Uneven Blood: a Feminist Analysis of E. Bitonio’s Spleen
Ernesto Bitonio’s Spleen is truly a story filled with controversies which revolved around the citizens of one particular town which is ruled by a Mayor. Mr. Bitonio did a fine way to describe them by writing in the third person point of view and gave detailed explanations to some chosen characters. One of the themes of the text revolved around inequality in general. There are several aspects that were mentioned in the text but the characters and the setting particularly were the ones given more emphasis or were rather obvious. Spleen is a story supported by its fundamental aspects which were the setting of the story, symbols given, some scenes and the way the author has written the text.
Spleen, illustrates a fragment of the lives of citizens just by one social gathering for chosen individuals, which was initiated by the Town’s Mayor. The event itself was the reason for the preparations and the actions that followed after by the ones who were supposed to set-up the festivity or rather the food to be served. The symbolic pig slaughtered for the guests to feast on was merely a foreshadowing for the sweet bitter ending of the story.
He knew his people, he would never know the bottle was not meant for a joke, for without it, the liempo would be slippery and the joints would be bloody.
The bottle inside the pig, however, represents the foundation of men. Without the bottle, the pig would not taste as delicious as it is. The joints would be bloody and the liempo would be slippery. Mayor De Gracia did not know of this fact and so he jested and thought what a good joke it was. He was not aware of how important it was to make the lechon taste as it should, just like how men weren’t aware of how important women are suppose to them.
In a Feminist approach, women in the story were portrayed as old-fashioned housewives, which gave away the timeline of the text. Being set in the earlier days in the Philippines, one can imagine what it is like to live in a reverted
Spleen, illustrates a fragment of the lives of citizens just by one social gathering for chosen individuals, which was initiated by the Town’s Mayor. The event itself was the reason for the preparations and the actions that followed after by the ones who were supposed to set-up the festivity or rather the food to be served. The symbolic pig slaughtered for the guests to feast on was merely a foreshadowing for the sweet bitter ending of the story.
He knew his people, he would never know the bottle was not meant for a joke, for without it, the liempo would be slippery and the joints would be bloody.
The bottle inside the pig, however, represents the foundation of men. Without the bottle, the pig would not taste as delicious as it is. The joints would be bloody and the liempo would be slippery. Mayor De Gracia did not know of this fact and so he jested and thought what a good joke it was. He was not aware of how important it was to make the lechon taste as it should, just like how men weren’t aware of how important women are suppose to them.
In a Feminist approach, women in the story were portrayed as old-fashioned housewives, which gave away the timeline of the text. Being set in the earlier days in the Philippines, one can imagine what it is like to live in a reverted