I’d like to ponder on, “Filipinos are poor but happy”.With the characters in Carlos Bulosan’s story, they were illustrated as people who would laugh their problems out, this brought to the idea that filipinos, although they’re poor, they’re still happy. For me, I wouldn’t use the term “happy”, since there are a lot of classifications and definitions when it comes to being happy, it just depends on the person. Maybe we can rephrase it and say “Filipinos are poor but they can find humor on their problems”.
It is evident that the Philippines is one of those countries who strives for growth in the economy and many filipinos are below poverty line, but despite of that, there’s this unique characteristic that sets filipinos apart from others; it’s how we find the humorous side in our problems, that despite how big our problem is, we can still manage to laugh and be happy. That’s what and how Bulosan presented the filipinos in the story. In the beginning, the poor family would usually look up to the rich family next door and smell the aroma of bacon, ham and roasted chickens being cooked by the servants.
Throughout the story I noticed that it revolves around the idea of laughter being the best medicine. The unnamed character said that “Laughter was our only wealth” and there was a part in the story that the father spilled oil on the floor and caught fire, after the fire was extinguished they did nothing but to laugh and dance and what happened next and I think one of the exaggerated parts was when the neighbors joined them and laughed. Yes it is a little bit exaggerated but I think Bulosan wanted to pin point through out the story that in times of troubles and problems, Filipinos still look at the bright side of things and have a positive outlook in life.
Today, filipinos are facing different problems with the economy and with the government, I mean there are things lacking in the system that many filipinos are still poor, but still they can manage to stand up and face these problems. Years back, the Philippines had a down fall caused by typhoon ondoy, that didn’t stop the filipinos from fighting and having a positive look on life, what they did was, bit by bit tried to help one another and together face the bright side of things.
Carlos Bulosan’s story was evidently short, in the last part, when they were having the trial in court and the father had no lawyer, that also implied how the poor people can’t have enough of the justice system here in the Philippines, but that’s a different story. The father collected coins and paid the rich man with the “spirit” of the coins, I think it’s another way f putting also how clever filipinos can be when it comes tight and difficult situations, I mean they can come up with solutions (though sometimes the solutions aren’t the right one) and have they’re own strategy in life.
I liked how the story went, and how Carlos Bulosan represented filipinos, also how he wrote the story - understandable, yet complex :) YAY!
