Reading Notes: Filipino Tales, Part A

This week I read the Filipino Tales unit. I think what struck me most was the lack of an apparent moral to many of these stories. The three brothers did not seem to get what they deserved - no punishment for laziness, and Ambo revived the girl but Suan ended up with her. Perhaps the message is that if you trust fate with your fortune the results will not necessarily be fair. 

"The Clever Husband and Wife" also seemed unfair to me. They took advantage of the doctor's kindness the whole time, but in the end he was just glad they were alive. That creates a really interesting dynamic - if they had just asked for the money, he undoubtedly would have given it to them, but instead they wanted to get it by their own cleverness. Or perhaps they thought that he was somewhat capricious and would be likely to change his mind about his generosity. It would be interesting to flesh out more of their characters and motivations. 

Monkey. Web Source: Jeff Shea.

I would also very much like to see what happened after Chonguita turned from a monkey into a beautiful woman. Was she a woman all along or was some other magic at work? Did her husband like her better? What were her feelings towards him? How was she able to do such fine work as a monkey? It would also be interesting to work in the monkey from several of the other stories as a character. Perhaps he is a relative of Chonguita's. As he is very clever, perhaps she called upon his help to get revenge on her husband for his violence. I also wonder if there could be some kind of colonial interpretation, since the sons of the monarch all have Spanish names. That would probably depend on when this story was created, on what Chonguita means, and if it was based on an older, pre-colonial story. 

Bibliography: Dean S. Fansler's Filipino Popular Tales, link.