Republic of the Philippines

Mindanao State University

Senior High School Department
Fatima, General Santos City

Magnificence: The Prevalence of Empowered Women

Submitted by:

Orbita, Aldwinn
Bactong, Jephty
Bunga, Micolle Jean
Cornejo, Margaret
Domiar, Norlaynie
Ossamah, Fadhael
Tamayo, Harlene

Submitted to:

Jaydee Paid

November 27, 2017

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Introduction

Magnificence is an amazing work of Estrella Alfon that talks about the

how magnificent a woman, or a mother in particular can be (Coda, 2017).
Estrella Alfon was born on Cebu on March 27, 1917. Estrella became Veronicans’
first and only female writer. Her story, Magnificence, became one of the
favorites of Philippine Literature classes (Conejos, 2013). Despite the disturbing
thought of the story she still managed to deliver it gracefully. Child abuse is one
of the found subjects of the story. It is also about a family, the innocence of the
kid, and the desire. Magnificence depicts a family that mistakenly put their trust
on someone which later on betrayed them.

The story started with the mother who met the bus conductor named
Vicente. The mother trusted Vicente to teach her children and she did not know
the trust she gave Vicente would be used by Vicente to do something bad to
her own child. She trusted Vicente who later on betrayed her. The story showed
that even a woman can make a change and step in to the light to fight for their
rights and to stop the evil.

Estrella Alfon’s objective upon writing Magnificence may be to show

people that women, though powerless before, still have courage and bravery to
stand up against violence. Estrella’s work, Magnificence, made her become
one of the very first feminist author in the Philippines. On her story she showed
that trust is not something that can be inherit, it is something to be gained. She
also showed that people should not let others take advantage of an innocent
girl’s weakness. People must stand for their right, even when everyone looks
down on them.

This mother in the story represents all the mothers in the world that were
once hidden in the shadows but soon stepped in to the light and fought with the
abuses caused by male (Gapuz, 2010). The story taught everyone that sex

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should not be the reason that the women would cover themselves because
they think the men are higher than them. It also taught people to not simply put
your whole trust to people you just met without even knowing their background.
A pleasing outside personality does not guarantee a person’s real attitude and
desires.

This paper aims to tell everyone in the world that people should not fully
trust on a person we just met and women should also not let others abuse
themselves just because people think that women are thought as weak and
powerless. Magnificence is a story that shows a thorough of empowered
women on dissecting every angles of elements and contents of the literary
piece, and considering and examining the psychological setup as well as the
motivation hidden behind the metaphoric structure.

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Body

This paper delves on the literary piece in every angles of its elements and
contents by means of formalistic approach. The title, Magnificence, played an
important role in introducing the main point of the piece and is very significant, it
is an appropriate symbol, tribute and description of the mother. Throughout the
text, the mother’s name was unknown from the beginning up until the end, this is
because the author wants to emphasize that the mother in the story can be any
mother in the world. It was magnificent because the mother considered and
treated her daughter as if nothing strange happen leaving the child ignorant
while most of the people upon knowing that their child was used as an object
for some dark intentions react impulsively without thinking what kind of effect will
it bring to their children.

The story focuses mainly on the following characters: the mother, the
children (both the daughter and son), Vicente (bus conductor) and lastly the
father. The story took place in the family’s residence (specifically dining room
and the bedroom) to show that such things could happen even at home and
even in the presence of parents or guardians, and in school where the child
learns, nurture their knowledge and to keep their innocence as well as their
young thoughts about the world. The character of Vicente and of the mother
was introduced as dynamic characters. Vicente was first described as gentle
and kind person with soft voice but as the story goes by his true dark side was
revealed. As for the mother, her character vary in every different situation as
there was a constant changes on the character. She was partly introduced as a
president which is commonly portrayed as authoritative person and later on, she
had shown vulnerability as she openly let Vicente in the house to deal with her
children- this is practically permitting one stranger to commit wrongful acts, after
that , she then changes into a strong woman when she slapped Vicente many
times and when she threw him out of the house and the last change in her

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character was when she became a mother to her daughter, a gentle and kind
mother when she took care of her daughter after the scene with Vicente.

Some characters were also introduced as static—meaning there’s no

change in their character. The children’s father for example, his attitude towards
different situations remained the same. In the beginning of the story, he didn’t
show much care as his dialogues are limited and when the mother shared her
concern the time she observed there’s something off with Vicente, he just
continued reading and shrug his shoulders. After the incident, he still not into the
situation as it was just the mother who deals with her daughter after the wrongful
act.

The point of view used in the story was a third person omniscient point of
view which could be referred as godlike point of view. It allows the author to
control the characters including their emotion, feelings and thoughts. This also
allows the author to have multiple characters with different voices such as adult,
child and etc.

Different figures of speech were also applied. Irony, analogy and

symbolism were shown. It was ironic how Vicente gave so many pencils when
he was just a mere conductor (“And the little girl muttered under her breath, I’ll
ask Vicente for some more. Their mother replied, He’s only a bus conductor,
don’t ask him for too many things. It’s a pity”). It was ironic that instead of the
children’s parents, the stranger bought them the pencils. It was also ironic that
the young girl was treated as a big girl by her parents (“The little girl kept
squirming, for somehow she felt uncomfortable to be held thus, her mother and
father always treated her like a big girl, she was always told never to act like a
baby. She looked around at Vicente, interrupting her careful writing to twist
around”). Symbolism was also used when the children of 7 and 8 were shown as
symbolic characters –children were identified to represent innocence. Also,

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pencils were also used to symbolize trust, the giving and accepting of pencil
and the asking and gaining of trust.

Giving the sequence of story, plot has an important role to make a nice
flow of story. The climax was slowly highlighted when the woman began to
raised her hand and eventually slapped the man with full force as the mother
made another forceful slap that blows Vicente away one step back until he
reached the bottom landing. The woman continually slapped him to escorts
Vicente to other door until the cold breeze of night touches him and run away.

Remarkably, before the climax was highlighted, the rising action played
an important role into setting the mood of the story - the man took the little girl
by his arm to make her sit on his lap with all sweat running on his face and
strange eyes that makes the little girl squirms, and feels uncomfortable and
frightened.

The falling action also emphasized one of the main theme of the story –on
how a mother turn to an empowered woman who fights against the cruelty and
eventually came back as a mother. The time when the mother went to her
daughter and held her hand out to the child. This is where she displayed
protectiveness to her child and proved that a woman can be a mother through
showing her magnificence.

The story can be also interpreted using the psychoanalytical approach.

Considering and examining the psychological motivation of the story used to
critic the story through the lens of psychology. There are some objects in the
story that represents meaning. In this short story, pencil was used and it is a
phallic symbol that symbolizes the male's reproductive organ. Every color of the
pencil that Vicente gave to the children represents meanings. As for the girl,
who received red, yellow and the white ones which is the biggest among the
three. According to a study published in 2004 by psychology majors in Alabama,

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the red represents power, sexuality, and passion. Yellow means intelligence and
consciousness while the white represents purity and innocence (Olesen, n.d.).
The color white may also represent how innocent the girl is because she doesn't
know that Vicente's actions towards her might be harmful for her. This scene,
where Vicente keeps giving the two children with their respective pencils may
represent that this is Vicente's strategy to hypnotize the children in being close
with him and the more he gives them pencils, the more they get closer with
each other.

According to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of personality, the behavior

of the human is the result of the interactions among three component parts of
the mind: the id, ego and superego (Cherry, 2015). These three components
were shown in the story. The id is responsible for the reservoir of libido or pleasure
in the unconscious. As for Vicente, it was obviously seen because he seeks
pleasure to the seven year old girl by "holding her under the armpits, and held
her to sit down on his lap" during the time of their tutorial class .In order to be
close with the girl, he used pencils because he knew that the girl really fond of
these things and in that way, he can get the children's attention. The superego is
a moral censoring agency and repository of conscience or pride that protects
society. The mother's superego was shown by protecting her child from Vicente's
bad plans. The rational governing agent of the unconscious that protects the
individual. The ego in the story can be represented by the young girl, which is
torn between situations where she have to choose between on whether she
would trust with Vicente or not.
In the story, the 7 year old girl has been abused by Vicente - her tutor.
During the climax of the story, the girl felt that Vicente starts to touch her body
without her consent. But even though she felt that the man has been taking
advantage of her size and strength, she remained silent because these things

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were nothing to her and she doesn't know that Vicente's plan towards her is very
harmful for herself.

Using the psychoanalytical approach, this paper will explain why the
character of the victim is representing the children. In the society, children are
the ones who were treated with extreme care and discipline for they are
believed to be the hope of the fatherland. The children are innocent and
cannot bear false witnesses. Because of this, children are usually the victim in
every story. The reason is they do not know how to protect themselves from the
murderer.

In the end of the story, the mother asked her daughter to take a bath
quickly. She also changed her daughter's clothes with new ones. These new
clothes represent a new life for the young girl and burned the clothes that had
been taken off of the girl. This action may represent as cleanliness and purity
because the mother wants to take away the pleasure that the Vicente seeks
with her daughter. And the mother also asked her daughter to burn the pencils
that Vicente gave to them as a sign of forgetting the experiences that her
children have experienced from Vicente - the man who molested her.

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Conclusion

“Magnificence” is a great piece of work written by Estrella Alfon. This

literary work can have different meaning depending on what kind of approach
was used. In this paper, formalistic and psychoanalytical criticism were applied.

Using the formalistic approach, the students look into the details of the
text itself including the characters, the setting, the point of view, the figures of
speech, the plot and others. Through this, the students found out that
magnificence is an adjective used to describe the mother’s character and
upon reading the story the students conclude that it can represent universality
since the mother’s name was unknown this literally means that magnificence is
used not only to describe the mother in the story but all the mothers in the world.
It was also observed that the setting of the story is actually in their household
meaning it can happen anywhere and anytime.

Using psychoanalytical approach, different symbolisms were identified to

represent different meanings. Like how pencil was used to represent a phallic
symbol that symbolizes the male's reproductive organ. Every color of the pencil
that Vicente gave to the children represents meanings-- red for power, sexuality,
and passion, yellow for intelligence and consciousness and white for purity and
innocence. Using all the symbolisms and interpreting those, students concluded
that the girl was a victim of sexual molestation.

Hence, “Magnificence” is a literary piece that tackles about what truly a

mother is and how magnificent they are in terms of showing their motherly love
and protectiveness. Also, the generalizations of the violence in the world as it
can happen anywhere and anytime.

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References

Anonymous (2008, September 28). Philippine Literature Post-War Period.

Retrieved from http://post-warperiod.blogspot.com/2008/09/estrella-
d.html?m=1

Cherry, K. (2015, August 23). The Structural Model of Personality. What are the Id,
Ego and Super Ego?. Retrieved November 26, 2017, from
https://www.verywell.com/the-id-ego-and-superego-2795951

Conejos, A. (2013, January 11). Imagery and Point of View in Alfon’s

Magnificence. [Web log post]. Retrieved November 15, 2017 from
http://www.litreact.com/reactions/magnificence_alfon_conejos.html

Gapuz, C. (2010, September). Analysis on the Short Story Magnificence by

Estrella Alfon. [Web log post]. Retrieved November 15, 2017 from
https://books-authors.knoji.com/analysis-of-the-short-story-magnificence-
by-estrella-alfon/

Magnificence by Estrella Alfon. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2017, from

http://www.oocities.org/phil_stories/alfon_magnificence.html

Olesen, J. (n.d.). Color Symbolism in Literature: What Do Colors Mean in

Literature and Poetry?. Retrieved November 26, 2017, from
https://www.color-meanings.com/color-symbolism-in-literature-what-do-
colors-mean-in-literature-and-poetry/

U, M. (2012, January 30). “Magnificence” by Estrella Alfon: A Powerful Early Short

Story from Cebu. Retrieved from
http://rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2012/01/magnificence-by-estella-alfon-
powerful.html?m=1

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