The Different Customs and Moral Principles of the Filipino Nation Reading books has many benefits both mentally and morally. Firstly, your mind will be active and engaged into old age, and reading can help you forget the problems in your life, and get you captivated by the adventures of someone else or by the author itself. Reading is a fun and great way to leave the stresses of your life and Just unwind.
Through reading it can also improve one's skill and strategy use, builds fluency, enlarges scapulars, and builds knowledge of the world. And so we are given a task to read Filipino fiction books. There is a range of choice of books that were given to us and I choose the book of F. Session Jose, entitled Tree. Francisco Session Jose or simply known as F. Session Jose, he is one of the most prominent authors of literary books in the Philippines; he created a lot of books that tackled the different issues such as domination, deliverance, compassion, social prejudice and so on.
F. Session Jose has been called a Philippine national treasure too. He was born on December 3, 1924 in Resale, Philippines. He was introduced to literature in public school and later at the University of Santos Atoms. While working as a Journalist in Manila, he began his interest in writing short stories and eventually novels. One of the books that he created which is known as the Resale novels that earned several awards like the 1980 Ramona Massage's Award, 2001 National Artist Award for Literature and the 2004 Pablo Neared Centennial Award is the book entitled Tree.
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According to Session Jose, as stated at the back of his book, "Tree is a story of a boy growing up in a small Looking town, surrounded by friends below his social class, by relatives and doting servants who have served his family all their lives. It is also a story of oppression and compassion"see, F. S. , 1978). Tree is one of his few masterpieces' in which I have the chance to read and I assume that this book was written based from the author's experience since it is written in the first person point of view.
I decided to use the social and the moral-philosophical approach in discussing the story. Tree is a story that tackles about the different customs that are practiced by the Filipinos and it is also a narrative that teaches moral values. The story happened in a small town of Resale in the province of Panamanian, during the year sass's, the period of the American and Japanese colonization in the Philippines. The story revolves about a young boy who is growing up where in he is surrounded by his friends, family, servants who are all lower than his social status.
The boy is growing up together with his father who is very prominent in their town because his father is working for a big person who is Don Vaccine, a well-known land owner in Resale. His father is known o be as an assistant of Don Vaccine and he also has the authority to possess lands and persuade people as he pleases. The young boy grew up in a kind of life that everybody dreamed of. There is no need for him to work to have something to eat, to live; everything is well provided for him by his father.
Even the young boy grew up together with his father with a life that is very comfortable; his relationship with his father is distant and remote. He only sees his father very often and they even talk giving birth (pig. 9). And all that is left for him were the memories how people would scribe how beautiful her mother is and stories from people about how his father had loved her mother so much. And so the young boy still thirsts for her mother's presence and loving care. He even foolishly wishes to see her mother even she would be a pallid spirit.
In some way, he feels proud whenever people would praise her mother however he still feels the sense of loss and futility (pig. 9). But even though he doesn't have a mother beside him, still he grew up with proper manners and a submissive child. He is a young boy who never Judges those people who are around IM despite the differences between social standing. He never chooses people to mingle. He makes friends to all and treasures them as a part of his life since he has this belief that those people he meet along the way teaches him different lessons in life that would make him a better person.
Like his friend Angel, who strives to make a difference for himself by Joining what his heart truly desires to be a soldier because he believes that is where he would really belong, he does not want to be a servant for all his life and serve their family Just to pay the debts of his dead parent's. Angel imply wants freedom for himself and so he told his preparation to escape and Join those soldiers in the mountain to fight against what should be for them to the young boy. Hilled is another friend of the main character in the story (pig. 14).
Hilled is a girl somewhat about his age who is a member of the circus team that performs walking in a tightrope up in the heights. As his friend, Hilled taught him a lot of things in life, even at a young age Hilled work already Just to earn money and have something to eat. She uses her skills in entertaining. She almost disregarded her studies and Just soused on performing in the circus team to be able to help her parent's and those who are expecting from them. Cousin Marcelo, a relative of the main character in the story also made an impact in his life. Cousin Marcelo was a very educated man and a good role model for the main character.
Despite the knowledge that he gained from studying, he never used it for immorality, to take advantage to his fellowmen. Since he is educated, he knows how to use his knowledge properly and at the right instances. Another character in the story is Old David and Seep. They are the loyal Emily servants who were devoted and willing to serve until the end for the main character's family. They already spent their whole life in serving the family because they owe a lot to the family for giving them a good life and a steady Job. Tree is also a literary work that exhibits different cultures and beliefs.
Since the setting of the story happened during the period of sass's it expected that cultures and traditions during that time is still practiced. Like one in the chapters in the story that narrates about the happenings during their town fiesta that happened in the month of June. The month of June is a month that is full of festivities for Resale(pig. 14). Everybody is expecting for big undertakings during their town fiesta since there are many people who would come and celebrate with them and what's most exciting is that the circus would also arrive and be a highlight for the event.
During their time, town festivities won't be a success without the fiesta of their patron San Antonio De Pads, the competition for the fiesta queen and the presentation from the circus team which is usually held in their plaza. Another tradition that is present in the story when their orientated passed away. They practiced this tradition of mourning that is still day of the burial of the dead and it is celebrated with dining and drinking depending on the finances of the bereaved family.
The relatives of the deceased are also required to be dressed in black mourning clothes and black bands for a year until the period of mourning would end. But those relatives who are not directly related to the deceased may stop wearing the black clothing for mourning. In the story during the special occasions like the holidays particularly during Christmas, they prepare a big feast. It's their custom to celebrate Christmas with all the family, the servants, friends and relatives that even they are far from Resale they still give effort to attend the Christmas celebration held every year.
In the story of Tree, it also narrated the different social injustices, compassion and oppression that take part in the story. One of which is a property-owner versus a peasant. If you are a peasant you don't have the power to persuade the landowner to stop from possessing your land. If you disobey and refuse to agree with what they want, certainly those peasants would be rut and they would make sure that those people who challenged them would be destroyed (pig. 1 1). There is no equality for the marginalia people during their time.
Justice can only be served to those who are wealthy, to those who have strong influence and with the ability to manipulate things or even people through the use of money. Through their money and their high social status, everything for them is achievable. The book also showed portrayal about compassion. It is during the time that the father of the young boy presented him to her mother's grave and he was introduced to his mother grave. The theme of the story tells us that life is can be painted by those people who are around us.
They can help us grow, mature and go out with our comfort zones and mold us into better persons through the way they influence us in different ways. Since those people around you shared their learning through experiences in their existence. Those characters mentioned in this paper made an impact to the main character on how he should face the trials in life and how to be a good person. He learned that being a good listener, responsible, humility and being tough is essential in life. Another thing is that money is not the answer to everything, morals are more important to most people.
How much values you have for yourself the more people would learn to value, respect and look up to you. The tree or the title of the book itself is the symbol in the story. The ablate tree in particular. The ablate tree as described in the book is meant to give shade from the sun and also from the rain (pig. 2). The tree seemed like ageless it's so huge and taller than the church (pig. 2). The tree is the witness to all happenings in the town. It seems to be unyielding. Even when an American soldier with an excavator runs into it, the ere survives and the excavator was destroyed.
It is also important to note that underneath the ablate tree nothing grows. In Tree, the author uses this representation to suggest that, left to its own device; maybe the Philippines might have prospered but it is never achieved. After all, the tree was indigenous. Tree is a novel supplied with cultural experience that is mixed moral reference. It also showed the importance of having social standing in a society. It also portrayed the way of living during the early period in the Philippines and the struggles of those people who have low social status.
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