Love in the Cornhusks
“LOVE IN THE CORNHUSKS” By: Aida Rivera Ford Setting: The story happens in a Barrio. Climax: Tinang discovers after reading the love letter from her first love, Amado, that she is still loved by him. However, by then, she is already married to a Bagobo and has a son with him. REACTION Aida Rivera Ford, according to my research, has lived with her husband in their large farm in Davao, the place where I live as well. In connection to this, the short story of Love in the Cornhusks is somehow related with her life like its barrio-setting and the characteristics of the Characters as well.
Perhaps, the main character is a woman based on the fact that the writer of this short story is a woman too. The story is very simple, easy to understand and yet realistic. It begins in a situation where the main character, Tinang, starts her day as she visits her Senora with a good vibe that shifted to a different one lately. The author made the life of Tinang centered between two men. The Bagobo, her husband, and Amado do not speak in the story but they are characterized differently with each other.
It appears that her husband, the Bagobo, is a simple man, whom is satisfied of being a farmer with the 2 hectares of land for his family. On one hand, Amado, the one she loved before her husband, is portrayed as a tractor driver, whom wears formal clothes every Saturday and a yet man who gives importance to his future as he wants to study mechanical engineering someday. I see in the story that in life, choices are given to us and yet what we have to do is to discern and stand in the decision we may select.
Hence, marrying is not a joke and to marry the Bagobo is not just a coincidence in Tinang’s life but it is her decision when she did so, even if she did not know yet the reason why Amado had suddenly gone. The last part of the story has some symbolic figures. Tinang still loves Amado even after she got married to her husband. Reading the letter is a moment when Tinang’s feeling for Amado has reawakened. To cry is the first thing she does, then, she tries to recollect her first experiences with him. A snake comes in the scene sneaking towards her baby.
As I analyze it, I see that snake is the representation of such discovery and poses threat towards her relationship with her family. Why the snake is going to her baby? It is because that snake, if Tinang lets herself be taken by her emotion, can destroy her relationship with her Bagobo husband. Indeed, the snake is about to attack her son for he is the symbol and the fruit of the love that she and her husband shared together. In the end of the story, the author’s symbolisms are saying that Tinang chooses to accept the consequences in the decision she made in her life.
First, she stands up from her sitting position–telling that life must go on; then she embraced the baby–telling that she has to embrace her own consequences and situatedness and especially the people whom God has given to her; next, she prayed and beg the almighty not to punish her after thinking other things outside from her married life–saying that she realizes that her thoughts are wrong; afterwards, she checks the skin of the baby searching for some marks–showing the possible scars in her married life after reincarnating the feelings she once had with Amado; and the last one, the letter fell unnoticed among the cornhusk– saying that she leaves that momentum without knowing that her very strong feeling and longing to Amado, if is not totally gone yet, is at least eased and is left among the cornhusks, which is meant to be consider as only a past of her life. REFLECTION “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. ” This is a famous saying I have been hearing since my early teenage years. After reading the story, I am affirmed that a relationship tantamount to what Tinang and Amado had is not always certain. Life is full of twisting events and human beings have to understand that decisions done in every moment must be discerned well and its consequences should be accepted.
If I were Tinang, I would surely find myself too thinking about the other possibilities that could happen in my life if I did not marry the Bagobo. However, though it is a little bit painful, I know that I cannot rewind anymore the time and what I have to is to accept that life is like that. We tend to experience the excruciating consequences of our hasty or even faulty decisions in order for us to become a better and mature person someday in making decisions once again in our life. Hence, love in the cornhusk, as it is portraying that life has to be dealt with acceptance, I learn that at the end of the day, I must reserve a part of myself a chance of being able to move on and cope with the excruciating moments I may face in the future.
