TONG by F. Sionil Jose



The story TONG by F. Sionil Jose shows how Conrado and Alice's hardships can be reflected through the reader's personal hardships. While the Marxist lenses reveal how the social classes, poverty, and unequal treatment with races can affect their life choices.



The story revolves around the main characters, Conrado and Alice, who both experience hardships despite their differences in race and social status. Conrado fell in love with Alice the first time he saw her at an electrical store. However, because he is Filipino, Alice knew there would be a conflict due to her Chinese traditions, which require her to marry someone of the same race. Conrado would often visit the electric shop under the pretext of buying something, just to see Alice. When Alice found out about this, she developed a small crush on him as well. They later began meeting in secret, despite Alice knowing that she would soon have to leave. When Conrado discovered that Alice was leaving to marry someone else, he felt as if his world had collapsed, leaving him devastated and longing for her.



As a reader, I felt sympathy toward Conrado, especially as a fellow Filipino. The hardships he experienced and the sacrifices he made for the love of his life only ended with her leaving him behind. Added to that, the decisions he was forced to make due to his struggles remind me of how some people are looked down upon and treated unfairly simply because of their race and social status, without others knowing the deeper struggles they overcome. This made me view him not as a character who merely makes questionable decisions, but as someone shaped by difficult social conditions.



Meanwhile, I see Alice as a character who represents emotional distance and societal expectations. Her actions toward Conrado made me feel even more sympathy for him, as she does not fully grasp the severity of his situation. At first glance, Alice might seem uncaring, but reflecting on her character made me realize that people are heavily influenced by their upbringing, family expectations, and social environment. Through her, I learned that understanding someone’s full background is crucial before judging whether their actions are good or bad.



From a Marxist perspective, both characters highlight the heavy toll of social inequality. Conrado's race and economic status make it almost impossible for him to shape his own future, particularly regarding a life with Alice. On the other hand, although Alice is Chinese, a group often perceived by many Filipinos as holding a higher social status, she is ultimately no different from Conrado, as she also faces her own financial struggles.



Overall, F. Sionil Jose’s "TONG" does a great job of showing how social status, money problems, and racial differences can easily mess up human relationships and the choices we make. Through Conrado and Alice's story, we see that love alone isn't always enough when society puts so many barriers in the way. Because of this, the story challenges us as readers to stop judging people right away and actually think about the hidden struggles they might be going through. Instead of letting race or wealth divide us, we should try to be more understanding of one another and build a community where people are valued for who they are, not how much money or status they have.



The doll by Egmidio Enriquez



The doll by Emigdio Enriquez is a story of a boy affected by the gender perceptions society has built on what masculinity and femininity is supposed to look like. Narciso is the young boy in the story, whose identity confusion is caused by the different perspective that his parents want him to portray his gender as a male. Due to the societal standard that has been etched into the community and lives of the people he lived and grew up around, he was chastised for how his mother wanted him to portray himself and as well how his father wanted him to look. This paper wants to analyze how gender perception and identity affected not only him but his mother and father.

In the beginning of the story Narciso, was had seen his mother's stored play dolls that she preserved for the little girl that she wished to have, and since Narciso was a child he took a liking to these dolls and thus played with them, in this scene Narciso mother; Dona Enchay, encouraged him to play with her dolls not to connect, not to enjoy playing with her child, but to vicariously live out her wish of having a female child through the fact that her child is enjoying something deemed as feminine. His father; Don Endong, is the peak of machismo; board chested, hairy, bushing brows, big arms, hated how Narciso played with the dolls. Due to this the mother called Narciso, "Sising", and his father called him, "Boy". His father would go on to argue with his wife because of the appearance of Narciso,

“You are such a child yourself, Enchay,” he told her. “You still want to play with dolls. That is why, I suppose, you refuse to have your son’s hair cut short. You’ll make a sissy out of him!” His eyes hardened, and a pulse ticked under his right ear. “No, I will not allow it,” he said struggling to his feet with his cane and shouting, “Boy! Boy! Boy!”, this is a direct quote from the story itself, Don Endong hated how his son looked “feminine” and due to this taunted his son on and on about it. His wife would go on to try to calm him down and tell him that his long hair and curls didn’t make him feminine and that it made him look like him. From all this evidence it shows that Narciso father has a narrow view one what masculinity is supposed to look like. The father would go on to call Narciso down and upon seeing him still holding the doll, he ripped the doll away telling him off and saying that “...little boys don’t play with dolls”. A driving point of how much this affected him at such a young age was in this point of the story, “... The Lady of Fatima did you say, ‘Nora’? You mean some woman like you and me, or your little girl here,” pointing at him, “with such pretty hair, who can talk, and walk, and laugh, and cry?” His mother retreated fanning herself frantically and flapping the cola of her black saya. “To be sure she can’t, but she stands as the symbol of one who can!” she explained with difficulty as though a fish bone was caught in her throat. He hated the woman for making his mother feel that way, and on the last rung of the steps vindictively spat her error at her: “I am not a girl. I am a boy! A boy! You don’t know anything!”

When they arrived home, he told his mother he wanted his hair cut short. “I don’t want the Lady of Fatima to mistake me for a girl like the Protestant woman,” he told his mother.

“But Our Lady knows you are a boy. Her Son tells her. Her Son is all knowing.” But Boy threw himself on the floor and started to kick. “I want my hair cut! I want my hair cut!” he screamed and screamed.".





From all this evidence it shows how much the societal views of gender presentation, from the moment a child is born, gender socialization begins. Parents choose names, nursery colors, and clothing that signal whether a baby is a boy or a girl. Even when growing up you supposed to like things that your gender is supposed to like, and in this case Narciso was supposed to enjoy toys catered to the boys, he was supposed to have short hair like his father, but due to him breaking that one rule caused more hurt emotionally than ever, from his father's taunts, from the self-hatred, from his mother's pushing femineity onto him for her own desire of wanting a girl child. It builds up over time and makes one doubt their own gender identity. Narscio was a victim caught in the crossfire of their parents' conflicting ideals. Thus, the doll, is a story that serves as a powerful commentary on the importance of allowing children to express their true selves, free from societal constraints and parental imposition.



There was this really fat girl by Carla M. Pacis



“Wish I was like you blue-eyed blondie, Perfect body, maybe i should try harder.” Ana is just like any other teenage girl, she longs to be seen beautiful in the eyes of others, what begins as a desire slowly slips from her grasp and turns into insecurity that consumes the way she perceives herself. This paper will explore how Ana’s internalized body insecurities shape how she views herself and her worth.



In the story “There was this really fat girl” by Carla M. Pacis, Ana is shown to have insecurities pertaining to her appearance, the story highlights this by stating “Ana thought her body was too hideous to have to look at everyday”. It is shown throughout the story that Ana struggles with her insecurities and weight, she constantly compares herself to her “Model thin” best friend Kat, which in turn makes Ana feel dissatisfied with her own body. Even Ana’s mother makes Ana feel discouraged by saying “you should lose at least 10 pounds to look good in that gown.”



Ana’s desire to be accepted becomes stronger as she becomes increasingly concerned in looking beautiful for their incoming junior prom – “I want ... I want ... to look good at the prom.” She takes diet pills in an attempt to lose weight so she can wear her desired strapless gown and feel more confident, believing that losing weight will make her more attractive and accepted. Her decision to take the diet pills demonstrates how she was willing to let her insecurities influence her behavior, as her desire to meet beauty standards becomes more important than her well being.



As a reader, I find myself relating to Ana’s insecurities, especially as a young teenage girl who is easily influenced by society's beauty standards. The way she perceives herself and how she thinks others see her, perfectly encapsulates unconscious insecurities that I too have experienced. Her constant need for approval and habit of comparing herself to others, remind me how easily we hyper focus on our flaws when we measure ourselves against unrealistic beauty standards. Through Ana’s eyes I'm able to recognize how much people lose sight of themselves when they focus on how others perceive them. Her experiences remind me that constantly seeking validation can cause us to overlook our worth and allow society's expectations to define how we see ourselves.



In a psychoanalytic perspective, the story highlights internal conflict between how she sees herself and how she wants to be seen by others. Her fixation with losing weight shows that she has internalized society's beauty standards for herself. Causing her to think that being thin is ideal because she associates it with being “beautiful”. Kat can be a representation of Ana’s ideal self, the person she wishes to become, and because she doesn't meet those standards, her insecurities further influence her decision to take diet pills as a solution to meet those standards.



In the song "Prom Queen", the lyric “You’ll only be happy, if you look a certain way” greatly represents Ana and her inner conflicts with her body image. Ana is not only struggling with her physical appearance, but her need for validation and acceptance of those around her. Through Ana, Carla M. Pacis, shows how insecurity influences people’s self worth, identity and behavior.



Ultimately Ana’s experiences should remind us that our self worth isn't measured by how closely we fit into society’s beauty standards, but by how we learn to see beauty in ourselves beyond what the world expects of us.



​Literature is basically a mirror for our own lives, our culture, and how we grow as people. For our project, our group looked at three different Filipino short stories using different critical lenses to see how society shapes who we are. Reading F. Sionil Jose’s TONG through Marxist and Reader-Response lenses showed how money and social status can end up controlling personal choices and relationships. At the same time, looking at Egmidio Enriquez’s The Doll through a Feminist lens exposed the heavy pressure of patriarchal gender roles, while using a Psychoanalytic lens on Carla M. Pacis’s There Was This Really Fat Girl brought out the emotional toll of strict beauty standards. By putting these insights together, our reflection shows how literature connects to our shared Filipino heritage and everyday experiences, highlighting how societal expectations constantly affect our choices and how we view ourselves.



In tong by F. Sionil Jose’s, it talks about a love that couldn't flourish, due to the difference in economic statuses and race between Conrado and Alice. Conrado was a Filipino man and Alice was Chinese woman. Their love all began when Conrado visited the small electronic shop Alice worked at, he fell for her at first sight. tHe would go on to frequent the small shop often just to see her and talk to her. From all these small visit he would do Alice would develop a small crush on Conrado, speaking to him when her uncle wasn't around din the shop, being walked home by him after ours, sneaking out and around to hang around each other, but alas this little forbidden tango had to end. Alice was promised to a rich man for marriage and her and Conrado's love had to end. This story ends tragically, with the lovers unable to overcome cultural and familial barriers. It serves as a commentary on social divisions, cultural expectations, and the human cost of rigid traditions, making it a poignant exploration of love and societal constraints.



For The doll by Egmidio Enriquez, it dives into the restrictiveness of societies version of gender expression, and how Narciso was a boy caught between his parents' conflicting expectations regarding his identity and interests. Narciso was a young boy that loved playing with his dolls and liked his long hair, His mother Dona Enchay loved his femininity due to her always wishing for a girl, while is father Don Endong, insists on him to conforming into the traditional masculine presentation and role. This conflict creates tension within the family, as each parent has a different vision for Narciso's upbringing. Don Endong's frustration culminates in a dramatic moment when he breaks Narciso's doll, attempting to force his son to embrace a more conventional male identity. Despite this, Narciso continues to struggle with societal expectations and his own desires. The doll critiques the machismo culture prevalent in the society depicted in the story, illustrating how rigid gender roles can harm individuals, particularly children like Narciso, who are caught in the crossfire of their parents' conflicting ideals.



In There Was This Really Fat Girl by Carla M. Pacis's, it shows this young woman's inner strangle with self-acceptance due to the societal standard of skinny while ana was fat. In the story ana already had preexisting insecurities regarding her weight. It was worsen by the people around her. From her constantly comparing herself to her much skinner best friend kat, from her own mother putting her down, and to the fact that a pivotal event that meant a lot to her was coming up. Prom was her pushing point that made her start taking diet pills. This story shows us how ones insecurities can push them to develop unhealthy habits to be rid of them, but at the end of they day no matter how much u try to change urself unless you accept and love yourself, your will still hate what looks back at you in the mirror.



All of these stories have a common theme, family, society, and the environment around you. It tells us a lot on how about the foundation we build our self up from can make or break us, whether its the fact that traditions can hold us back from loving who we want to, societal gender presentation keeping us in a box expecting us to fulfil a certain role and looking a certain way, and the fact the societies beauty standard is only there to hurt us. All these stories speak a truth that we try to hide from, that is so tight woven in our lives we cast a blind eye to it. These stories are here to remind us all of the problems we all face, we hope that the deep dive into these stories can help us all try to break the cycle, love ourselves, and express ourselves. This is our website, an open analytic view on these three stories.