No Place Like Home
An Analysis of a 21st Century Philippine Literature entitled
“Five Brothers, One Mother” from Many Mansions
by Exie Abola
Do you feel safe at home? Are you happy? We do know that our home keeps us safe and warm. No matter what happens in our life, a home with a complete family is everything.
BACKGROUND
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| Alexis Agusto L. Abola |
Biographical / Authorial information:
Alexis Agusto L. Abola
Born at Bicol Region (Region V), Albay
Product of Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU)
He has also won awards for fiction and journalism
He is a Teacher at the English Department of Ateneo Manila University
Award-winning fictionist and essayist
University Master Degree in English Study
Has two Palanca Awards (Short Story in English 2000 and an NVM Gonzales Award)
Best Short Story of the Year 2000
He is one of the two authors who received Gintong Aklat Awards M.A. English Studies: Creative Writing, University of the Philippines- Diliman
His book of essays, " Trafficking in Nostalgia", was published in 2012.
Textual information:
Exie Abola published the literary text of Five Brothers, One Mother on the year 2004
FIVE BROTHERS, ONE MOTHER
from “Many Mansions”
Exie Abola
Manila
Taurus St., Cinco Hermanos, Marikina
The Marikina house wasn't finished yet, but with an ultimatum hanging over our heads, we had no choice but to move in. Just how unfinished the house was became bruisingly clear on our first night. There was no electricity yet, and the windows didn’t have screens. There were mosquitoes. I couldn’t sleep the whole night. My sister slept on a cot out in the upstairs hall instead of her room downstairs, maybe because it was cooler here. Every so often she would toss and turn, waving bugs away with half-asleep hands. I sat beside her and fanned her. She had work the next day. In the morning someone went out and bought boxes and boxes of Katol.
Work on the house would continue, but it remains unfinished eight years later. All the interiors, after a few years of intermittent work, are done. But the exterior remains unpainted, still the same cement gray as the day we moved in, though grimier now. Marikina’s factories aren’t too far away. The garden remains ungreened; earth, stones, weeds, and leaves are where I suppose bermuda grass will be put down someday.
In my eyes the Marikina house is an attempt to return to the successful Greenmeadows plan, but with more modest means at one’s disposal. The living room of the Cinco Hermanos house features much of the same furniture, a similar look. The sofa and wing chairs seem at ease again. My mother’s growing collection of angel figurines is the new twist. But there is less space in this room, as in most of the rooms in the Marikina house, since it is a smaller house on a smaller lot.
The kitchen is carefully planned, as was the earlier one, the cooking and eating areas clearly demarcated. There is again a formal dining room, and the new one seems to have been designed for the long narra dining table, a lovely Designs Ligna item, perhaps the one most beautiful piece of furniture we have, bought on the cheap from relatives leaving the country in a hurry when we still were on Heron Street.
Upstairs are the boys’ rooms. The beds were the ones custom-made for the Greenmeadows house, the same ones we’d slept in since then. It was a loft or an attic, my mother insisted, which is why the stairs had such narrow steps. But this "attic," curiously enough, had two big bedrooms as well as a wide hall. To those of us who actually inhabited these rooms, the curiosity was an annoyance. There was no bathroom, so if you had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night you had to go down the stairs and come back up again, by which time you were at least half awake.
Perhaps there was no difference between the two houses more basic, and more dramatic, than their location. This part of Marikina is not quite the same as the swanky part of Ortigas we inhabited for five years. Cinco Hermanos is split by a road, cutting it into two phases, that leads on one end to Major Santos Dizon, which connects Marcos Highway with Katipunan Avenue. The other end of the road stops at Olandes, a dense community of pedicabs, narrow streets, and poverty. The noise – from the tricycles, the chattering on the street, the trucks hurtling down Marcos Highway in the distance, the blaring of the loudspeaker at our street corner put there by eager-beaver baranggay officials – dispels any illusions one might harbor of having returned to a state of bliss.
* * *
The first floor is designed to create a clear separation between the family and guest areas, so one can entertain outsiders without disturbing the house’s inhabitants. This principle owes probably more to my mother than my father. After all, she is the entertainer, the host. The living room, patio, and dining room – the places where guests might be entertained – must be clean and neat, things in their places. She keeps the kitchen achingly well-organized, which is why there are lots of cabinets and a deep cupboard.
And she put them to good use. According to Titus, the fourth, who accompanied her recently while grocery shopping, she buys groceries as if all of us still lived there. I don’t recall the cupboard ever being empty.
That became her way of mothering. As we grew older and drifted farther and farther away from her grasp, defining our own lives outside of the house, my mother must have felt that she was losing us to friends, jobs, loves – forces beyond her control. Perhaps she figured that food, and a clean place to stay, was what we still needed from her. So over the last ten years or so she has become more involved in her cooking, more attentive, better. She also became fussier about meals, asking if you’ll be there for lunch or dinner so she knows how much to cook, reprimanding the one who didn’t call to say he wasn’t coming home for dinner after all, or the person who brought guests home without warning. There was more to it than just knowing how much rice to cook.
I know it gives her joy to have relatives over during the regular Christmas and New Year get-togethers, which have been held in our house for the past half-decade or so. She brings out the special dishes, cups and saucers, platters, glasses, bowls, coasters and doilies she herself crocheted. Perhaps I understand better why her Christmas decor has grown more lavish each year.
After seeing off the last guests after the most recent gathering, she sighed, "Ang kalat ng bahay!" I didn’t see her face, but I could hear her smiling. My father replied, "Masaya ka naman." It wasn’t a secret.
Sundays we come over to the house, everyone who has moved out, and have lunch together. Sunday lunches were always differently esteemed in our household. Now that some of us have left, I sense that my siblings try harder than they ever did to be there. I know I do. I try not to deprive my mother the chance to do what she does best.
ANALYSIS
Creative Nonfiction is also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction, is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. It also defines the genre simply, succinctly, and accurately as “true stories, well told”. The Five Brothers, One Mother is a creative nonfiction since it was based on true stories and uses Exie Abola's skills to tell a story about real people and events. The stories frequently switch back and forth between the past and the present, with the author comparing his old home to his new one. As we can see at the first to second paragraph he describes his house in Marikina and as you continue reading the excerpt you can see that he is starting to move to his present life he also describes his previous house. It is also about family and home, wherein we can see that his mother will do all things just to show her love to her children. We can say that Abola experiences this love from his mother and also all of the mothers are willing to sacrifice their lives, time, and effort just to show their love to their children.
Process Questions / Analysis Guides
the past moving to the present
the present moving to the past
the present day only
the past only
The excerpt moves from the past to the present in terms of time. It's because the author describes his life in their previous home in the first paragraph of Five Brothers, One Mother. He claims that it isn't as comfortable as their previous home, but that they must live there. As you read the story, he moves to his current life, describing how his mother became increasingly fussy about food. On how much he and his mother enjoy spending time with their family.
Marikina House gives Abola the idea that it is a noisy place and that it is unfinished. In the Marikina House, they are unable to get a good sleep. In addition, it is not as large as their previous home. He understands that regardless of whether the house is finished or not, they must move in and make themselves at home there, even if the construction is still ongoing.
3. List at least three descriptive terms which support your answer in number 2 in the space below.
Abola's main impression at the Marikina house is supported by the following aspects.
1. There was no electricity in the house.
2.the windows needed a screen
3. Mosquitoes were everywhere.
This makes them uncomfortable about living in the Marikina house.
4.Create a table listing down the comparisons that the author makes between this current house and their previous one.
As the author states in the paragraph, it is not about the amount of rice to make, but about the number of family members that will visit or come. The narrative shows how much the mother treasures her family and how much joy each member offers her. As a result, the more rice you cook, the more family members or visitors you'll have, and your mother will be happier.
The messiness of the house is a sign of a joyful celebration that has happened, therefore the mother would not mind if the house is dirty after the gathering. Because she values the happiness brought about by the gathering or by her family the most. Fixing the mess responses to the joy she has experienced as a result of the family gathering. Having relatives around for the traditional Christmas and New Year get-togethers brings her happiness because, despite her complaints about the messiness of the house, her complaints always change into joy after the get-togethers since she and her family spend time together.
SUMMARY
Everything is important when it comes to family. And every family has a very safe, happy and calm place and it's called a "home". Five brothers, one mother is all about the story of a man who was longing for his old life with his family. The life that he used to be comfortable with his family. The life that gives him happiness and joy. And the life that he was free from everything. In addition, he was also longing for his family's attention, especially when it comes to Christmas. They are all together and just enjoying the moments. They were also happy and felt the unity with each other. The author's mother is concerned about her children's future development. When people begin to go, it is described as an exodus. The mother tries to keep the house running well by cooking, which she believes brings everyone together. But in his situation he can't go back to the life that he had in the past. He needed to be strong and independent to face the present and the truth of life on his journey.
REFERENCES
Book/s
Galgo, L. (2018). Five brothers, one mother. Retrieved from http://galgoloraine.blogspot.com/2018/03/five-brothers-one-mother.html
Torres, J. (2019). 21st century Retrieved from https://jasptorres.blogspot.com/2019/01/21st-century-literature.html
LieutenantRamPerson55 (2016). 21st century literature from the Philippines and the world (Hum1) (1).pdf. Retrieved from
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