Name: Keziah Bianca A. Fortuna Section: Plato
"The Witch" by Edilberto K. Tiempo
Analysis
A Novel Called "The Witch" by Edilberto K. T. A Wonderful Story that Brings Rural Filipino Folk Ways to Life) 1970. Siliman University credits him and his wife Edith with creating a history of excellence in creative writing and literary craft education. As chair of the English Department, dean of the graduate school, vice-president of academic affairs, and writer-in-residence, he had a lot of experience. He and his wife Edith attended the Lowa Writers' Workshop and studied under Paul Engle. After graduating in 1962, they were motivated by their time in Silliman to start Asia's first writers' workshop, which is still running today.
In THE WITCH, we learn more about the cultural significance of witches in the Philippines. These traditional methods of life may be all we have left of the beliefs and customs of the Philippines' many ethnic groups before European, Muslim, Japanese, and American colonial powers wiped out indigenous culture almost completely. Folklorists who are familiar with Irish mythology may discover similarities in the way animals announce death when they get possessed by spirits.
Author's Biography
Edilberto Tiempo (1913-Sept. 1996)
Biographical information about the author Edilberto Tiempo (1913-Sept. 1996) The University of Iowa and the University of Denver, awarded this Fiction-writer and his M.F.A. and Ph.D. Degrees in English, respectively. Ed Tiempo, together with his wife Edith L. Tiempo, was a Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellow and studied literature and creative writing for around four years at the Iowa Writers Workshop. When the Tiempos returned to the Philippines in 1962, they established the Silliman National Writers Workshop in accordance with the goals of the Iowa writers' clinic. The Dumaguete City yearly writing workshop has been operating for almost two decades.
It was Silliman University, where Tiempo taught in two American schools in the 1960s and served as department chair, graduate school dean, vice president for academic affairs, and writer in residence, that he settled down at. Among the many awards, he received for his work are the Cultural Center of the Philippines Prize, the Palanca Awards, the National Book Award, and the U.P. Golden Anniversary Literary Contest prize.
Summary
Minggay Awok was known as a witch even beyond Libas, in five outlying sitios, and considering that not uncommonly a man's nearest neighbor was two or three hills away, her notoriety was wide. She lived in a small, low hut as the back of the creek separating the barrios of Libas and Sinit-an. The hut leaned dangerously to the side where the creek water, ate away large chunks of the earth during the rainy season. Minggay was feared in Libas and the surrounding barrios. Using an incantation known only to her, Minggay would take out one insect from a bottle, soak it in color liquid or roll it in powder, and with a curse let it go to the body of her victim.
A man set fire to her hut one night, thinking to burn her with it, but Minggay was unharmed. Minggay was known to have a wakwak and a sigbin, a nocturnal bird that gave out raucous cries when a person in the neighborhood had just died. Those who claimed to have seen the sigbin described it as a queer animal resembling a kangaroo. The times when I passed by the hut and saw her lean sow and her black chickens, I wondered if they transformed themselves into fantastic creatures at night.
The balete tree across the creek from her hut was called Minggay's tree, for she was known to sit on one of the numerous twisting vines that formed its grotesque trunk to wait for a belated passer-by. At first, I thought the witch was only a legend, a name to frighten children from doing mischief, but then I saw her sow digging banana roots or wallowing near the trail and the black chickens scratching for worms in her yard and became convinced she was real. I wanted to run back, but the medicine had to get to Tio Sabelo's wife that night. Somehow after the terror of the balete and the hut of the witch had lessened, although I always had the goose flesh whenever I passed by them after dusk. One night he went to a creek a hundred yards from his home to find that it was not the witch, but a carabao wallowing in the creek.
After two hours in the water he discovered an old woman taking a bath in the shade of a catmon tree. I had with me my cousin's pana, made of a long steel rod pointed at one end and cleft at the other and shot through the hollow of a bamboo joint the size of a finger by means of a rubber band attached to one end of the joint. She was soaking her sparse gray hair with gogo suds when she saw me coming and said, Why don't you bait them out of their hiding? Take some of this!
One bank of the creek was lined by huge boulders where the roots of Gnarled dapdap trees had penetrated. The other bank was sandy, with bamboo and common trees Leaning over. I saw three traps of woven bamboo strips, round-bellied and about two feet long, two hidden behind a catmon root. It did not take Me, an hour to catch a midribful, some hairy with age, some heavy with eggs, dark Magus, leaf-green shrimps, speckled. "If he's still living, he'd be as old as your father maybe," she said.
When she saw the fright that suddenly leaped into my face, she said, "I wish I had other children so I wouldn't be living alone". I detached it from my belt and looked at the shrimps. "Not far from here--the house on the high bank, across the balete."
Angrily, I hurled the shrimps back into the creek.
Characters'
Minggay Awok
Round Character (Antagonist)
She was thought to be the story's witch, and was held responsible for everything bad that transpired as a result.
The Boy
Flat character (Protagonist)
He's been depicted in the narrative as an obedient and dependable young man. Because he was so susceptible to the stories that surrounded him, he began to believe them even though there was no rational basis for doing so.
Tio Sabelo
The head teacher of the barrio school, uncle of that young boy.
Setting
Barrio of Libas, Southern Leyte.
Plot
According to legend, a witch called Minggay Awok, which translates to "witch" in Visayan, dwells near the stream that separates the Libas and Sinit-an areas. People in the neighborhood were alarmed by their sudden appearance, solitary existence, and forays into the barrios. She's always been held responsible for odd events.
Conflict
Edilberto K Tiempo wrote a story titled "The Witch" about a witch who is purportedly on a vengeful path. The struggle in the narrative may be categorized as one between man and man (man versus man). There is a happy ending after the accused witch turns out to be a helpful person.
Theme
It tells the tale of a little kid who enjoyed going to see his uncle in a neighboring town. He'd heard rumors about a witch who lived close by his uncle's house, and he was terrified to pass by her hut because of them. By the conclusion of the novel, he discovers that the witch was actually a sweet old woman, but the myths he'd heard over the years prevented him from trusting her when she sought to assist him.
Side Questions:
Do you think Minggay is really a witch? Why and why not? Explain your answers.
*Minggay may not be a witch after all, given the lack of evidence and the fact that she is never mentioned as such in the tale. Her persona is the polar opposite of that of an enchantress, in every way. It demonstrates the power of others' comments to influence us. It's unfair to label someone who lives in a remote area apart from the rest of civilization as odd, eccentric, or worse, a witch.
What is the relationship between the boy and Minggay?
*I believe the boy and Minggay are related since the youngster is the latter's grandchild. Finally, Minggay informed the kid that he looked much like her son when he was his age and that her son may possibly be the same age as the boy's father right now.
Explain the difference of a short story to other forms of literature like poetry, drama, essay, etc.
*The writing style of short tales is vastly different from those of other genres. Short tales need a unique method and application, in contrast to other genres where the narrative elements are shared. The length of the stories differs amongst them. Short tales often have less than 20,000 words. It usually takes place in a single area and only has a small cast of characters. It also gives the readers a fantastic experience by infusing meaning into a fewer number of words. Poems, on the other hand, are works of literature written in the form of verses. Writing an essay gives the writer's point of view on a certain subject, whereas theatre uses it to tell a tale to an audience.
