The bread of salt by nvm gonzales story. Analysis of the Bread of Salt Story Essay Example 2022-10-21
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"The Bread of Salt" by N.V.M. Gonzales is a short story about a young boy named Boyong who is tasked with delivering bread to a party for a wealthy young woman named Elena. Despite his initial reluctance to do the job, Boyong ultimately becomes enamored with Elena and begins to dream of a future with her.
As Boyong makes his way to the party, he becomes increasingly nervous about delivering the bread and making a good impression on Elena. When he finally arrives at the party, he is overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the wealthy guests and feels out of place among them. However, his nerves are quickly forgotten when he sees Elena for the first time. She is beautiful and poised, and Boyong is immediately smitten.
Despite his attraction to Elena, Boyong is aware that their social status is vastly different and that he is not worthy of her. He tries to push his feelings for her aside and focus on his duties, but he finds it difficult to do so. As the party comes to a close, Boyong is heartbroken when he sees Elena leave with a wealthy suitor. He realizes that he will never have a chance with her and resigns himself to his place in society.
As Boyong walks home, he is consumed by feelings of loss and regret. He wishes he had been more confident and had spoken up for himself, but he knows it is too late now. As he reaches his home, he finds that the bread he had been carrying has become stale and hard, much like his own dreams.
In the end, "The Bread of Salt" is a poignant tale of unrequited love and the harsh realities of social class. It shows that no matter how hard one may wish for something, it is not always possible to overcome the barriers that society has imposed. Despite this, Boyong's feelings for Elena remain a constant reminder of what could have been, and he is left to wonder what might have happened if he had been brave enough to pursue his dreams.
Analysis of the Bread of Salt Story Essay Example
The story, in terms of its elements, contains the structure of the Freytag pyramid. I might have honored her solicitude adequately and even relieved myself of any embarrassment; I could not quite believe that she had seen me, and yet I was sure that she knew what I had done, and I felt all ardor for her gone from me entirely. Long considered the dean of modern Philippine literature, N. I brought a handkerchief to my mouth. Within the worldwide scholarly community, University of Hawai'i Press is recognized as a leading publisher of books and journals in Asian, Asian American, and Pacific studies. The boy embarrasses himself in front of the girl he likes and the fact that she offered him more food made him realize that they do not meant for each other. This scene shows the boy to where exactly he belongs — to the lower class.
The Bread of Salt and Other Stories by N. V. M. Gonzalez, Paperback
The tradition, the thinking and other cultural elements of the story reflect the way people live in a particular period. Why did the bread come nut-brown and the size of my little fist? The story set off in the pursuit of a fourteen- year-old boy in his dream of being a violinist and to confess his feelings towards the girl he likes, however things did not go according to his plan. The story started and ended the same with the boy buying a pan de sal. Manoa is a unique, award-winning literary journal that includes American and international fiction, poetry, artwork, and essays of current cultural or literary interest. Her real purpose, I knew, was to reveal thus her assent to my desire. An outstanding feature of each issue is original translations of contemporary work from Asian and Pacific nations, selected for each issue by a special guest editor. The aforementioned line was taken from a fiction integrating art, history, chess and mystery, creating a web of complex thinking strategies and problem solving skills involving an equivocally complex way of decision making.
The bread of salt and other stories : González, N. V. M., 1915
Nonetheless, his primary metaphor is his colonial island homeland, and his stories are peopled with the farmers and fishermen, the schoolteachers and small-town merchants, "the underclass who constitute the majority in all societies. All my doubts disappeared. He realizes that he is like the pan de sal, not yet ready. All these untold aspirations seemed true to him. Since the story took place in the Spanish era, the present binary opposition is the concept of race and social status.
One only needs to look at the apparent elements of the short story to see that it was written by a Filipino for Filipinos. The story shows the big gap between the characters: the boy as the poor who belongs to the lower class and the girl, Aida, as the superior mestiza who belongs to the upper class of society. The language and its imagery, the characters and their aspirations, all connect powerfully with the reader and serve to illuminate the dreams of exiles and colonials, suggesting what it was like, as a Filipino, to witness the endless interacting of cultures. She was born in San Francisco's Chinatown and grew up in Hong Kong. On quiet mornings I imagined the patter of her shoes upon the wooden veranda floor as a further sign, and I would hurry off to school, taking the route she had fixed for me past the post office, the town plaza and the church, the health center east of the plaza, and at last the school grounds. The bread of salt! Her remark ight have been due to genuine charity and concern, but nevertheless, it made clear to the young man that his lack of finesse, probably due to his social orientation, was the setback which makes the materialization of his dreams almost, if not already, impossible.
Just like the pan de sal , the boy is not yet ready to face the real challenges of life. In the story, the bread of salt signifies the boy in the association of the color and size of the pan de sal. It is apparent in the story that the tiresome duty of his is becoming a burden to him already, to which his only compensations are the daily revival of his childish curiosity and marvel as regards to the creation of the ubiquitous breakfast table item and a good look at the ocean, in which somewhere in the landscape, he catches a glimpse of the old Spanish house where his Dulcinea dwells. He made himself stronger and more capable in the field of sports, music and academics. The intensity of his love for the young girl, however, also instilled in him an initiative to improve. Neither were his band mates.
Similarly to other stories, this story contains exposition, rising action, climas, falling action and resolution. Gonzalez has influenced an entire generation of young Philippine writers and has also acquired a devoted international readership. His books, however, are not widely available in this country. For my reward, I had only to look in the direction of the sea wall and the fifty yards or so of riverbed beyond it, where an old Spaniard's house stood. Aida is the niece of a wealthy Spaniard, while the boy is just living a simple life with his grandmother. Beautifully produced, Manoa presents traditional alongside contemporary writings from the entire Pacific Rim, one of the world's most dynamic literary regions.
This theme regarding the conflict between what exists in the mind and what physically or actually exists is also the same the. And that he claims to have known it all along no matter how much she tries to be discreet. And the writer, whose ingenuity is remarkable, was able to depict the sad facets of the tradition of his people with the aim of providing a reason to contemplate. I believed it was but right that, in some such way as this, her mission in my life was disguised. He took this as the opportunity to earn money for the much-awaited proposal with the stationery and the brooch.
And why did it have a pair of lips convulsed into a painful frown? Disciplines covered include the arts, history, language, literature, natural science, philosophy, religion, and the social sciences. Adeva already appeared asked aunt become began better brought called caught clear coming course Cris dark door Elay eyes face fact father feel feet felt five followed girl give gone Greg ground hand head heard held Hidalgo hold hour It's joined keep kind knew ladies later leaves Leynes light lived look Lopez matter mind Miss Miss Inocencio morning mother moved Nanay never night offered once perhaps Perls Philip pressed reached remember returned rice sailor seemed side smiled sound stay steps stood stopped stories street supper talking Tarang Tatay tell things thought told took town tree turned Uncle Vidal voice wait walked wall wanted watch wife wind woman young Ruthanne Lum McCunn is the author of the highly acclaimed novel Thousand Pieces of Gold, as well as a pictorial history, Chinese American Portraits: Personal Histories, 1828-1988. The University of Hawai'i Press also serves as a distributor for more than 140 scholarly publishers in North America, Asia, the Pacific, and elsewhere. If now I kept true to the virtues, she would step out of her bedroom ostensibly to say Good Morning to her uncle. The story goes back to where exactly it was started with the boy buying pan de sal. Everything revolves around a puzzle to which one must separate the facts from the notions. I asked myself whether I would try to walk with her and decided it would be the height of rudeness.
This is a powerful collection, both for the unity and universality of the author's subjects and themes and for the distinctive character of his prose style. However, a Filipino can understand how things or attitudes like these take place in the environment in which they exist. Pan de sal was described as nut-brown and just the size of the little fist of the boy, similarly to the boy. He even thought that the latter also holds romantic interests in him, albeit hidden. Long considered the dean of modern Philippine literature, N.
The Bread of Salt and Other Stories provides a retrospective selection of sixteen of his short stories all originally written in English , arranged in order of their writing, from the early 1950s to the present day. His message is humane, moral, tellingly accurate, and gently ironic; he is neither sentimental nor doctrinaire. One will also notice how art, and in this case, music, was viewed by the majority then. The story opened and ended with it; the life of the protagonist daily revolved around the task of buying it and with his own money he decided to purchase some, though this time it was only for himself. In one of his sporadic yet usual daydreaming, he imagines himself as the destined one for Aida.
