At first, “My Father goes to court” by Carlos Bulosan seems a shallow, simple and a non sense story for me. After reading it, I was like, “Ah ok. Yun na yun?” During or even after the discussion it made me realize that the story reflected some of the attitudes or traits of the Filipinos.

“Laughter is the best medicine”. We Filipinos are usually like that. Whenever problem comes in our way, we can still laugh at it and hoped that everything will be all right in due time with the help of prayers.

In the story, even if the poor family has nothing to eat, they can still make joke out of it. It is shown in the part wherein one of his children pretended that he brought something to eat and when the family discovered that it is only a cat they all laughed at it.

“Simple and contended on what they have.” Usually Filipinos are like that. Even they don’t own a lot of things or eat delicious foods, still they are contended. I can say that Filipinos consider their children or family as their treasure. So with his or her family, he or she has true happiness.

In the story, even if the poor family doesn’t live in a big house or doesn’t have ham and bacon during breakfast, they are happy, healthy and contended. While the rich family, although they have all the materials things that could make them happy, still they can’t find their true happiness. Maybe there are not contended on what they have. I believe that it is a hard for a person (esp. the rich ones) to be contended (in terms of the material things), because their “wants” are unlimited.

“Ang ama ang haligi ng tahanan.” Most of the Filipino families have patriarchy structure. So the father is responsible for the security of his family.

In the story, when the rich family sued the poor family for stealing the spirit of health and wealth, the father of the poor family came in the court and defended his family in a simple yet effective manner.

In "How my Brother Leon brought home a wife" by Manuel Arguilla, the relationship with each member of a Filipino family is reflected.

“The family knows best.” Opinions of our family matter to us because we believe that they know what is good or best for us. Or we simply respect their opinions. So we make sure that the things we do or the decision we made is fine with them.

In the story, it is important for Leon that his family will like or accept Maria as his wife. So he brought Maria in his hometown to meet his family. We Filipinos know that before marrying someone, we should introduce first him or her to our parents and ask for their blessing or “bendisyon”.

“Ako ang batas. –Tatay” Since most Filipinos have patriarchy structure, the father of the family is usually “nasusunod” in most of the decisions inside the house. Even though we consult for our mother’s decision still we consider our father’s decision as the last and final. Period. No erase. Haha. For example, once na sinabi nya na hindi ka pwede lumabas, hindi ka talaga pwede.

In the story, when Leon’s father told him that they will use Labang instead of Calesa and will not pass through Camino real, “wala syang choice” but to follow his father. Of course Leon wanted Maria to ride in a calesa compare to a carabao. He wanted best things for Maria. He doesn’t want Maria to suffer or feel uncomfortable in a cart. But still he followed his Father to show respect.

Both stories showed the general or the most common attitudes of Filipinos, that we Filipinos are considered as happy person and we really value and respect our parents.

Labels: arguilla, bulosan, litfili week 1