21st Century Philippine Short Story

Written Report in 21st Century Literature

Presented to:

Ms. Marevel B. Caburnay

Of the Department of English

Senior High School

Lala National High School

Maranding, Lala, Lanao del Norte

In Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Subject

21st Century Literature

S.Y. 2019-2020

By:

Serrano, Brielle Kyle O.

Sortido, Earl-la L.

Baricuatro, John Lester M.

July 5, 2019
INTRODUCTION

A short story is a short work of fiction. Fiction, as you know, is prose writing about
imagined events and characters. Prose writing differs from poetry in that it does not
depend on verses, meters or rhymes for its organization and presentation. Dictionaries
define a short story as "a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and
less elaborate than a novel."

The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or
a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise
narrative, and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and
dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. Despite its relatively limited scope,
though, a short story is often judged by its ability to provide a “complete” or satisfying
treatment of its characters and subject. Before the 19th century the short story was not
generally regarded as a distinct literary form. But although in this sense it may seem to
be a uniquely modern genre, the fact is that short prose fiction is nearly as old as
language itself. Throughout history humankind has enjoyed various types of brief
narratives: jests, anecdotes, studied digressions, short allegorical romances, moralizing
fairy tales, short myths, and abbreviated historical legends. Short stories are complete
works of fiction generally exhibiting the common literary devices of; character, setting,
plot, conflict, and theme.
UNLOCKING OF DIFFICULT TERMS

The following are the terms used in thus lesson. It is intended to assist in
understanding uncommon used terms and concept in this lesson.

Acolyte – someone who follows and admires a leader.

Adamantly – not willing to change an opinion or decision.

Aptitude – a natural ability to do something or to learn something.

Baffled – to confuse someone completely.

Candelabras – an object with several branches for holding candles or light.

Cherubs – a type of angel that is usually shown in art as a beautiful young child with
small wings and a round face and body.

Pungent – having a strong sharp taste or smell.

Sinverguenza – a Spanish term which means shameless or brazen person.

Tyrant – someone who uses power in a cruel and unfair way.

Wither – a plant to become dry and weak.

Wreaths – an arrangement of leaves and flowers in the shape of a circle that is worn or
placed as a sign of honor or victory.
SAMPLE OF THE MASTERPIECE

SINIGANG

by Marby Villaceran

“SO, what happened?”

She had finally decided to ask the question. I had been wondering how long my Tita
Loleng could contain her curiosity.

I continued to pick out tomatoes for the sinigang we were to have for dinner. I wasn’t
usually the one who assisted my aunt with the cooking. She preferred my younger
sister, Meg, for I knew far less in this area—not having the aptitude, or the interest, I
guess—for remembering recipes. That didn’t matter today, though. This time, Tita
Loleng wanted more than just an extra pair of hands in the kitchen.

“Nothing much,” I answered offhandedly. “We did what people usually do during
funerals.” I reminded myself to tread carefully with her. Though I did not really feel like
talking, I could not tell her off for she took offense rather easily.

I put the tomatoes in the small palanggana, careful not to bruise their delicate skin, and
carried them to the sink.
“Did you meet…her?” Tita Loleng asked.

There came to me a memory of sitting in one of the smaller narra sofas in the living
room in Bulacan. I faced a smooth white coffin whose corners bore gold-plated figures
of cherubs framed by elaborate swirls resembling thick, curling vines. Two golden
candelabras, each supporting three rows of high-wattage electric candles, flanked the
coffin and seared the white kalachuchi in the funeral wreaths, causing the flowers to
release more of their heady scent before they wilted prematurely. Through an open
doorway, I could see into the next room where a few unfamiliar faces held murmured
conversations above their coffee cups.

“Are you Liza?” A woman beside me suddenly asked.

I was surprised, for I had not heard anyone approaching. Most of the mourners
preferred to stay out on the veranda for fear that the heat from the lights might also
cause them to wither.

I looked up slowly: long, slim feet with mauve-painted toenails that peeked through the
opening of a pair of scruffy-looking slippers; smooth legs unmarred by swollen veins or
scars—so unlike the spider-veined legs of my mom—encased in a black, pencil-cut
skirt; a white blouse with its sleeves too long for the wearer, causing the extra fabric to
bunch around the cuffs; a slim neck whose skin sagged just a little bit; and a pale face
that seemed like it had not experienced sleep in days. The woman looked to me like she
was in her forties—the same age as my mother.

“Yes,” I had answered that woman—the same answer I now gave to Tita Loleng.

I gently spilled out all the tomatoes into the sink and turned on the tap. The water, like
agua bendita, cleansed each tomato of the grime from its origins.

“What did she tell you?” Tita Loleng asked.

“Nothing much. She told me who she was.”

“What did she look like?”

“She’s pretty, I guess.”

She was. She looked like she had Indian blood with her sharp nose and deep-set eyes
thickly bordered by long lashes. Just like Mom, she still maintained a slim figure though
she already had children. The woman, upon seeing my curious stare, had explained, “I
am Sylvia.”

All my muscles tensed upon hearing her name. It took all my self-control to outwardly
remain calm and simply raise an eyebrow.

My reaction caused a range of emotion to cross the woman’s face before it finally
crumbled and gave way to tears. Suddenly, she grabbed my hand from where it had
been resting on the arm of the sofa. Her own hands were damp and sticky with sweat.
She knelt in front of me—a sinner confessing before a priest so he could wash away the
dirt from her past.

But I was not a priest. I looked down at her and my face remained impassive.

When her weeping had subsided, she raised her head and looked at me. “Everyone
makes mistakes, Liza.” Her eyes begged for understanding.

It was a line straight out of a Filipino soap opera. I had a feeling that the whole situation
was a scene from a very bad melodrama I was watching. I looked around to see if
anyone had witnessed the spectacle unfolding in this living room, but it was as if an
invisible director had banned all but the actors from the set. Except for us, not a soul
could be seen.

I wanted Sylvia to free my hand so I nodded and pretended to understand. Apparently

convinced, she let go and, to my shock, suddenly hugged me tight. My nose wrinkled as
the pungent mix of heavy perfume and sweat assailed me. I wanted to scream at her to
let go but I did not move away.
“Hmm, I think they’re washed enough na.” Tita Loleng said.

Turning off the tap, I placed the tomatoes inside the basin once more. Then, as an
afterthought, I told my Tita, “I don’t think she is as pretty as Mom, though.”

Tita Loleng nodded understandingly. She gestured for me to place the basin on the
table where she already had the knives and chopping board ready.

“Where was your Dad when she was talking to you?”

“Oh, he was sleeping in one of the bedrooms. Mom did not want to wake him up
because they told her he had not slept for two nights straight.”

Tita Loleng snorted. “Haay, your mother talaga,” she said, shaking her head.

I had to smile at that before continuing. “When he saw me, Sylvia had already been
called away to entertain some of the visitors.”

“Was he surprised to see you?” Tita knew that I had not wanted to go to the funeral.
Actually, she was one of the few people who respected, and understood, my decision.

“No.” I sliced each of the tomatoes in quarters. The blade of the knife clacked fiercely
against the hard wood of the chopping board. “He requested Mom to make me go
there.” We both knew that I could never have refused my mother once she insisted that
I attend. I had even gone out and gotten drunk with some friends the night before we
were to leave just so I could have an excuse not to go, but my mom was inflexible. She
had ordered my two sisters to wake me up.

Tita Loleng gave me a sympathetic look. “No choice then, huh?” She was forever
baffled at the way my mother could be such a martyr when it came to my father and
such a tyrant to her children.

Clack! Clack! The knife hacked violently against the board.

“Nope.”

When my Dad had come out of the room, I remembered sensing it immediately—the
same way an animal instinctively perceives when it is in danger. I had been looking at
the face of my dead half-brother, searching for any resemblance between us.
Chemotherapy had sunk his cheeks and had made his hair fall out, but even in this
condition, I could see how handsome he must have been before his treatment. His
framed photograph atop the glass covering of the coffin confirmed this. Lem took after
my father so much that Dad could never even hope to deny that he was his son. I, on
the other hand, had taken after my mother.

I knew my father was staring at me but I refused look at him. He approached and stood
next to me. I remained silent.

“I am glad you came,” he said.

I gave him a non-committal nod, not even glancing his way.

Tita Loleng interrupted my thoughts with another one of her questions. “Did you cry?”

I shook my head vehemently as I answered, “No.”

I took the sliced tomatoes, surprised to find not even a splinter of wood with them, as
well as the onions Tita Loleng had chopped and put them in a pot. “What next?” I asked
her.

“The salt.” Then she went and added a heaping tablespoonful of salt to the pot.

“Is that all?”

“Uh-huh. Your Mom and I prefer it a bit saltier, but your Dad likes it this way.” Then she
gestured towards the pot, closing and opening her fist like a baby flexing its fingers.

I started crushing the onions, tomatoes, and salt together with my hand.
“He was an acolyte in church,” my father had said then, finally splintering the silence I
had adamantly maintained. “Father Mario said that we shouldn’t feel sad because Lem
is assured of going to a better place because he was such a good child.” Good, I
thought, unlike me whom he always called “Sinverguenza”, the shameless daughter.

I finally turned to him. There was only one question I needed to ask. “Why?”

He met my gaze. I waited but he would not—could not— answer me. He looked away.

My mask of indifference slipped. It felt like a giant hand was rubbing salt into me,
squeezing and mashing, unsatisfied until all of me had been crushed.

“Stop it na, Liza!” Tita Loleng exclaimed. “Anymore of that mashing and you will be
putting bits of your own flesh and bone in there,” my aunt warned. She went to the
refrigerator and took out plastic bags containing vegetables. She placed them in the
sink. “All of these will be needed for the sinigang,” she said. “Prepare them while you’re
softening the meat.” Then she took off her apron, “You go and finish off here. I will just
go to my room and stretch my back out a bit.” With a tender pat on my head, she
walked out of the kitchen.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The questions had stopped, for now.

I poured the hugas bigas into the mass of crushed onions and tomatoes and added the
chunks of beef into the concoction before covering the pot and placing it on the stove. I
turned on the flame. The sinigang needed to simmer for close to an hour to tenderize
the meat.

In the meantime, I started preparing all the other ingredients that will be added to the
pot later on. Taking all the plastic bags, I unloaded their contents into the sink then
washed and drained each vegetable thoroughly before putting them beside my
chopping board.
I reached for the bunch of kangkong and began breaking off choice sections to be
included in the stew. When I was a child, before Tita Loleng had chosen to stay with us,
my mom used to do the cooking and she would have Meg and I sit beside her while she
readied the meals. I remembered that whenever it came to any dish involving kangkong,
I would always insist on preparing it because I loved the crisp popping sound the
vegetable made whenever I broke off a stem. It was on one such occasion, I was in
second year high school by then but still insistent on kangkong preparation, when Mom
had divulged the truth about the boy who kept calling Dad on the phone everyday at
home. Meg had also been there, breaking off string beans into two-inch sections.
Neither of us had reacted much then, but between us, I knew I was more affected by
what Mom had said because right until then, I had always been Daddy’s girl.

When the kangkong was done, I threw away the tough, unwanted parts and reached for
the labanos. I used a peeler to strip away the skin—revealing the white, slightly grainy
flesh—and then sliced each root diagonally. Next came the sigarilyas, and finally, the
string beans. Once, I asked Tita Loleng how she knew what type of vegetable to put into
sinigang and she said, “Well, one never really knows which will taste good until one has
tried it. I mean, some people cook sinigang with guavas, some with kamias. It is a dish
whose recipe would depend mostly on the taste of those who will do the eating.”

I got a fork and went to the stove where the meat was simmering. I prodded the chunks
to test whether they were tender enough—and they were. After pouring in some more of
the rice washing, I cleared the table and waited for the stew to boil. A few minutes later,
the sound of rapidly popping bubbles declared that it was now time to add the powdered
tamarind mix. I poured in the whole packet and stirred. Then I took the vegetables and
added them, a fistful at a time, to the pot. As I did so, I remembered the flower petals
each of my two sisters and I had thrown, fistful by fistful, into the freshly dug grave as
Lem’s casket was being lowered into it. My dad was crying beside me and I recalled
thinking, would he be the same if I was the one who had died? I glanced up at him and
was surprised to find that he was looking at me. His hand, heavy with sadness, fell on
my shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” he had told me.

I let the stew boil for a few more minutes before turning off the fire.

The sinigang would be served later during dinner. I pictured myself seated in my usual
place beside my father who is at the head of the table. He would tell Mom about his day
and then he would ask each of us about our own. I would answer, not in the animated
way I would have done when I was still young and his pet, but politely and without any
rancor.

Then, he would compliment me on the way I had cooked his favorite dish and I would
give him a smile that would never quite show, not even in my eyes.
DISCUSSION

21ST CENETURY SHORT STORY FILIPINO WRITERS AND THEIR WORKS

1. Vicente Rivera, Jr. – All Over The World

2. Charlson Ong – Men of the East and Other Story
3. Edward P. Jones – Lost in the City
4. Gemino H. Abad Rony V. Diaz – A question of Fedility
5. Rony V. Diaz - At War’s End, The Centipede
6. H.O. Santos – Fireworks, Pina Colada
7. Loreto Paras Sulit – Harvest
8. Lakambini A. Sitoy – Lines
9. Maria Aleah G. Tabuclaon – The Tale of Tonyo and the Brave
10. Kevin Plamonte – The Old Woman of the Village
11. Manuel A. Viray – Portrait of a Great Man
12. Estrella D. Alfon – Servant Girl
13. Angelo Rodriguez Lacuesta – Thousand Year Eve
14. Paz Marquez Benitez – Dead Stars, A Night in the Hills
15. Carlos Cortes – The Devil in the Details
16. Hugh Aaron – Under the Mango Tree
17. Carlos A. Angeles – The Wonderful Machine
18. Consorcio Borje – – Big Sister, Meeting
19. Iris Sheila G. Crisostomo - The Steel Brassierre
20. Marby Villaceran – Sinagang
Elements of a Short Story

Plot - How the author arranges events to develop the basic idea; it is the sequence of
events in a story or play. The plot is a planned, logical series of events having a
beginning, middle, and end. The short story usually has one plot so it can be read in
one sitting. There are five essential parts of plot:

1) Exposition (introduction) - Beginning of the story; characters, background, and

setting revealed.
2) 2) Rising Action - Events in the story become complicated; the conflict is
revealed. These are events between the introduction and climax.
• Conflict - Essential to plot, opposition ties incidents together and moves the
plot. Not merely limited to arguments, conflict can be any fOfI1)of struggle the
main character faces. Within a short story, there may be only one central
struggle, or there may be many minor obstacles within a dominant struggle.
There are two ~ of conflict:
 Internal- Struggle within one's self.
o • Character vs. Self - Struggles with own soul, physical
limitations, choices, etc.
 External - Struggle with a force outside one's self.
o • Character vs. Character - Struggles against other people.
o • Character vs. Nature - Struggles against animals, weather,
environment, etc
o . • Character vs. Society - Struggles against ideas,
practices, or customs of others
3) Climax - Turning point of the story. Readers wonders what will happen next; will
the conflict be resolved or not? Consider the climax as a three-fold phenomenon:

• Main character receives new information.

 • Main character accepts this information (realizes it but does not necessarily
agree with it).

• Main character acts on this information (makes a choice that will determine
whether or not objective is met)

4) Falling action - Resolution begins; events and complications start to fall into
place. These are the events between climax and denouement.
5) Resolution (Conclusion) - Final outcome of events in the story.

Setting - Time and location that a story takes place. For some stories, the setting is
very important; while for others, it is not. When examining how setting contributes to a
story, there are multiple aspects to consider:

1) Place - Geographical location; where is the action of the story taking place?

2) Time - Historical period, time of day, year, etc; when is the story taking place?

3) Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?

4) Social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain
local colour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a
particular place)?

5) Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Cheerful
or eerie?

Character - There are two meanings for "character": 1) a person in a fictional story; or
2) qualities of a person.

1) People in a work of fiction can be :

• Protagonist - Clear center of story; all major events are important to this character.
• Antagonist - Opposition or "enemy" of main character.
2) Characteristics of a character can be revealed through:

• his/her physical appearance

• what he/she says, thinks, feels, dreams and what he/she does or does not do

• What others say about him/her and how others react to him/her

3) Characters can be:

 Round - Fully developed personalities that are affected by the story's events;
they can learn, grow, or deteriorate by the end of the story. Characters are
most convincing when they resemble real people by being consistent,
motivated, and life-like
 . Flat - One-dimensional character
 Dynamic - Character who does go through change and "grows" during a
story
 Static - Character does not go through a change.

Point of View - The angle from which the story is told. There are several variations of
POV:

1) First Person - Story told by the protagonist or a character who interacts closely with
the protagonist or other characters; speaker uses the pronouns "I", "me", "we". Readers
experiences the story through this person's eyes and only knows what he/she knows
and feels.

2) Second Person - Story told by a narrator who addresses the reader or some other
assumed "you"; speaker uses pronouns "you", "your", and "yours". Ex: You wake up to
discover that you have been robbed of all of your worldly possessions.

3) Third Person - Story told by a narrator who sees all of the action; speaker uses the
pronouns "he", "she", "it", "they", "his", "hers", "its", and "theirs". This person may be a
character in the story. There are several types of third person POV:
  Limited - Probably the easiest :POV for a beginning writer to use, "limited" POV
funnels all action through the eyes of a single character; readers only see what
the narrator sees.
 Omniscient- God-like, the narrator knows and sees everything, and can move
from one character's mind to another. Authors can be omniscient narrators by
moving from character to character, event to event, and introducing information
at their discretion. There are two main types of omniscient POV:

4) Innocent Eye/Naive Narrator – Story told through child's eyes; narrator's judgment is
different from that of an adult.

5) Stream of Consciousness - Story told so readers solely experience a character's

thoughts and reactions.

Theme - Central message, "moral of the story," and underlying meaning of a fictional
piece; may be the author's thoughts on the topic or view of human nature.

1) Story's title usually emphasizes what the author. is saying.

2) Various figures of speech (symbolism, allusion, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, or irony)

may be utilized to highlight the theme.

3) Examples of common themes occurring in literature, on television, and in film are:

 Things are not always as they appear to be

 Love is blind.
 Believe in yourself.
 People are afraid of change.
 Don't judge a book by its cover.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

- Marby Villaceran  - 22 yrs. old, is a Creative Writing

Major graduate from the UP. She is currently taking
 up her MA in Creative Writing in the same institution. Three of her children's
stories have been published in Junior Inquirer: Tales for a Warlock, Curiosity and
the Cat, and Dreamscapes.
- is a teaching associate at U.P. Diliman’s Department of English and Comparative
Literature. She has published several stories and poems for children in
the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Junior Inquirer section.
- Marby teaches literature at the University of Perpetual Help in Rizal.  She is also
pursuing her MA in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.
She was a Fellow for Fiction at the National Writers' Workshop in Samal Island,
Davao in 1999

CHARACTERIZATION

Liza – a “Sinverguenza” or the shameless daughter who the one was picking tomatoes
for the sinigang they were to have for the dinner.

Meg – the younger sister of Liza.

Liza’s mother – a martyr when it comes to Liza’s father and a tyrant to her children.

Liza’s father – a father who was closed to his daughter before he had his other family.

Sylvia – the second wife of Liza’s father and the mother of Lem.

Tita Loleng – Liza’s aunt who was cooking sinigang.

Lem – Liza’s half-brother who was dead.

PLOT

EXPOSITION – Liza was picking tomatoes for the sinigang they were to have for dinner.
Liza and her Tita Loleng are cooking sinigang while talking about the burial of his half-
brother Lem. Tita Loleng preferred Meg to be with her while cooking because she was a
lot better than Liza.

RISNG ACTION – Liza visit her half-brother who died. Even though she was just forced
by her mother to visit her half-brother’s burial, she can’t deny that she also want to see
his father after what he have done to their family.

CLIMAX - While on the wake, she meet the mother of her half-brother. Liza felt uneasy
because she finally met Sylvia. Bitterness and pretentions was all on her while she was
close to her father and to his mistress.

FALLING ACTION – While on the burial, Liza’s father was beside her crying and
thinking that if her father would have the same reaction or feeling if she was the one
who had died.

RESOLUTION – At the burial while Liza’s father was crying, he was looking at Liza and
suddenly his hand, heavy with sadness, fell on her shoulder and said, “I’m sorry” which
Liza needed the most yet whether she has forgiven her father or forgotten his complete
failure is not clearly resolved.

SETTING

The story takes place in Liza’s home, together with her Tita Loleng, prepares

Sinigang for the family dinner, as it is her father’s favorite dish.

CONFLICT

The story Sinigang portrays the conflict Man Vs. Self. In the story, Liza was the
one who were struggling accepting the fact that her father has an affair who happened
to be Sylvia.

THEME

All in all, the story’s theme was all about acceptance and forgiveness. Despite of
what Liza’s father has done, she still have the courage to accept the truth and forgive
him.

POINT OF VIEW
 The story Sinigang was told by a narrator who sees all of the action. The
speaker uses the pronouns he, she, it, they, his, hers, its, and theirs.

CONCLUSION
 Short stories always have an important lesson attached to it. The purpose for
reading a short story is to enjoy and be hooked because short stories are little and
always entertains the reader. The stories makes us learn about a certain thing. 21 st
Century Philippine Short Stories is an astonishing piece of literature. Most people were
hooked by foreign short stories not paying attention or giving value of our own Philippine
short stories from different excellent writers all over the country.

An example of the 21st Century Philippine Short Story, Sinigang by Marby

Villaceran shows real life situation in our country. The story taught many of the readers
to accept the truth even though it is hard to embrace, even if it hurts us so much. It also
taught us on how to forgive our loved ones despite of the cruel things they have done in.
This story made every reader to realize that whatever that people may have done to
you, still be brave to accept and forgive them no matter what.
REFERENCES

The Best Philippine Short Stories. (July 6, 2014). Retrieved from

http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/authors.htm#villaceran

LinkedIn Corporation 2019. Retrieved from

https://www.slideshare.net/Group1Lit/jri-orion-abmb-21-st-century-literature

Copyright 1999 Likhaan: U.P. Creative Writing Center University of the

Philippines. Retrieved from http://likhaan_online.tripod.com/08242001archivesite/lit4-
15.html

Elements of Story (September 16, 2013). Retrieved from

https://www.rcboe.org/cms/lib010/GA01903614/Centricity/Domain/4395/Elements%20of
%20a%20Story.pdf