A 21st century literature lesson.

1. 21st Century Philippine Literature
from the Regions
Prepared by:
Sarah Jean Reyes

2. Objectives:
The student will be able to:
Identify the literary device/s used in the poem,
Determine clearly the issue that was presented
and importance in discussing the issue; and
Respond to the poem’s theme through choosing
a particular output-based or performance based
tasks in the suggestion pool of the teacher.

3. (J.Neil Garcia)

4. Pre-Reading
Worksheet 1
Directions: Tell all the possible uses of this metal drum.
Write your answers on the space provided.

5. Music Video

6. It happened in a metal drum.
They put me there, my family
That loved me. The water
Had been saved just for it, that day.
The laundry lay caked and smelly
In the flower-shaped basins.

7. Dishes soiled with fat and swill
Pilled high in the sink, and grew flies.
My cousins did not get washed that
morning.
Lost in masks of snot and dust,
Their faces looked tired and resigned
To the dirty lot of children.

8. All the neighbors gathered around our
open-aired bathroom. Wives peered out
from the upper floor of their houses
into our yard. Father had arrived booming
with cousins, my uncles.

9. They were big, strong men, my uncles.
They turned the house inside-out
Looking for me. Curled up in the deepest corner
Of my dead mother’s cabinet, father found me.
He dragged me down the stairs by the hair
Into the waiting arms of my uncles.

10. Because of modesty, I merely screamed and cried.
Their hands, swollen and black with hair, bore me
Up in the air, and touched me. Into the cold
Of the drum I slipped, the tingling
Too much to bear at times my knees
Felt like they had turned into water.

11. Waves swirled up and down around me, my
head
Bobbing up and down. Father kept booming,
Girl or boy. I thought about it and squealed,
Girl. Water curled under my nose.
When I rose the same two words from father.
The same girl kept sinking deeper,
Breathing deeper in the churning void.

12. In the end I had to say what they all
Wanted me to say. I had to bring down this
diversion
To its happy end, if only for the pot of rice
Left burning in the kitchen. I had to stop
Wearing my dead mother’s clothes. In the mirror
I watched the holes on my ears grow smaller,
Until they looked as if they had never heard
Of rhinestones, nor felt their glassy weight.

13. I should feel happy that I’m now
Redeemed. And I do. Father died within five
years
I got my wife pregnant with the next.
Our four children, all boys,
Are the joy of my manhood, my proof.
Cousins who never shed their masks
Play themfor all their snot and grime.

14. Another child is on the way.
I have stopped caring what it will be.
Water is still a problem and the drum
Is still there, deep and rusty.
The bathroomhas been roofed over with plastic.
Scrubbed and clean, my wife knows I like things.
She follows, though sometimes a pighead she is.
It does not hurt to show who is the man.

15. A woman needs some talking sense into. If not,
I hit her in the mouthto learn her.
Every time, swill drips from her shredded lips.
I drink with my uncles who all agree.
They should because tonight I own their souls
And the bottles they nuzzle like their prides.

16. While they boomand boomflies whirr
Over their heads that grew them. Though nobody
Remembers, I sometimes think of the girl
Who drowned somewhere in a dreammany dreams
ago.
I see her at night with bubbles
Springing like flowers from her nose.

17. She is dying and before she sinks I try to touch
Her open face. But the water learns
To heal itself and closes around her like a wound.
I should feel sorry but I drown myself in gin before
I can. Better off dead, I say to myself
And my family that loves me for my bitter breath.
We die to rise to a better life.

18. Who is the persona in the poem?
What is his narrative?

19. Literary Device
Persona – refers to the voice or mouthpiece of the
writer within a literary text.

20. Literary Device
Symbolism – an artistic and poetic movement or style
using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express
mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. It originated
in late 19th century France and Belgium, with important
figures including Mallarme, Maeterlinck, Verlaine,
Rimbaud, and Redon.

21. Literary Device
Irony – a figure of speech in which words are used to signify an
opposite meaning in literature. There are three kinds of irony:

22. Worksheet 2:
On understanding the persona
Instruction: Draw the timeline of the persona’s
journey towards his “conversion”. Use the
graphic organizer below

23. Worksheet 3:
On Symbols
Lines From the poem Literal Meaning Symbolic Meaning
1. It happened in a metal
drum
2. The laundry lay caked
and smelly; dishes soiled
with fat and swill piled high
in the sink, and grew flies.
3. Father had arrived
booming with cousins, my
uncles.
4. Water curled under my
nose.
5. When I rose the same
two words from father. The
same girl kept sinking
deeper.

24. Lined from the poem Literal meaning Symbolic meaning
6. In the mirror I watched the holes on
my ears grow smaller
7. I got my wife pregnant with the
next. Our four children, all boys are
the joy of my manhood, my proof.
8. Water is still a problem and the
drum is still there, deep and rusty.
9. A woman needs some talking sense
into. If not, I hit her in the mouth to
learn her.
10. I see her at night with bubbles
springing like flowers from her nose.
11. But the water learns to heal itself
and closes around her like a wound.

25. Worksheet 4:
On Irony
Instruction: Tell the irony behind the last
sentence of the poem:
We die to rise to a better life.
Rubric:
Accuracy of content (10) –
Deeping of Insights (10) –
Organization (5) –
Mechanics (5) –

26. Worksheet 5:
Sino Siya?
Instructions: Describe the “murdered girl” in the poem
according to the narrative of the persona whom we identified
in worksheet 1.
Murdered Girl

27. Round Table Discussion
Class Activity: The Murder
Questions:
1. Who should be held liable to the girl in the persona’s
body? Give evidences to your answer.
2. Can we blame the killer of the girl in the persona’s
body? Justify your answers.
3. How do you plan to give justice to the death of that girl
in the persona’s body? Expound and elaborate your plan.
Please specify.

28. Post Reading Activity
Task: Kantabokasiya at iba pa
Directions: Let us organize a small gig in the
classroom. Be able to identify in your group the
singers, band members, dancers, and spoken words
performers. At least for this meeting provide the
following:
A. Song lists arranged based on the them of the
mini gig
B. Program flow
C. Evaluation session with the audience

29. Criteria
Unity with the
theme
Content of the output or
performance
Quality of the output
or performance
Time Limit

30. Evaluation
Directions: Write a critical paper as an extension of our
discussion on J.Neil Garcia’s “The Conversion”.
Particularly, be able to provide answers to the following:
A. What are the strengths and the weaknesses of the
poem in delivering the message?
B. Was the overall presentation through the use of the
literary devices become effective?
C. What were the new and significant learning that this
poem has given you? Expound.
D. What would be your own share in this advocacy?
Explain.

31. Thank You