May Day Eve

I originally planned to post my reflection papers for English 11 here, but almost every piece ended up being crammed. I didn't want to post something I'm not really sure of, so I let go of the idea. As of this writing I'm kind of reviewing for our upcoming exam, regarding 13 short stories. Yep, that much. Ma'am Lalaine is actually a good teacher, quite on the heavy side of the acad load meter, but at this point I've realized that good teachers really compel you to do more.

As I was writing the elements of each narrative like a grade school student, I remembered that session when we were asked which of the four short stories about love we most liked as a class. My classmates shouted A Love Story in a snap, while I was dumbfounded and I failed to utter May Day Eve. Kaya dito nalang ako sa blog magrreason out.

Let me introduce you to the story first. May Day Eve was written by one of our National Artists for Literature, Nick Joaquin. It is set in the colonial era, and is as stated in the title, during a May day eve.  The story focuses on Badoy and Agueda, the two lovers whose fate was forever changed by a said May day eve.

It's hard to condense an already brief story, but here's a shot. Agueda was with her friends, and their yaya told them of a superstition that if you take a candle and go to a dark room with a mirror alone and chant: "Mirror, mirror, show to me him whose woman I will be " she'll see the man she will marry. But if things go wrong, one will see the devil. Consequently, she saw Badoy. He was coming from his pack wanting a place to lie on because he was feeling sick. They argued and felt conflicting emotions. Later it was implied that they got married. And during the course of the story, it is revealed that they really love each other whilst being nonchalant about it in front of each other. 

We read four short stories that revolved around love, the other three were A Story of Love by Ray Bradbury, How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife by Manuel Arguilla, Dead Stars by Paz Marquez Benitez. I like May Day Eve most because it was the story that had more depth for me. The other stories, I understood almost right away while with this one I had doubts on my interpretation. This story bore so many realizations when we discussed it in class, the most prominent of those is that one should not be proud in love, or in any relationship for that matter. Pride hampers all good things. Pride creates a wall that makes it harder to communicate, harder to share, harder to work things out. Pride is the root of regret. Because of these things that were left unsaid or undone, regret will surely follow.

Mr. Joaquin has crafted a real classic with this story, and now I think I'm a step closer to understanding why he's one of our most celebrated writers apart from May Day Eve's super duper long opening sentence slash paragraph. Enveloped in the simple story is a theme that's actually a bit trivial once you think about it. It's certainly not easy to impart a clear message while just going around it, writers who can are truly gifted in my opinion. I haven't read any other work of his to speak of his style, but I'm now curious enough to make an effort to get a hold of a few more.

I am really enjoying my English 11 under Dr. Yanilla-Aquino. It's like 185 and 186, demanding as hell but really worth it at the end of the day. ;)