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    ern-and-Postcolonial-Analysis-EL-117-Literary-Criticism

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    ern-and-Postcolonial-Analysis-EL-117-Literary-Criticism

    Uploaded by

    Kyle Malang

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    EL 117 – Literary Criticism

    Group 11 BSE-English 3
    Joaquin, Jerlyn G.

    Malang, Kyle

    Ruiz, Ron Wendell DC.

    Postmodern and Postcolonial Analysis

    Questions:

    1. If the point of view of the story is changed from one character to another, how would the
    story change? Whose story is not told in the text? Why might the writer have omitted that
    character's story?

    2. Is there any person in the story identified as the other? How is such person described or
    treated?

    Answers:

    1. We would likely gain a better understanding of Mark's struggles to balance optimism and
    anxiety if he were narrating the narrative. Put yourself in his position; he is making a
    concerted effort to inject some humor into a difficult circumstance. Despite their financial
    difficulties, he can express his love for his girlfriend and his desire to do more for her.
    "Things are hard, but we can still find happiness together," he says, and the ice cream run
    may be more than just a dessert.

    Now, it would be a time for introspection if the narrative were told from the viewpoint of
    the ice cream vendor. Imagine him as a man who has witnessed several individuals, each
    carrying their own troubles, walk through his store. He may give the ice cream to the pair
    for free since he sees them and feels they need a modest gesture of goodwill. It serves as
    a reminder that a small action can have a profound impact on someone.

    The elderly woman hanging washing comes next. She may have a bittersweet viewpoint
    because she recalls her own childhood hardships. Perhaps she recognizes herself in the
    pregnant narrator once optimistic and dreamy, but now depleted by life. Or maybe she's
    just preoccupied with her daily schedule and doesn't realize how her presence affects the
    narrator.
    We will never fully understand the baby's tale in this context, and that is on purpose. The
    baby is a symbol of the narrator and Mark's hopes for a brighter future, a new beginning,
    and motivation to keep going. However, the baby's voice is missing because they haven't
    yet been born. It resembles a promise that has yet to be kept.

    The older woman comes next. Perhaps that's the point her life remains a mystery. The
    author compels us to view her as the narrator does a possible mirror of what life might
    turn out to be by leaving her story unsaid. She is more of a symbol than a character,
    someone who raises questions without having a direct impact on the story.

    2. In several instances, the narrator herself feels like "the other." She is struggling with the
    sacrifices she made by leaving her native country and is now living abroad. When she
    remembers her mother cautioning against marrying someone from a foreign culture, you
    can feel her internal struggle. There is an underlying conflict between her desire to fit in
    and her belief that she will never be able to.

    In another sense, the elderly woman doing the washing is similarly shown as "the other."
    Her slumped posture, her graying hair, and the monotonous rhythm of her activities are
    all depicted with a sense of melancholy. As though she's staring at a version of herself,
    she doesn't want to be, the narrator observes her with a mixture of horror and empathy.
    The older woman isn't treated poorly in the story, though. She feels genuine and authentic
    since she is being watched rather than condemned.

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