princessjevieolaivardagapio-blog

[princessjevieolaivardagapio-blog]

Critique about the story “Footnote to Youth”

          The story entitled “Footnote to Youth”,written by Jose Garcia Villa talks about the youth as of today. Teenagers are impulsive and aggressive. Whatever they think and feel at the moment, they want to do it right away. Because of this attitude, it is common among young men and women in rural areas to marry very early. Consequently, barrio couples have big families and young parents have to work very hard to support their children.

          In just reading the title of the story, we could already sense that it is aiming to remind for the youth of what a real life could really be today.  It shows the sources or the causes why youth act the way. It further’s adds comment, whether it is a positive or negative on today’s generation. The story is suitable to the story and gives a warning for those a pathetic youth stubbornness. Aimed us to find out and analyze the message/theme of the the story as a reader’s. Footnote to youth is the method of all the mixture which are through description, conversation of each character, and their actions. It makes possible to illustrate what a typical youth will be in the story to as a result, the author really brings out each individual through describing them one by one. And in this story it comes to pass. It embarks upon on how they stick to their main beliefs. As you can see every deed by each of the character are equally diverse. Jose Garcia Villa in his work that history repeats itself. What Dodong when he was still a teenager happened once again to his 18 year old son,Blas, Dodong saw himself with Blas. Love,as they say can move mountain and Dodong could not do anything to stop Blas from what he wants. The story ended with Dodong feeling extremely sorry for his son.

          The story focuses in the perspective of teenage marriage. This account concentrates on the most common problem of the youth these days. Love and being in love encompasses a lot of things in life that we have to commemorate in our mind . Being married at the young age is something that many people should consider because with everything that’s been happening in our society we might just regret it. Indeed, marriage is a holy sacrament that is to be taken seriously and responsibly by two people who have witnessed their love grow. By reading closely to the story, we can spot symbolism carefully crafted to metaphorically compared the setting of the story to the life of Dodong, the main character. The account begin with this line “The sun was salmon and hazy in the west,” was an implied comparison to Dodong being in-love. It was patterned after the color of a salmon, that is pinkish-orange to light pink. Undeniably, being in-love gives a connotation that everything around that person glows, everything is good and beautiful. On the other hand, the word “hazy” means “unclear” gives a hint of the feeling of Dodong about this anxieties whether his father will allow to marry or not to marry his girlfriend, Teang. The author makes the reader conscious about this through the way Dodong act when he was married with Teang that he realized that it is difficult to be a father and to have a family. They know that life is just sweet and easy because they are living a simple life. The writer described a “short colorless worm marched blindly to Dodong’s foot and crawled clammily over it, while Dodong was in deep thought about Teang. This is further object of the story. That gives a resemblance to Dodong who is by nature low in stature. This “worm” may also stand for the title of this short story “Footnote” which we placed at the bottom of our academic writings just like worm that also burrows deeper into soil.

          One of the literary pieces that I enjoyed reading the most was the story entitled “Footnote to Youth”. It mirrors the life cycle of a man depending on the decision he came up to. The benefits we can get is a moral lesson that gives awareness for us a youth not only for today’s generation but also for the next succeeding generations. Well, I can relate the story because I am also a teenager and the story was all about a youthful scenario.It is intended for the youth of our generation in order to us to know what reality is all about.Even if your in love to someone, you have to think not once, not twice but in a million times  of the consequences that might happen if you decide to marry at the very young age. Life is beautiful  yet difficult if you are not ready to face all consequences, if you do not have enough weapons to fight for the trials that you might encounter.Marrying is not easy, because there are a lot of hardship like in life. As parents,  you have to exert more effort to have  a better life so don’t make a decision that would make your life complicated especially if you are young.I would like to suggest to the writer that he should put some additional readings, references and the word or phrase is the vital importance as compared to the rest of the text. In a sense we can acknowledge the urgency of the themes being put forth in the story.