Story
Analysis of “How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife?”
Literary
Criticism: Romanticism
The short story “How My Brother Leon Brought
Home A Wife?” speaks clearly of nature’s beauty, the writer explicitly
describes the scenery but it does not only focus on nature’s aspect but it
also shows the individuality or the uniqueness of the character. It emphasizes
the mood, the feelings and the impression of the character towards the society
or the place he/she is at. It also showed us the good qualities of the people,
for example, how Baldo greeted and treated Maria throughout their journey to
their house and how Leon treasured and love Maria.
The characters in the story have their
own way of portraying themselves. First, we have Maria, the main protagonist.
As a city girl (a person raised and born in the city), going to an unknown
place for her was very difficult. Expressing one’s emotion was hard since she’s
new to the place, but with Leon by her side, she felt comfortable. She showed
herself without reserve, meaning she didn’t hide who she was but rather she
showed Baldo what kind of person she really is. This way, she’s a lot freer to
express herself. Secondly, Leon, the husband of Maria, he was already used to
the place because he lived there since he was a child. His emotions were filled
with love, happiness, and longing. The reason to this was because he was able
to come back to his home town together with the person he loves, he missed his
family and the place where he grew up and it is clearly evident in the story.
While on the other hand, Baldo showed his deep admiration for Maria on the way
he describes her as they go on the journey together. The spontaneity of their
emotions are very vivid, for example, when Maria and Leon arrived at the place
where Baldo and Ladang were waiting for them the emotions were just normal but
as the story progresses, it showed us transitions of emotions between the
characters until they’ve reached their destination. It showed us how much love
was there in both of them and how Baldo noticed even the smallest details about
Maria even though they’ve never known each other. The writer showed us the weights
between reason and emotion. Deciding one’s path through reason needs to be more
logical and comprehensive but when we decide using our emotions, we usually
lose our ways. For example, the time when Leon’s father told Baldo that they
should follow the Waig River, he said this out from his logical reasons that
people living in the city have low tolerance or patience in the ways of life of
the people living in the province.
The literary piece was easy to
understand because it was written using simple language and it draws out the
readers imaginative prowess to recreate the scenes in the story. Because of the
language that was used by the writer, he was able to connect and bring his
readers in the setting of this story. The symbols used in the story were the
cart, the star, and the song “Sky Sown With Stars”, thus, these symbols express
a general idea. The cart that was used as a means of transportation of the
characters explains the life of the people living in the province, that life
there was simple. The star symbolizes the love between the couple that as long
as that star shines their love for each other will never go dim and will
forever be strong. Lastly, the song “Sky Sown With Stars” symbolizes the bond
between a parent and a child that even if they are far away from each other
they will always remember all the good times they’ve shared under the same sky.
