Title: Footnote to Youth
Author: Jose Garcia Villa
Author's Background: Jose Garcia Villa was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken. He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rime scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet. He used the penname Doveglion (derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the characters he derived from himself.
Vocabulary:
- hazy - covered by a haze.
- climacteric - a critical period or event.
- furrow - a long, narrow trench made in the ground by a plough, especially for planting seeds or irrigation.
- insolent - showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect.
- prod - poke with a finger, foot, or pointed object.
- virility -
(in a man) the quality of having strength, energy, and a strong sex drive; manliness.
- obliquely - not in a direct way; indirectly.
- dully - is to do it in a dull manner
- beckon - make a gesture with the hand, arm, or head to encourage or instruct someone to approach or follow.
- tremulous - shaking or quivering slightly.
Characters:
- Dodong - the protagonist, the teenager who wanted to marry at a young age
- Dodong's Father - the father of Dodong whom he approached for approval
- Dodong's Mother - the mother of Dodong which helped Teang to give birth
- Teang - the lover of Dodong
- Lucio - the other suitor of Teang
- Blas - the first child of Dodong and Teang
- Tonia - the lover of Blas
Settings: In the countryside, at their house.
Exposition: the story starts off when describing the time of day, introducing the protagonist of the story, which is Dodong, in the field doing farm work where he is thinking something crucial that can change his whole life and how he can approach his parents about wanting to marry Teang.
Rising Action: the conflict of the story was introduced when Dodong went home from a very tiring day, and ate dinner with his parents, he then told his Father about wanting to marry Teang, but his father told him that he is still very young , but in the end his parents supported him with his decision.
Climax: It is where he's first born child Blas went home, and he told his Father Dodong that he wanted to marry Tonia at a very young age which is eighteen, he wanted to get the permission from his father which had the same problem before.
Falling Action: it is when Dodong told Blas to follow him outside the yard, and agreed to Blas that he could marry Tonia even though he knows the consequences that might happen when marrying at a very young age.
Ending: The Story ended after when Dodong felt sad and sorry for his son Blas, because he truly didn't want Blas to go marry Tonia at a young age, but Dodong was helpless because love must triumph and youth must triumph.
Symbolism: the Symbolism that I have found was the title itself "Footnote to Youth" Footnote means to add something or information at the end of a note which is to youth, because the story revolves around Dodong which in his youth, but for him he wanted to rush things in life, at a young age he wanted to have a family, not realizing that he could still do a lot of things in life but in the end he was guilty and sad of all of his decisions in life. This could also reflect in reality because this is one of the problems we are facing right now a lot of teenagers are getting married and pregnant because they want to rush things in life.
Theme: The theme of the story is about people at their youth rushing things that should be well thought out first.
Lesson: The lesson of the story is that we should take things slowly and enjoy our youth. Life is short, we should live it to the fullest we shouldn't be rushing crucial things like marriage and sex because the right time will come for that age.
