Frances Tracy C.

Pasicolan BS Management II- B Lit 1- H (MTh 1:00-2:30 pm)

A Social Cancer
(An Essay for Jun Cruz Reyess Utos ng Hari)

The story exposes the hierarchy of authority in our society, the superior (the teachers who think
they are kings) over the inferior (the students who should only comply with what command of
the kings is and to never question). It shows the powerlessness of a student in breaking free
from the confinements of the traditional education system and in changing the system. Jojo Boy,
a delinquent yet an intellectual student studying in Philippine School for Science and
Technology. He who has always something to saysomething to question or to answer in
disagreement with what his teachers are sayingbut could not speak up because no one would
even dare to listen or to consider his thoughts because his teachers seem to know everything and
seem to know the truth though they are not. He is particularly a nobody, disliked by his
teachers because of his attitude and thinking which they perceived as unruly and unacceptable.
His sense of decorum is inapplicable in the strict and critical system of the school/university, and
how Jojo perceived the crooked sense of decorum and culture the institution has.
Judging the story from its environment and time, the setting was in 1970s, not only the
decade of punk rock, disco, but also a decade of civil, political, and social unrest. The setting was
during the Marshall Law under the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. The story is an
allegory of the oppression of the weak and subordinate and the struggle of the inferior to be
heard and to reform the dysfunctional system of our institution. History reveals how the masses
were oppressed and suppressed by the elites, the ruling class of the society, cutting their
tongues, and disabling them to speak. In the persona of Jojo and Minyong , the story uncovers
how the oppressed were considered to be different or crazy, a threat to the authority and
system that needs to be eliminated so society will not be infected. The story reveals how the
authority can direct and control its subordinate like a puppet or a robot. The story also reveals the
colonial mentality present among Filipinos; Philippines still a puppet, which merely mimics what
its master does, of the America. How, those who break free from the circle of the society were
silenced to death, and whose remains were never seen again. Basically, the story presents a social
maladysocial injustices and inequalitiesthat is still evident in our society.