Scent of Apples is a short story written by Bienvenido Santos, was a Filipino-American fiction,

poetry, and non-fiction writer. And one of his notable works is the story Scent of Apples. Is about
a man who longing for his native land. This story focuses on the real score of Filipino who
cannot come back to the Philippines because of poverty. It reflects the immigrant-character
yearning to come back to his land. And when he sees a fellow Filipino, he was very delighted to
introduce himself as well as his family to him. It is meant to show that not all Filipinos are lucky
to go abroad and it is indeed possible the lives of Filipinos to be miserable and suffer from
poverty even in abroad.. Not all Filipinos go to abroad are lucky, we dont know what is happens
to us when we go to abroad, we dont know if we can come back again in our country. Like the
situation of Mr. Fabia in the story, Mr. Fabia took him back to the hotel. He offered to drop news
to his family when he got back to the Philippines but Mr. Fabia refused, saying that they might
have already forgotten him, because Mr. Fabia didnt come back to the Philippines for a long
time because of poverty.
Reaction
We think the words with which he wrote this sad story tells us how much he missed his country,
the land that he had to leave. It also showed us his great understanding for a friend who he had
realized, or maybe even wished, feels the same way he does.
The scent of apples, which we do not find here in the Philippines, for him symbolizes the miles
that stretch between him and his country. This scent, which was very common in the place
where he was then, constantly brings heartbreak. It was a wave of tears that sweeps over him as
he smells it, and his heart wants to shout, this land is not mine. I do not belong here. He had
known how much the Americans, who had set out for war, missed this scent.

Looking around what used to be a dream to him, as we would have were we given the chance, he
realizes instantly that this place, after all, does not belong to him.
We have realized how painful it is to part with your country. The land of your birth. We have
realized that a thing so simple, such as a platter of apples, or a photograph of a person only
Heaven knows whose, can bring us back to where we really are. There is only one home where
in our heart dwells, there is only one place where we long to stay most, there is only one land
where you can look around and smile a real smile and say what your heart would have you say.
That is home.
How lonely could he have been, the writer of this sad story? How often had he woken up to
smell the scent of apples and break drown to tears of longing to smell the scent of his country
instead? How often does the lonely mind take such unpleasant detours,
away from the familiar winding lanes toward home for fear of this, the long
lost youth, the remembered hurt? The author said, only the exile knows. The exile
deprived to seek the recess of his heart and soul, deprived of the comfort the loving arms of the
land of his people. The exilewhose every single breath forces him to smell the scent of apples,
whose every single step in a familiar yet foreign land forces him to feel pain. The exile who had
known better days, who had gripped his heart so many times to make himself accept the fact that
he is destined to smell that scent forever.
Yes, truly, only the exile knows.

Are the people who went abroad become successful? The mindset of the Filipinos focuses only
on for the sake of their family and for their best future. Some of them succeed but others are still
in the process of earning money without gaining success.

Nueva Ecija High School

Cabanatuan City

REACTION PAPER
(A compilation Paper for English For
Academic And Professional Purposes)

Group 3 (Scent of Apples) Romans

Christhopher C. Da Jose
Mary Jane Maza
Via Angeles
Vincent Tungol

Micaella Facunla

Kimberly Santiago

Mohammad Macalla Alissandra Evangelista

Trina Joyce Dela Cruz
Jhen Martin

Sephrie Abuque

Cherish Bondoc