(FINAL)CHILDREN OF THE CITY PPT

Presentation

CHILDREN OF THE CITY

By: Amadis Ma. Guerrero

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Amadis Ma. Guerrero was born in Ermita on April 15, 1941. He studied in Ateneo de Manila and completed his bachelor’s degree in the Univeristy of Santo Tomas.

Amadis Ma. Guerrero wrote for Graphic Magazine. He published his work in some magazines. And in later life he was writing for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

A short-story writer, author, and a cultural-travel journalist. He has published numerous books of short stories (often about Manila where he was born), travel essays (for he has travelled the length and breadth of the Philippine Archipelago), and deluxe volumes on Philippine Art and Culture.

1971 Palanca Award Winning Piece: Children of the City

The story is about the life of Victor, an eight year old boy whose father was involved in a company menace because of unjust salaries and compensations. His father joined the employee's strike and there he met his death when he was shot by the police officers managing the chaos in the strike. Victor was shocked to know the sudden death of his father on a newspaper. He and his mother were in deep pain upon hearing his father's death. Soon, her mother had a new husband. She left Victor to his older brother. There, he was trained to be a newspaper boy in the dangerous streets of Avenida. He met there many children doing just like what he is. In those dark street he learned how to curse-say bad words and smoke cigarette because he was influenced by a group of unmannered teenagers. He found himself alone in the street, sometimes being beat up by bullies.

The story ended when the author realized how cruel the world is... "... And Victor, swirled the life of the city: this city, flushed with triumphant charity campaigns, where workers were made to sign statements certifying they received minimum wage, where millionaire politicians received Holy Communion every Sunday, where mothers taught their sons and daughters the art of begging, where orphans and children from broken homes slept on pavements and under darkened bridges, and where best friends fell out and betrayed one another."

LINK TO THE STORY: https://gissellemildredpaulo.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/children-of-the-city-by-amadis-ma-guerrero/

SETTINGS

This story happened in the late 1980’s on the dark street of Avenida.

CHARACTERS

Victor is the central character of the story. He is the son of a dockworker and an unemployed wife in the shanties of Manila. He was young and naive child who does not know how the world works. Victor’s father who is a hard-working and caring father who works as a dockworker. Joined the strike to fight because of their low compensation at work and died was shot during the said rally. Victor’s mother can be described as uncaring mother towards her son but was very loving to her husband before his death. Tio Pedring is Victor’s uncle who adopted him after his mother left him. Nacio is another newsboy who’s irresponsible and troublemaker that later died because of his bad doings. Other newsboys who taught Victor to smoke, etc.

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PLOT

The story revolved on a young boy, Victor, a son of a dockworker and an unemployed mother who lived in a shanties. The story started when the father decided to join the strike against the implementation of unjust compensation at their work but his wife was against it that’s why they had an argument about it. Victor who was still young doesn’t know what is happening and still unaware of what he should do. During one of the strikes, an unfortunate event happened, Victor’s father was shot along with his workers.

It brought sadness to his wife who mourned in sorrow when the news about his husband’s death arrived. After that incident, his mother would usually go out in the afternoon and will be back late at night. One day, she brought home a man who stays at her room and that caused confusion to Victor. They left Victor to his uncle and was told to tell him that they will go for a “vacation” and then because of that, he started his work as a newsboy.

While working, Victor met Nacio who also works as a newsboy and the two became great friends. Victor soon got the chance to increase his usual quota for giving his best to sell newspapers. Nacio died and that made Victor became pressured on his work because his fellow sellers kept on teasing him. Victor would get beaten up by the other kids and forced to smoke and utter foul words. He resisted at first, but soon found himself cursing and holding a cigarette within his fingers.

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Victor finally accepted the fact that life isn’t easy and life will not always go along of how you wanted it to be. He realized how cruel the world is and life will sometimes give its favor to those who have the power.

LANGUAGE

THEME

The story talks about Social injustice and child labor. During the first scenario, Victor’s father got deprived of work and being paid beyond the minimum wage and also, they are not given proper meal while they are at work and it requires them to pay for what they’ve got. After his father died, Victor was forced to work because her mother left him that supposed to be the one who will give his needs. Working in the shanties of Manila wasn’t easy for him, he experienced a lot and met people who brought him in distress.

English and tagalog were used in the story. The use of english words were very powerful and deep that it really gives us the interest to read the whole story. Few of the tagalog words were used to express the feelings and emotions that aims to bring us to that exact situation.

VIDEO

CHILDREN OF THE CITY

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REPORTERS: LARA ABYGALE N. ORILA JENILYN M. PEREZ MAUREEN CLAIRE F. PETALIO