FEATURES OF LOCAL COLOR IN LITERATURE | AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE

  

Local color presents distinct characteristics in culture and traditions in a reading text. Reading such literature would give you a glimpse of what used to be or how the characters differ from the usual characters in the American or English literature. In Afro-Asian literature local culture is most rich. Here are the features of local color in literature.

·         Dialect

The use of certain words in the dialect of the origin of the narrative adds credibility and authenticity to the roots of the characters or the setting itself. This proves the setting to be mostly inaccessible.

 

Example

Nai Hah Tong waited patiently for the priest. The only sound he heard was the lonely call of the gecko lizard hiding in a crack of the stucco wall of the wat. He counted the lizard’s croaks nung, song, sam, see, ha, hok, jet. The Gold Harvest Tale from Thailand

 

Here in this text the author uses the Thai counting to validate the setting of the story. This validates the character, Nai Hah Tong, as a Thai who has distinct dialect or language from the rest of the world. Hence, the distinctive plot.

 

·         Mannerisms

The use of certain personality traits distinct to the region which may prove peculiar to the readers.

 

Examples

Bharat made a passionate plea for Rama to return and rule Kosalas but all in vain. Bharat then took Rama’s sandals to place them on the throne as testimony to the people that he was ruling in Rama’s name. The Ramayana Tale from India

 

This trait of taking anything that belongs to a person to testify the latter’s consent is distinct to India especially during that time. This is peculiar particularly that it is the throne of the kingdom that is at stake here and it only took a sandal to prove that the bearer now is king.

 

·         Social Customs

The use of rituals adherence to the old ways which may tend to ignite curiosity among readers. These rituals and customs are mostly related to religion and beliefs. 

 

Examples

“No,” they said “We want to go with you to your people” But Naomi replied, it is better for you to return to your own people. Do I have younger sons who could grow up to be your husband? No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to have a husband. And even if that were possible and I become pregnant tonight, and bore sons, would you wait for them to grow up? No, of course not, my daughters: oh, how I grieve for you that the Lord has punished me in a way that injures you.” The Story of Ruth (from Israel)

 

This presents a custom of the old Israel wherein a daughter-in-law is under the care of her mother-in-law when her husband dies. In this case Naomi’s husband died, who was supposed to be head of the family to whom the decision on what befalls on the widowed daughter-in-law when her husband dies. It also presents a possibility of the daughter-in-law to be married to her brother-in-law had there been any living younger brother left to marry when the husband dies. This is another queer experience if you put it in the perspective of the modern world.

 

·         Historical References

The use of significant historical event or characters of the specific region to promote believability to the turn of events in the narrative. These references you have yet to validate the truthfulness or let’s say the part that connects to real events. This may include names or titles that reflect the origin of a time-bound event/occasion known only to a certain place or locale. 

Example

But one morning their sawali door rustled. Then slowly it opened The head of an aliping namamahay –house slave- showed. Magindanao Pearls by Isidro L. Retizos

 

This made a significant reference to Pre-Hispanic Filipino social classes particularly that of the servants not slave, there is a difference. There were two classes of servants back then, the aliping sagigilid and aliping namamahay. The text made mention of an aliping namamahay who is higher in rank than the sagigilid. The aliping namamahay mentioned in this part of the text is the servant in Sinagtala’s household. This also suggest that Sinagtala’s family are free men as they have servants.

    Object

The use of certain objects reflective of their origin from a certain region. For example the use of "jeepney" which is widely used in the Philippines. The use of "chopsticks" in a household would suggest that the family has Asian roots.

"Look well towards the center of the plaza, look across it, and fix your gaze on that small tower of bamboo and nipa that is the belfry of the town. Friar Botod by Graciano Lopez Jaena Translated by Phyllis Tiongco

Commonly nipa was used by the Filipinos in building houses together with bamboo during the Pre-Hispanic period.

Originally published at jeanillec.blogspot.com

in July of 2021

MODALITY

 Modal auxiliary verbs are followed by the base form of a verb to show certainty, necessity, or possibility. Modals and the verbs that follow do not change form to indicate tense or take an “-s” ending. All modal auxiliary verbs can be used in the present, but only “could,” “would,” “should,” and “might” can be used in the past.

 

MODAL AUXILIARY VERB	USAGE	EXAMPLE
can , could	To show or infer general ability	You can come and visit any time. She could solve the problem mentally.
	To make a polite or informal request	Can we take the train instead? Could you take me to school early tomorrow?
	To give permission	You can take a day off tomorrow if you’re still feeling sick. If necessary, I could give you a longer extension.
	To make a prediction	If you work hard, you can easily land a job. If you continue to study hard, you could graduate with flying colors.
will , would	To make a polite or informal request	Will you see me tonight? I would gladly appreciate your help.
	To make a formal request	Will you be nice! Would you please help!
	To make a prediction	If she hears news about you, she will recover in no time. I would be surprised if she did not win.
shall	To show intention	We shall not surrender.
	To make a polite or an informal request	Shall we dance?
should	To indicate expectation	You should receive an email by next week.
	To suggest or provide advice	If you expect to get their full attention, you should give extra effort to your presentation.
	To infer responsibility or obligation	We should work hand in hand for the success of our community project.
may, might	To make a formal request	May I speak with you after office hours? You might want to reconsider your decision.
	To request permission	May I go to the dance tonight? Might I have a word with you?
	To show possibility	I may want to hear more of what you can offer. We might show up in the party.
	To make a prediction	We may win this contest if we craft a solid strategy. I might not see you in class, but I’ll wait for you in the stadium at lunch.
must	To indicate necessity	We must do something right now, or lose everything then next day.
	To infer a logical assumption	I couldn’t find her anywhere, she must have gone home already.

 

Originally published at jeanillec.blogspot.com

in March 2019.

Reference

GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS Using Modal Auxiliary Verbs

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/repository/files/grammar-and-mechanics/verb-system/Using-Modal-Auxiliary-Verbs.pdf  

THE BASICS OF CHANGING DIRECT TO INDIRECT SPEECH

 In reporting an idea or a message using the exact words of the speaker, use direct speech; However, in reporting an idea or a message using your own words, use indirect speech. But what is the most appropriate way to change direct speech to indirect?

Sentences in the indirect speech are already free of the quotation marks and must always end with a period.

The sentence inside the quotation mark is called the REPORTED SPEECH. When the verb in the reported speech is in the present tense, change it into its simple past tense when changing into indirect. 

In the sentence above, "like" is the verb in the reported speech and "like" is also present. In changing it to indirect "like" becomes "liked".

YOUR TURN

Directions: Change the given direct speech into indirect.

1. Direct: Melissa said, "I eat bread for breakfast."

    Indirect: _________________________

If the verb in the reported speech is in the past tense, in this case, "met" , change it into the past perfect tense which is "had met".

So, what is really the form of a past perfect tense? Simple: had +verb pp. Meaning had plus the past participle of the verb. The past participle form of the verb is generally the third column in conjugating verbs.

The verbs in the past participle column are the verbs to pair with had to form the past perfect tense of the verb. They would look like this: had liked; had talked; had eaten; had sung.

Notice also the time indicator in the example above; yesterday is changed to the previous day in the indirect form. This means that time expressions also change when the statement is transformed into indirect.

Be reminded of these changes:

now - then

tomorrow - the next day

today - that day

yesterday - that previous day

tonight - that night

YOUR TURN

Directions: Change the given direct speech into indirect.

2. Direct: Melissa said, "Robert drank the milk in the 

               fridge last night."

    Indirect: _________________________

This means that not everything in the reported speech has to be changed when you want to use the indirect speech. This one is an example. 

There is no need to change "All people have equal rights" because that is a universal truth. That is something everyone knows and should be known.

It would sound unnatural if you insist on changing it: ‘He said that all people had equal rights.’ You cannot change that because even when the speaker said that in the past, that idea is still true even after she said it.

YOUR TURN

Directions: Change the given direct speech into indirect.

3. Direct: Melissa said, "We are all created equal."

    Indirect: _________________________

This part could be tricky. You have to make sure that the pronouns used  refer to the correct antecedent. Antecedents are what pronouns refer to.

Let us examine the sentence above: "John told Mary that he had told her that they do not have money." It is very important that you do not interchange the pronouns. It should also be taken into consideration that some names do not suggest gender anymore so it is wise to clarify it.

YOUR TURN

Directions: Change the given direct speech into indirect.

4. Direct: Melissa told Pedro, "I needed you to listen 

    to me last night."

    Indirect: _________________________

The reporting verb refers to the verb before the reported speech or outside the reported speech; the verb outside the quotation marks. In the sentence above -  She says, "I will come." - "says" is the reporting verb. When the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, there is no need to change the tense of the verb in the reported speech. In the example above, the only changes made were the pronoun "I to she" and the addition of the word "that".

YOUR TURN

Directions: Change the given direct speech into indirect.

5. Direct: Melissa says, "Pedro and I will be leaving 

               soon."

    Indirect: _________________________

You can also watch this video. 

Originally published at jeanillec.blogspot.com

in 2020

References:

Direct to indirect speech: General rules. (9 February 2016). Retrieved from

https://www.englishgrammar.org/direct-indirect-speech-general-rules/

Cogtas, J. (3 March 2019). How to change direct to indirect speech. Retrieved form

https://jeanillec.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-to-change-direct-to-indirect-speech.html

HOW TO WRITE A REFLECTIVE ESSAY

 Reflective writing involves the thoughts of the author regarding a piece of literature or phenomenon.

In addition to being reflective and logical, you can be personal, hypothetical, critical and creative; Because of course reflective writing courses through your thoughts as the writer. This is the reason why reflective writing is mostly subjective. With that being said, this only means now that you can make connections about your experiences, rather than solely drawing on academic evidence, which may tend to be so uptight. 

However, experiences alone without connections tend to  make your writing plain and may not be of substance. It is in how you connect experiences to relevant information leading to values and new learning that would make-up a successful reflective writing.

TYPES OF REFLECTIVE WRITING

1. Experiential Reflection

     - This type of reflection allows you to ponder your experience and evaluate it in relation to theories applied.

2. Reading Reflection

    - This type of reflection asks you to write about your opinions about the text read; make assumptions and how they affect your interpretation.

THE DISCUSSION BELOW PERTAINS TO READING REFLECTION.

WHAT TO DISCUSS?

• Your perceptions of the literary piece or the story you've read.
• Which character might've struck you as a role model, hero, or evil.
• Any questions you have about the events in the story.
• Experiences, ideas and observations you have had, and how they relate to the course or topic.

WHAT TO DISCUSS?

• What you found confusing, inspiring, difficult, interesting and why.
• How new ideas challenge what you already know.
• What you need to explore next in terms of thoughts and actions.

WHAT TO DISCUSS?

• Experiences, ideas and observations you have had, and how they relate to the story.
• Possibilities, speculations, hypotheses or solutions.
• Alternative interpretations or different perspectives based on what you have read in another reading material.
• Relevance of the story to culture and history.

Like any other essay, reflective writing begins with an INTRODUCTION. 

HOW TO WRITE?

• Be descriptive but do not be wordy as those shall be thoroughly discussed in the BODY.

The BODY contains the meat of your reflective essay. This is where you explain, discuss, make connections, and provide evidences

HOW TO WRITE?

• Be descriptive.
• Be expressive.
• Be analytical and explanatory.

IMPORTANT: Since you are writing your reflective essay as a blog post, add pictures that would serve as evidences to the story's relevance to culture and history. Do not forget to write a caption or description below the picture.

CLICK TO SEE SAMPLE

The CONCLUSION is the portion where you impart your realization and discuss your new learning based on your discussion in the "body".

HOW TO WRITE?

• Be expressive.
• Be analytical and explanatory at a minimum level.

Originally published at jeanillec.blogspot.com

in 2020

References:

How to write a reflection paper. (2020). Retrieved from
 https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/how-guides/how-write-university/how-approach-any-assignment/how-write-reflection-paper

How do I write reflectively?. (2019). Retrieved from

 https://student.unsw.edu.au/how-do-i-write-reflectively

COMPONENTS OF A NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH

 A narrative paragraph tells a story which means the events in  this type of paragraph should be arranged chronologically.  Chronological order presents details or events in the order in which they occur: what happens first, second and so on.

A narrative paragraph must have:

These components are very important in drafting your narrative paragraph. Study the draft below.

Note that the draft tells you that the author of the draft above would be writing a story about local tales.

YOUR TURN

Write a draft of one of the stories you've heard of in your local area. The story must be something that the folks in your community know of very well. You can start by asking your grandparents or your parents about a certain story. Then complete the matrix below.

Now that you already have drafted your narrative paragraph, it is time to write one. Study the example below but always make a reference to the sample draft above for guidance.

The narrative paragraph above is a draft of a probable folktale. Let's see how the components are distributed within the paragraph.

You may read the full-blown story featured above. It is entitled Mystique of Campo: Timo, Guardian of the Putat.

YOUR TURN

Now, write a narrative paragraph using the draft you made. Do remember that there is no exact order as to how the components should be arranged in your paragraph. The order depends on your creativity as the writer. 

You can listen and watch the full-length story.

Originally published at jeanillec.blogspot.com

in 2020

References:

Grammar for Writing. (2009). 

New York: William H. Sadlier, Inc.

Cogtas, J. (2 June 2020). Mystique of Campo: The Tales of Putat. Retrieved

https://www.owupress.com/mystique-of-campo-the-tales-of-putat-1218

Teng, S. A. (4 October 2012). Narrative Paragraph. Retrieved

http://thewindlike.blogspot.com/2012/08/narrative-paragraph.html#.Xv6HmGgzbIV

THE CYCLE OF THE SUN AND THE MOON: A Manobo Folktale

       

 

     A long time ago, only the Sun rode to the sky. His wife, the Moon, stayed at home and tended the children and their farm. The Moon loved their two children and went about her tasks happily - fetching water, gathering gabi leaves, and digging camote for supper.

     One cloudy day when the Sun was home, the Moon had to go to the river for water. She crooned the children to sleep and called to her husband. "Dear husband, I am going to fetch water. Watch over the children, but do not go near them because you know what will happen if you do." And after the warning, she left.

     The Sun looked lovingly at his children. He had never before been able to really know them or even get near them. Overcome with love and affection, he kissed them. To his horror, they shrivelled up before his eyes and crumbled to ashes.

     His anguish was great. He moaned and cried. Suddenly he remembered what his wife had told - not to touch the children! Not knowing what to do, he hid in the forest.

     Soon after this the Moon returned. A water jar was balanced on her head and she carried a bundle of freshly cut gabi leaves in her arms. Laying down the jar and leaves, she turned to look for her children. Wild was her grief to find only ashes where her lovely brown babies had once been.

     Her screams and lamentations reached her husband in the forest, and his pity overcoming his fear, he went home. However, as soon as the Moon saw him, her wailing became louder.

     "My husband, why did you do it? Did I not tell you never to touch or even draw near our children? Why did you disobey me?"

     "I couldn't help kissing them, O wife; they looked so sweet. I have never seen anything so sweet before. Forgive me, O Moon! Forgive me," he begged her.

     But the Moon would not be comforted. Her reproaches increased in intensity. In the end, the Sun got angry.

     "Mang-gad!" he shouted. "Did you say that I disobeyed you? How dare you think that you are superior to me, that you can order me what to do. Mang-gad! Slave! How dare you say that I disobeyed you!"

     "Ai!" she moaned. "I am nothing, nothing at all! Then, my children are nothing too! And with one defiant sweep of her arm, she scattered their ashes out of the house.

     When he returned very late that night, his ill temper was gone. He regretted having shouted at his wife. He found the house dark and empty. His wife had fled, but pinpoints of glimmering light in the distance told him where she was, for he knew the lights were his children following their mother in her flight.

     So started the endless cycle of the Sun chasing the Moon fleeing from the Sun. The Moon is forever with her children, the many tiny lights we call the stars. Now and then a shooting star breaks across the path of the Moon. It is nothing more than an attempt from her husband to make her and their two children return to him. But the Moon speeds away faster, sometimes leaving the sky altogether, with only her star-babies there. This happens when the marks of the gabi leaves on the Moon's face swell, and she remembers the pain and humiliation of her husband's anger when he threw the gabi leaves to her face and called her mang-gad (property) and binotong (slave).

   

Source

Lapid, Milagros and Serrano, Josephine. English Communication Arts and Skills through Philippine Literature 7. 9th ed, Phoenix Publishing House, Inc, 2022.