World Literature — Round 1 Justification (South Africa vs the Philippines)
Today marks a special moment in the World Literature 2022 tournament as it’s the 5th anniversary of this prestigious event taking place. This is the first match of the tournament, with two debutant teams both looking promising to move to the next round, but only one team will move to the next round of this amazing tournament. The two teams of completely different cultures and contrasting values and beliefs, face off against each other in what is called by the fans a close game. Goals will be appointed for the most gripping and relevant short story that sophisticatedly delivers the deeper meaning behind the short story. From South Africa, we have a unique short story by Olivia M. Coetzee called Snake’s Hill. Whereas, representing the Philippines we have a short story by R. Joseph Dazo called The Man with a Thousand Names. Before beginning the tournament, let’s find out more about South Africa. The country is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, boarding the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, with home to 437 million residents. South Africa’s national language is Spanish with other various languages spoken as well. The Philippines on the other hand is located in Southeast Asia, on the eastern rim of the Asiatic Mediterranean with a population of around 113.80 million in 2022. The two main languages spoken by the Philippines are Filipino and English.
That being said, let’s find out how both countries play in today’s match. South Africa begins with an introductory paragraph, describing from who’s perspective the short story has been written. Susan, from the perspective of whom this short shorty has been written, uses ellipses to indicate that she is trailing off after talking about her father, showcasing an unhealthy relationship between her and her father. The line, “…if JB hadn’t told me about the man in the photograph”, also foreshadows that the short story may be about the truth of Susan’s father about why she doesn’t have a great relationship with her father. “Maybe Mom would still be waiting for the right time to tell me,” also indicates the hesitancy of Susan’s mother is talking about her father. South Africa has scored a goal for the effective use of foreshadowing.
Moving on, South Africa varies the story’s sentence structure to reduce repetition and keeps the reader (me) engaged. Additionally, separating the story into concise paragraphs helps to understand when there will be changes in the story. Furthermore, South Africa also uses a literary techniques like imagery and description to show Susan’s and her mother’s affection towards Senior (“…taking the frame and wiping the glass to remove the fingerprints [she] left on it [on the picture of Senior]”). To my surprise, South Africa also explores the stereotypical life of a woman in an African and European culture in which women are expected to get married and have kids. Susan had been scolded by her mother for joining the choir and singing and was forced into getting married to “a young guy who [is] good enough in [her] mother’s eyes,” because her mother was scared to lose her and reminded her of her husband who left her with nothing. At the end of the short story, South Africa writes “still am,” which could be interpreted that Susan’s father might have died which is why she hasn’t been able to meet her father, or it could be that she still hasn’t found the whereabouts of her father. These aesthetic qualities stitch together in a wonderful way to showcase the relationship between Susan and her father. What I learnt from the short story from South Africa is how such a deep meaning can be delivered in such a concise way.
Continuing, representing the Philippines was a short story called The Man with a Thousand Names by R.Joseph Dazo which evolved around identity and passion, which at first was something that I didn’t expect from Asian culture. The short story describes how a man tattoos names of the people he met, whether he had dated/liked or despised them. The description also has been to describe some of their experiences of the man with the people who’s names he tattooed onto his body, how he got his first and last tattoo. What I like about the Philippines’ short story was the ending in which they incorporated a cliffhanger where the name of the character isn’t revealed. What I perceived, the deep meaning behind the short story is that your name isn’t the thing that defines you, it’s the people you meet and how they always remain in some part of you.
Overall, even though the Philippines and South Africa had a close match, South Africa wins the game by 2 goals for delivering a more relevant short story. (4–2).
