Ateneo de Manila University – Loyola Schools
School of Social Sciences
Ed 246.6 Reading and Literature

Jomar Ferrer Morena 14 September 2013 Dr. Ma. Monica L. Moreno

Assignment #3: 1. Take a look at this list of words: Apple Alligator Angry Ambulance Apologize 2. Can you make this list like a story? If yes, write one.

| |
|A Very Short Story |
|by JFM |
| |
|Looking at the fruits’ stall, the smell of apples got his attention. He pauses… faces the stall and places his basket on the floor. He was fascinated by|
|its colors, of red and green… the smell of its fragrance… he imagines himself holding it, caressing, pressing tenderly, and slowly biting it… |
| |
|Somebody pushes him… its one from the crowd who’s in a hurry passing by the market. Three old women grabbed his attention. They are looking at the |
|newspaper headline, with a photo of a woman, whose name appeared “Napoles”. “Gahaman, sakim, buwaya!” the oldest of them exclaimed. Beside her photo, is|
|a caricature of an alligator… |
| |
|The people are extremely angry, they are mad… You could sense the feeling of hatred and anger into their blood, amidst the air. They look at the |
|newspaper; as if they want to kill… if not only with the approaching ambulance… their attention will never be gone. |
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|“Are you buying it?” the vendor asked him. He then noticed the apple he was handling... He apologized, returned it, and left. |

3. Now try changing the order of the words. Does this alter the story? Write one.

|A Very Short Story |
|by JFM |
| |
|Looking at the fruits’ stall, the smell of alligator got his attention. He pauses… faces the stall and places his basket on the floor. He was fascinated|
|by its colors, of red and green… the smell of its fragrance… he imagines himself holding it, caressing, pressing tenderly, and slowly biting it… |
| |
|Somebody pushes him… its one from the crowd who’s in a hurry passing by the market. Three old women grabbed his attention. They are looking at the |
|newspaper headline, with a photo of a woman, whose name appeared “Napoles”. “Gahaman, sakim, buwaya!” the oldest of them exclaimed. Beside her photo, is|
|a caricature of an apple… |
| |
|The people are extremely apologizing, they are mad… You could sense the feeling of hatred and anger into their blood, amidst the air. They look at the |
|newspaper; as if they want to kill… if not only with the approaching angry… their attention will never be gone. |
| |
|“Are you buying it?” the vendor asked him. He then noticed the apple he was handling... He ambulanced, returned it, and left. |

You can see in the second revision that there is an employment of “irony” as an element of style in writing a narrative. Most of the statements are not consistent with their thoughts and do not make sense as well. Try to study this diagram below:

|Original Version |Revised |Description/Event |
| | | |
|apples |alligators |“…fascinated by its colors, of red and green… the smell of its |
| | |fragrance… he imagines himself holding it, caressing, pressing |
| | |tenderly, and slowly biting it…” |
| | | |
|alligator |apple |“Beside her photo, is a caricature of an _” |
| | | |
|angry |apologizing |“…they are mad… You could sense the feeling of hatred and anger |
| | |into their blood, amidst the air. They look at the newspaper; as|
| | |if they want to kill…” |
| | | |
|ambulance |angry |“…if not only with the approaching _… their attention will never|
| | |be gone.” |
| | | |
|apologize |ambulanced |“Are you buying it?” the vendor asked him. He then noticed the |
| | |apple he was handling... He _, returned it, and left.” |

An alligator is a large reptile: a large reptile that lives near water, has thick scaly skin, powerful jaws, a long tail, and a shorter and broader snout than a crocodile. Native to: southern United States, China. (Microsoft Encarta 2009). It’s an animal, the usual skin color is brown not green or red. The guy cannot bite it, it might be the other way around. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense at all. A caricature of apple in number two above is something which is positive, which distorts the meaning of being “gahaman, akim at buwaya” (greedy and selfish). Again, it doesn’t make sense at all. The third statement doesn’t support the idea of somebody who is apologizing. Apology requires humility. It’s the other way around for the people there are “mad”. The next term after the word “approaching” should be a noun because it’s an adjective. It can never be another modifier for it is not an adverb. Finally, there is no such word as “ambulanced”. It is not a verb so it can never have a form of “d”. Again, it doesn’t make sense at all.

To sum it all up, when order of the words is altered, it distorts not only the syntax (sentence) but also the semantics (meaning). Although it’s narrative and fiction, it must still make sense to the readers. Otherwise, it will be meaningless to them.

4. Try to explain what happened when you made a story from the list of words. For example, did you try to imagine the characters, develop the plot, or imagine where the story took place?

First, I considered the possibilities of connecting the terms above into one narrative. It’s more challenging as compared to free writing in which you don’t have particular elements to consider. Just free thoughts. I considered the characters and their characterization. I made sure that they are not too specific so the readers will let themselves infer on their characterizations and personalities as well. The setting must create an atmosphere which is scattered, but consistent. Just like the flow of events or the plot structures. Notice the use of ellipses in the story. It allows the readers to pause and imagine is happening in between. The conflict is presented or exposed in the ending which is not a usual plot structure. I think that makes this story unique for it opens a lot of consciousness about what’s happening.

Lastly, the lesson is not explicitly stated. It is implied. It allows the readers to ask themselves about the author’s purpose of writing it. This in the end will let them reread the story for several times.

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