Looking Attractive But Scary

 

                                          Looking is attractive but scary

 

 

An Analysis of a 21^st Century Philippine Literature entitled

Apo on the wall

by BJ Patino

 

 

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the subject of

21^st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

 

 

by

Castillo, Aeron James A.

Javillo, John Carlo U.

Lacorte, Mark Angelo C.

Aguila, John Paul B.

Loro, Abby Dhane R.

 

October 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

PAGE

 

INTRODUCTION 1

 

BACKGROUND 2

 

COPY OF THE LITERARY TEXT 3

 

ANALYSIS 4

 

SUMMARY 5

 

REFERENCES 6                                                                                                                                 o on the wall by Bj Patino is a poem that talks about the narration of a child’s point of view about his rigorous Father and the hanging photo around the wall called “Apo”. The poem tells the reality of life during the reigning of Marcos alongside with the Martial Law.

Bj Patino ends his poem with secret meaning: His eyes following me like he was That scary Jesus in the hallway, saying I know what you’re doing.

BACKGROUND

Pilipino writer that study in Ateneo manila and published some literature on 21st century

· Authorial information:

o BERNARD JULIAN "BJ" PATINO

o  ATENEO DE MANILA

o MASTERAL DEGREE IN LITERATURE.

o CURRENTLY A FACULTY MEMBER OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT THE ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY

o PHOTO JOURNALISM OF MINDANAO NEWS AND INFORMATION COOPERATIVE CENTER

· Textual information:

o no date found but it was written between 2001-present

Poetry does not have much background and it does not have info on search engines, maybe because it is not very popular

 

 

 

COPY OF THE LITERARY TEXT

 

TITLE

There’s this man’s photo on the wall

Of my father’s office at home, you

Know, where father brings his work,

Where he doesn’t look strange

Still wearing his green uniform

And colored breast plates, where,

To prove that he works hard, he

Also brought a photo of his boss

Whom he calls Apo, so Apo could

You know, hang around on the wall

Behind him and look over his shoulders

To make sure he’s snappy and all.

Father snapped at me once, caught me

Sneaking around his office at home

Looking at the stuff on his wall- handguns,

Plaques, a sword, medals a rifle-

Told me that was no place for a boy

Only men, when he didn’t really

Have to tell me because, you know,

That photo of Apo on the wall was already

Looking at me around,

His eyes following me like he was

That scary Jesus in the hallway, saying

I know what you’re doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANALYSIS

A. Literary Genre

In this part you have to: Poetry

1. literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even length. The distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups. Even the rules designating genres change over time and are fairly unstable.

2. because it is arranged in stanzas and it has a free verse sound effect there and there are symbols used to convey the message plain.

B. Analysis Guides

Provide a one-sentence introductory paragraph first before proceeding with the actual analysis using the following criteria.

Reader Response

The literary piece aimed to touch every reader's hearts, a poem written year ago, yet, stills a reflection of our current situation. A powerful tool made by a fearless author, a tool that made many felt frightened, at the same time blessed. Frightened of the past and blessed for the freedom finally on thier hand. I must say the poem made a big impact on us, because his intelligence and strong personality made us adore him to the point that we had let ourselves to be blind enough to not see those lives being taken, mouths being covered and freedom being stolen. Thanks to Apo on the Wall by BJ Patino,it freed mo from ignorance; it opened my ones closed eyes.

Point of View

The poem was written by the point of view of a child. I like the poem because it gives me an understanding of one of the sides of Martial Law. This side refers to a child's perspective about Martial Law, a child perspective is way different from the adults. The child's perspective on the Martial Law is that people are disciplined. Another one is that, Martial Law is a scary time because of Marcos himself and the people who are in authority.

Diction and Style

The diction and style use in the literature id informal diction, on the other hand, he audience or us, we already know what is talking about in this literature. It uses some personal or casual purpose and shorter words. It uses some figurative language.

Images and Symbols

Apo on the Wall is a poem that uses various images and symbolism to touch the hearts of the reader, so that it is not too boring. it has a perspective of a child which symbolizes the Filipinos. Apo is obviously our former president, Ferdinand Marcos. Swords, plaques, medals a riffle and his wall handguns symbolize his right hands, his government allies and the people he leads.  

Sound Effects

 in the lines 12-13 in the poem, there is the use of the words "snappy" and snapped respectively. Snappy means to be able to move quickly while being marked by vigor, on the other hand, snapped means to utter sharp biting words. These other words add to the poems sound by providing words that seem to be sounding similar. This literature, it is a free verse, there's no rhyming patters.

Theme

The poem tells the reality of life during the reigning of Marcos alongside with the Martial Law. This masterpiece of BJ Patino advocates reasonably close to the realization of giving importance on looking back to our past, moving forward through our present and ensuring the success of our future. And the past is in the past but it must look back in order to have a better present, to avoid another mistake.  

C. Contextual Analysis

Analyze your chosen literature using any of the applicable types of contexts: Biographical Context, Linguistic Context, or Sociocultural Context. If Regional Context is applicable and appropriate, you may also use it in providing an interpretation of the text.

Explain this part in paragraph form.

 

SUMMARY

Bernard Julian "BJ" Patino is a Filipino writer, he graduated at Ateneo De Manila University with a Masteral Degree in Literature. He is a photo journalist of Mindanao News. He wrote Apo on the Wall because it provides glimpse of what Martial Law was like back then. The poem is about a little child who talks about his strict father who was a military official and a picture of his father's boss who called him Apo. The little child describes Apo's picture look like scary Jesus on the hallway cause his eyes following him around. It is the poem which talks about a certain situation that experience of people during the Martial Law and it is written in the point of view of a child.  The past is in the past but it must be looked back in order to have a better present, to avoid another mistake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

In this part you have to indicate the sources from where you have taken the information you included here in your paper.

You may just have to provide an introductory sentence here first before actually writing all the information needed below.

Book/s

Author, First Name (Initials) M.I. (Year). Title of the Book. Publisher: Place of Publication.

Example:

Badoy, Merzi A. (2020). 21st century literature. SJA Publishing House: San Jose, Batangas.

 

Online Sources

Author, First Name (Initials) M.I. (Year). Title of article. Retrieved from website.

Example:

Badoy, Merzi A. (2020). 21st century literature. Retrieved from https://www.21stcenlit.com/1234.

 

Just remove the excess rows, m