Footnote to Youth

Jose Garcia Villas A Footnote to Youth

Jose Garcia Villas Footnote to Youth

Jose Garcia Villa (1908-1997)National artist for literature, 1973

Villa was born on August 5, 1908, in Manila's Singalong district. His parents were Simen Villa and Guia Garcia.

He studied in the UP Integrated School and UP High School. He first enrolled a pre-med course in the University of the Philippines but eventually shifted to a pre-law course.

EDUCATION

But then he realized that his true passion is creative arts. He first tried painting but switched to creative writing after reading Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson3

He enrolled at the University of New Mexico, wherein he was one of the founders ofClay, a mimeograph literary magazine. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and pursued post-graduate work at Columbia University.He lived for 67 of his 89 years in the United States but he always maintained his Filipino citizenship and his work focused on life in the Philippines.

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Academy Award for Literature (1943)Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Writing (1943)UP Golden Jubilee Literary Contest, Poetry (1958)Pro Patria Award (1961)Heritage Award (1962)AWARDS

NOTABLE WORKS & PUBLICATION Footnote to Youth, 1933 Have Come, Am Here, 1942 Stories and poems in Scribners Magazine Prairie Schooner, Frontier and Midland, Poetry.

He was one of three Filipinos, along with novelistJose Rizaland translatorNick Joaquin included inWorld Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Timepublished in 2000, which featured over 1,600 poems written by hundreds of poets in different languages and culture within a span of 40 centuries dating from the development of early writing in ancientSumerandEgypt.

a. Physical: A rural area in the Philippines b. Chronological:1930sSETTING

3rd person- OMNISCIENTPOINT OF VIEW

DodongDodongs parentsTeangBlas LucioCHARACTERS

CHARACTERIZATIONDodongThe main character in the story. A 17 year old boy who got married at a very young age. He was seventeen, he had pimples on his face, the down on his upper lip already was dark--these meant he was no longer a boy. He was growing into a man he was a man. Dodong felt insolent and big at the thought of it although he was by nature low in statue. Thinking himself a man grown, Dodong felt he could do anything.

Dodongs FatherHis father was silent hard-working farmer who chewed areca nut

TeangShe had a small brown face and small black eyes and straight glossy hair. How desirable she was to him. She made him dream even during the day. Dodongs wife

PLOTBeginningAs the story opens a young man of seventeen is trying to work up the nerve to ask his father for permission to marry his sweet heart. He tells his father he is a man now and can marry if he wishes but he is giving his father the respect of asking him.

PLOTRising Action His mother had told him not to leave the house, but he had left. He had wanted to get out of it without clear reason at all. He was afraid, he felt. Afraid of the house. It had seemed to cage him, to compares his thoughts with severe tyranny. Afraid also of Teang. Teang was giving birth in the house; she gave screams that chilled his blood.

PLOTClimax The highest point in the story is when Dodong saw her wife in the papag with his firstborn child. He heard his babys cry that pierced him queerly. He could not control the swelling happiness in him.

PLOTFalling Action The falling action of the story is when Dodong and Teang came to realize the mistakes they made during their youth.

PLOTConclusion When his eighteen year old son asks for permission to marry, declaring his love for his sweetheart you can feel the pain in the silence of Dodong.

CONFLICTMan vs. Himself

SYMBOLSWorm/s The appearance of the worms and the occurrence of one worm crawling over Dodong's foot is of great importance to the story, as it serves as a revealing of Dodong's character and future.

THEME ..one of them was why life did not fulfill all of Youth's dreams. Why it must be so. Why one was forsaken... after Love. Youth, Life, Marriage

In this, the story's theme becomes more universal in the sense that it is a footnote not only to the youth, but to parents as well. The theme, then, is clear in the sense that the quality of one's life is likened to that of a worm when marriage and adulthood is rushed into at a very young age.

Youth is a blunder ; manhood a struggle, and old age a regret.-Benjamin Disraeli