Philippine Literature is like a treasure chest for me.

Since I was a child, I've seen different kinds of

treasure chest on movies, cartoons, dramas etc. Most of the time, it contains gold, jewelries and money
but the treasure chest in my essay is the Philippine Literature. The Philippine Literature contains many
things too but unlike a normal treasure chest, it contains amazing and beautiful literary works like folk
tale, epic, poetry, awit, korido, short story, novella, essay and more that are much valuable than any
gold, jewelry and money in the world. The Philippine Literature treasure chest that came from the pre-
colonial period of our country is now gifted to the Filipinos of 21st Century which is us. Philippine
Literature is a conglomeration of creativity, aspirations and experiences of numerous writers across time.

The authors of Philippine Literature are tremendously creative. Even before the Spaniards colonized us,
we already had literature. We started from proverbs, riddles, tanaga and folk songs that was created to
give life lessons, to challenge wits and to entertain. We also had folk narratives like myth, legends, folk
tales and epics that gave us stories which is about how the world is created, where we came from,
stories of undying love and mightiness of heroes from the past in an artistic way. Most of the literature in
the precolonial period of the Philippines are amazingly handed down by the word of mouth from their
generation to the present generation, like the 21st century now, even if the Spaniards tried to suppress
the arts, literature or culture from the precolonial period.

We were colonized by the Spaniards for 333 years but because of the aspirations of Filipino writers
especially Dr. Jose Rizal to be free from them, we were finally released. His writings like Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo inspired many Filipinos especially Andres Bonifacio to fight against the Spaniards.
Not finishing his normal education, Bonifacio enriched his natural intelligence with self-education and by
reading literary works like Noli me Tangere, Les Miserables etc. which encouraged him to fight against
the Spaniards so he joined Jose Rizal's peaceful La Liga group but he believed that Filipinos should fight
by force. He founded Katipunan rebel group, which declared independence from Spain in 1896 and
surrounded Manila with guerrilla fighters. The aspirations of Philippine Literature writers are really
exceptional.

The stories and experiences of Filipinos from the Precolonial period, Spanish colonization era, American
colonization era, Japanese colonization era, Postcolonial Philippines, Marcos era to the 5th republic of the
Philippines where remembered and told because of literature. The Philippine Literature showed the
experiences of Filipinos from the past magnificently. May it be fiction or nonfiction, most of it still
showed how the Filipinos lived, what are the problems they encountered and how they stood up again
and again after the terrible circumstances they experienced. The history of the Filipinos in the past made
me appreciate the freedom and democracy that I have in the present more.

I therefore conclude that the Philippine Literature is like a treasure chest that contains amazing and
beautiful literary works that are much valuable than any gold, jewelries and money in the world. The
authors of Philippine Literature are tremendously creative too. The aspirations of Philippine Literature
writers are also really exceptional. The Philippine Literature showed the experiences of Filipinos from the
past magnificently. The history of the Filipinos in the past made me appreciate the freedom and
democracy that I have in the present more. Philippine Literature is a conglomeration of creativity,
aspirations and experiences of numerous writers across time indeed.