An Analysis of Scent of Apples PDF

Preview

Summary

An Analysis of Scent of ApplesThe "Scent of Apples" was a story written by Bienvenido N. Santos. The story is mainly about the author himself, who unexpectedly met a Filipino farmer named Celestino Fabia in a lecture forum. They talked about how Filipino women were 20 years ago com...

Description

An Analysis of Scent of Apples

The "Scent of Apples" was a story written by Bienvenido N. Santos. The story is mainly about the author himself, who unexpectedly met a Filipino farmer named Celestino Fabia in a lecture forum. They talked about how Filipino women were 20 years ago compared to the present. The story also revolved around a Filipino immigrant who is reminiscing the moments of his younger days while he was still living in the Philippines. It showcased the difficulty of trying to live a new life with nothing more but the memories of the past. The plot of the story was not presented and arranged in a chronological order because the author inserted some flashbacks to present some events that happened in the past. The characters of the story are Celestino Fabia, just a humble Filipino farmer living in the United States. The author, a writer and a traveler who came from the Philippines. Ruth, the wife of Fabia, an American woman. And lastly, Roger the son of Fabia and Ruth. The setting of the story was in Kalamazoo. The author vividly described the setting in the first sentence of the story. You can easily picture the appearance of the setting in your head just by simply reading the text. The dilemma that is stated in the story illustrates the adversity of being an immigrant. The resolution of the text happened at the last part of the story. The scene was mild and not that intense, the text ended when the speaker and Fabia said their farewell to each other for the last time. Lastly, the language, the author used English in writing the text the details are understandable and clear, however there are some words that are hard to understand particularly by an average person since the author used a lot of metaphor and colorful words that gave more flavor to the text. The title of the story is an unusual element in the text. Its title “Scent of Apples” represents what is it be like to be a Filipino immigrant. It serves as a metaphor of the memories of the past and struggles of the present-day. “How many times did lonely mind take unpleasant detours away from the familiar winding lanes towards home for fear of this, the remembered hurt, the long lost youth, the grim shadows of the years; how many times indeed, only the exile knows.” Second, is the old picture with a blur face which represents the preservation of Filipino women. "I don't know who she is," Fabia hastened to say. "I picked that picture many years ago in a room on La Salle Street in Chicago. I have often wondered who she is." And lastly, is use of the word nostalgia, we would interpret this as a past event, the meaning of the word was

interpreted to us by the use of word in the past tense which gave us a clue that the word means something about the past. “And they seemed so far away during those terrible years that I must have spoken of them with a little fervor, a little nostalgia.” Bienvenido Nuqui Santos is the author of “The Scent of Apples”. He is a Philippine-born American novelist, poet, short story writer, autobiographer, memoirist, and essayist. Santos is best known for his short stories and novels that explore the Filipino-American experience. Critics praise his sensitive and touching portrayals of Filipino immigrants in the United States struggling with loneliness and separation. Critics have subdivided Santos's work into two categories: those works that explore life in the Philippines, and those focused on the Filipino immigrant experience. The author was inspired and influenced by Philippine-American experiences together with the unique story of the different people that he met as well as to all the personal events that he experienced, witnessed, and discovered throughout his life time that became the foundation of the author in writing his literary pieces. The text was written in 1979 by University of Washington Press in Seattle, Washington. The author also experienced being away from his family and native land that cause him to realize the importance of national consciousness and identity. That is why from then on, his sense of style in writing changed. He switched his focus in creating several works that portrays the Filipino immigrants in the United States, one great example of this is The Scent of Apples. The text was written during the time of World War way back in American period. The time when the text was written contributed since it make the text more developed. The author associated sense of loneliness and belongingness to the difficulty that the Filipino immigrants experienced by being away from their own country. To discuss briefly the theme of the story, Scent of Apples refers to the story of first generation Filipino immigrants who felt a sense of sadness and reminiscence to their original country. They are still trying to retain some sort of connection to their past life of how things used to be on their former country though they have already started a new life in the other side of the world.

This kind of story happens prominently in real life. A lot of people, Filipinos in particular are going through this. Filipinos always find a way to get their families out of the periphery, and in their failure of finding a decent job with enough salary here in our country, they try their luck in other places. A lot of them are deciding to settle in other countries because they believe that there are more opportunities outside the Philippines; but still, the Filipino blood still runs through their veins. They are still longing for their country and they want to know what changes happened in their absence. We believe that to be able to solve this kind of problem, we should create lots of opportunities for our workers, because in the first place, they wouldn't mind staying here in our country if they had the opportunity to supply all of the needs of their families when they work here. A lot of them are forced to try their luck in other country because they can't find a decent job here. So if we make lots of opportunities and make the salaries enough to supply their needs, maybe we could lessen the number of people who leave our country to settle in other countries. As a conclusion, The Scent of Apples is a real life experience of the author and it is presented in a detailed but not in a chronological manner. It showcases the distinctive traits of the Filipinos. Santos shows that even we are in a foreign land we still carry the manners that we Filipinos have. Through this story, the experienced of the Filipino immigrants have been revealed....