The short story "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife" explores the theme of enduring sacrifices to reach one's goals through the character of Leon's new wife. When Leon arrives home with his wife, whom no one knows, his brother tests the wife to see if she can adapt to her new family. Each challenge the brother subjects the wife to examines whether she can accept the sacrifices of living with strangers for her love of Leon. Ultimately, the wife endures the fears of integrating into a new community, demonstrating that persevering through hardships can lead to finding happiness.
The short story "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife" explores the theme of enduring sacrifices to reach one's goals through the character of Leon's new wife. When Leon arrives home with his wife, whom no one knows, his brother tests the wife to see if she can adapt to her new family. Each challenge the brother subjects the wife to examines whether she can accept the sacrifices of living with strangers for her love of Leon. Ultimately, the wife endures the fears of integrating into a new community, demonstrating that persevering through hardships can lead to finding happiness.
The short story "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife" explores the theme of enduring sacrifices to reach one's goals through the character of Leon's new wife. When Leon arrives home with his wife, whom no one knows, his brother tests the wife to see if she can adapt to her new family. Each challenge the brother subjects the wife to examines whether she can accept the sacrifices of living with strangers for her love of Leon. Ultimately, the wife endures the fears of integrating into a new community, demonstrating that persevering through hardships can lead to finding happiness.
The short story "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife" explores the theme of enduring sacrifices to reach one's goals through the character of Leon's new wife. When Leon arrives home with his wife, whom no one knows, his brother tests the wife to see if she can adapt to her new family. Each challenge the brother subjects the wife to examines whether she can accept the sacrifices of living with strangers for her love of Leon. Ultimately, the wife endures the fears of integrating into a new community, demonstrating that persevering through hardships can lead to finding happiness.
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Plot of story
The wife meets the brother for the first time
They journey home with conversation and a song The husband asks the wife if she is afraid as they near home, bringing about the main character's own reaction about how the family will welcome home his brother and new wife The brother sees to his father's request while the family talks The brother resolves what it would be like to have his own wife A plot in literary terms describes the events that happen in the story with a pattern or sequence to provide a concrete theme. Plot is oftenconsidered as the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife, the story begins with a curious mixture of descriptions as the main character, the brother, meets his brother and new wife. The wife is someone no one at home knows and was quite unexpected. For a part of the journey they talk about the wife being able to see starsin order to show us that the wife is different from the country region she now lives in providing the rising action. At the climax, the wife admits to being afraid now that they are nearer to home, unaware that the father has asked the main character to test her. The wife and family meet discussing many things in a 'get to know' each other manner. All the while the brother, the main character, considers what he has been asked to do in order to test the new wife and finds her worthy, perhaps as an example of what he will someday find in a wife. The main character has resolved to accept the new wife based on the tests he provided her. Summary The theme of 'How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife' is that one must preserve, even through certain sacrifices, in order to reach one's goal. In particular: - One may have to surrender a small part of one's life in order to be happy. In the story, Leon arrived with his wife in the country meeting Leon's brother for the first time. They took a surprising route home for Leon, but it was meant as a test for the wife to see if she could endure the sacrifices she made and meet her new family. The entire story serves as a test for the wife. Each test was to show whether the woman could indeed live with strangers all for love. This can be
asecondary theme, but more importantly, it is a theme in which
the maincharacter learns that though there are sacrifices it is worth it in the end. He even begins to think about getting himself a wife eventually. This helps to show the theme and how it developed. He notices through all the teststhe woman though afraid will preserve through the trials in order to be happy with Leon at his home. The fact that the country is different from the city can be somewhat daunting the closer they get to the home, but she still manages to overcome and under come any trials. The wife admits to having some fear, but also shows clearly it did not stop her. This is why the theme is related to how one may have to give up some things in order to find happiness in life or at least the best happiness that can be found in that particular life. The trials just add to the picture being offered by the author. CONFLICT Written by Manuel E. Arguilla, the short story, "How my brother Leon brought home a wife", features a conflict that deals with two opposing cultures and how they affect relationships. In this story, the differencesbetween people in the cities of the Philippines and people who live in the country's rural areas are explored, and these differences add gravity and resonance to the storyline. Budding relationships This story is meant to illustrate the ways in which we are all influenced by our unique upbringings, cultural mores, and even our financial situations and status levels in the community. The impact that "class" has on budding relationships is explored in a unique and meaningful way. This story features lots of colorful characters, and a realistic depiction of family relationships and the changes that occur to these when a new person is brought into a family. Powerful words This type of literature uses everyday situations to inspire emotions in the reader; there is also an element of spirituality which is evoked by the power of the narrator's prose speech. In general, the people of the Philippines are known for their Christian (usually Catholic) faith, and this sense of faith and spirituality tends to come out very strongly in their traditional folk literature. People who share this sense of fatalism and Christianity may relate more
strongly to the story and its underlying meaning.
To learn more about Manual E. Arguilla's story, try to find a copy online, or buy the anthology where it is published. If you enjoy reading this particular story, you may also enjoy reading other examples of this Filipino author's work. People from the Philippines may relate most strongly to this type of literature, but it does have a universal appeal, and anyone who is part of a family will understand many of the morals and situations found in the story.