The document summarizes the short story "Heart of Summer" by Joey Ayala. It describes the main character as a man who was secretly in love with a close friend from his childhood. Years later, his obsession with her grows worse and he sees her image everywhere. One day at the beach, he believes he sees her and confronts the woman, grabbing her despite her saying she is married. When she kicks him to get away, he sinks beneath the waves and drowns, as he never learned to swim. The story explores themes of unrequited love, obsession, and facing reality.

1. JRIorion-STEMA-21stLit-Region13
Heart of Summer
By: Joey Ayala

2. About Joey Ayala
Jose Iñigo Homer Lacambra Ayala was born on June 1, 1956,
Camp Philips (now M. Fortich), Bukidnon, Mindanao, the first of
six children of literary-visual artists Jose V. Ayala, Jr. (b. 1932 –d.
2002) andTita Lacambra-Ayala (b. 1931).
Joey’s early musical education was purely oido, listening,
singing along, and attempting to replicate melodies on whatever
musical toys (melodica, recorder, harmonica) were lying about,
courtesy of Mom Tita. She also soundtracked her brood’s day with
a portable turntable playlist that included western classics,
samplers of folk music from faraway countries, songs from stage
productions, sprinklings of jazz, hits from the 50s and 60s… these,
along with radio and, later on, television, movies, and cassettes,
brought a greater and greater variety of music to Joey’s attention.

3. He started writing verse and prose in his early teens. Mom Tita, ever the
editor, would clean up what scribblings she would find lying about and send
them to magazines. They’d get published, and the proceeds from this handful
of early writings went to buy, first, a pair bonggos, then, after seeing what a
neighborhood buddy could do on one, a playable guitar.
Soon Joey was merging words and music. Songs started to come during third
high school age – a mix of teenage darkness, western folk-rock, jazz fusion,
and eastern mysticism – this against a backdrop of Woodstock and Vietnam
War images and the socio-political turmoil of a country under martial law,
declared in September of 1972.

4. Some of his achievements:
• Fr. Neri Satur Award for Environmental Heroism “For promoting
environmental awareness and arts education from ancestral roots to new
artistic routes of musical expression advocating for the protection of the
environment and the conservation of natural resources.” (Awarded by the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Department of
Education, April 24, 2009, in observance of Earth Day 2009.)
• Best Musical Score BRUTUS, indie film by Tara Illenberger, awarded by
Cinemalaya, 2008.
• Best Traditional Song, 8th KATHA Music Awards, Songwriter, lyrics of “Pag-
uwi”, 16 November 2002.
• Grand Prize, Metropop Songwriting Contest, lyricist of “Pag-uwi”, music by
Louie Ocampo, interpreted by Martin Nievera. 2001.

5. Characters
•The Main Character
•The girl he has an obsession with but only thought of him
as a friend when they were young.
•The mother of the girl he met while they were young,
what she said made him think he should have her.

6. Setting
•In a movie theatre, where he sees her after so long but
she ignores him when he calls her.
•In the girl’s house, in his dream- the flashback.
•In a city in a beach, where he sees her again and tries to
speak to her even if she now doesn’t know him.

7. Plot Summary
The story began of a man who secretly loving a close friend. The first time he
went to the house of the girl they had a nice conversation with the mother.
One night, this man show his feelings towards her saying “I love you,” but it is
only in his mind. But the girl only replied with rhetorical questions. “Do you
know? Have you forgotten?You are my friend.”
The man was so depressed that his love never blossomed. Leading this love
for obsession with a feeling the girl was escaping from him.
Several years went by, his obsession was getting worse for he sees the picture
of the woman he loved at the glass, in a mannequins at picture frames, in
every other woman he sees.

8. One early morning he decided to go to the beach.
At the beach, he saw a woman, he thought once again that she was the
woman he loved. At the sea, while swimming far from everybody else, he
confronted the woman and grabbed the woman even if she explained that
she’s married and have children.
The woman kicked him at the chest after seeing an opportunity and the man
sank beneath the waves because he didn’t know how to swim. He sank,
leading to his death.

9. Elements of a story
He sees her in the theatre
but gets ignored, he goes
home and dreamed about
the past.
He sees her at the beach and
runs after her, the life guard
stops him, but he escapes and
goes to the sea where she went.
He went beneath the waters
as she kicked him to defend
herself.
He got close to her in the waters as he
explains to her that she knows him, but she
doesn’t and wants to get away from him.
He drowns because he could not
swim, and died as he spends his
last moments yelling for her to
come back.

10. Conflict of the Story
Man vs. Man
The conflict of the story is where the main character is madly in love with the
girl who does not love him back. He becomes insane and when he ran after her
he acted almost as if he was about to rape her. He tries to touch her even if she
told him that she is married and has children already.

11. Theme
The theme of the story is about love and obsession.
The story revolves around the lesson in the saying that goes a little like
this: Accept the things that you cannot change, change the things that you can
and know the difference between the two. In the story, the main character
cannot face the reality that his love is taken and can never love him back, but
he persists and meets his fate
If you force something that was never meant to be, you will face the
consequences.

12. Symbolisms
Ocean/Sea: The ocean is a symbol of power, strength, life, mystery, hope and
truth. It is also referred to as being the tears, or sorrow, of God. The ocean's
salt symbolizes stability, which is ironic since the characters mind was
anything but stable.
Fire: Fire consumes, warms, and illuminates, but can also bring pain and
death; thus, its symbolic meaning varies wildly, depending upon the context of
its use. It is often the symbol of inspiration.
Rose: In general, a rose is symbolic of love, beauty and/or something of value.
Outside of the realm of literature, roses and their colors are symbolic: red
roses can symbolize passion, while white roses can symbolize purity.

13. PlotType/Devices
PlotType
In Medias Res
The story starts in the middle of the story where he finds the girl he was
obsessed with years ago. He then went home after she ignores him, slept and
dreamed about the time where they were playmates.
Plot Device
Flashback
The story uses a flashback plot device when the main character dreams of
what happened when he went to the girl’s house and played with her.

14. Point ofView
The point of view used in the story is 3rd person, which means the narrator
refers to the characters as he, she or they.
The story can be thought of as having a narrator of limited omniscience
where the perspective is limited to one or the main character.The narrator
rarely states the feelings of the main character, his feelings are shown
indirectly through his thoughts and actions.

15. Bibliography
Ayala, J. (December 10, 2016). Biography. Retrieved from
http://joeyayala.com/biography/
Esperanza, I. (December 10, 2016). Short story, Heart of Summer. Retrieved from
http://www.answers.com/Q/The_story_of_the_heart_of_summer_by_Joey_a
yala_III#slide=1
Esperanza, I. (December 10, 2016). Summary of the Heart of Summer. Retrieved
from http://www.answers.com/Q/Summary_of_heart_of_summer_by_Jose_
inigo_homer_lacambra_ayala_III#slide=7
Wikipedia. (December 10, 2016). JoeyAyala. Retrieved from
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Ayala

16. Submitted by:
Mark Nicole D. Javier
Marc Johniel Serrano
Submitted to: Mrs. KaylinT. Paguio