Marie Joy Lim

Make a critical analysis on the Philippine Literature by Frank R. Blake.

1. Identify the writer’s thesis or purpose.

   To get to know a country and its people, a good place to begin is their literature. This article examines the type of literature and gives a few thoughts of the degree and character that have been written in different native Philippine languages. The author describes the Philippines as being separated into three distinct tribes and each tribe has its own languages. He additionally gives examples of literature from every one of the tribes and a background information each. The author also stated in this article that the Christian tribes establish the main component of the native population and recorded the quantity of works distributed in their different languages – Bisayan and Tagalog being at top. He then goes on to discuss the Tagalog verse by giving examples of romantic and sensational poems. This article therefore concludes, that with the author’s statement, the author’s purpose is to tell the readers that if the Filipinos were bound to have a national language where the national literature could be composed, that language would be Tagalog.

2. Analyze the structure of the passage by identifying all the main ideas.

   To know the historical backdrop of a country’s soul, one must look through its literature. Through a thorough study of our own literature, we can follow the rich heritage of ideas given to us by our ancestors. This article talks about the three tribes that the native population of the Philippine Island falls into. The mountain pagan tribes, the Mohammedan Moros and the Christian tribes.

   The author starts with the pagan tribes and clarified how the majority of their languages are not written A large portion of the literature of this area centers around religion as the fundamental subject.

   Then, he talks about the Moro people who has two primary languages used in their area, Sulu and Magindanaw. These languages have both Malay and Arabic origins. Most of their books are written in Moros, unlike the pagan tribes whose books are written by missionaries.

   The final people that the author discussed are the Christian tribes of the Philippines. They had different native languages before the Spanish invasion of the sixteenth Century yet these were not written and are generally neglected. A few works were distributed in native languages like Tagalog and Bisayan. The author carefully describes how these stanzas were etymologically organized.

   I didn’t view this article as difficult to follow. In fact, it was laid out well and all in order, so I was able to distinguish its structure.

3. Has the article been presented clearly, accurately, with order and coherence? Why?

   It is important for an article to convey its ideas as clearly and concisely as possible – keeping high levels of interest and accuracy at the same time. So, yes, the article has been presented clearly, accurately, with order and coherence. The reasoning for this is that literature and history are closely interrelated. Literature may be illusions of the imagination or events that have been written down, at the same time history is made up of events that truly occurred. What happened in the history is revealed to be factual and is chronological since the beginning until now, then it is interconnected or therefore written with coherence.

4. How is the Philippine Literature presented by the author?

   The Philippine Literature is presented by the author fairly in its intent. The writing is of exceptionally old style, so it is a bit perplexing at some point. However, the overall significance can still be determined. The author’s purpose is straightforward, that in this article, he is trying to trace the linguistic roots of the languages of the three tribes. Although the article was long and provided very detailed information, it was fascinating and flowed pleasantly. Also, the author made one final point – if the Filipinos were bound to ever have a national language in which a national literature could be written, that language would be Tagalog.

5. Discuss the significant developments in the Philippine Literature from pre-colonial to colonial periods according to Blake.

   As per the author, the significant developments in the Philippine Literature from pre-colonial to colonial period comes from the mountain pagan tribes, the Mohammedan Moros and the Christian tribes. Every tribe in each of the different groups has its own language, which is particular from those of its neighbors. “These languages have produced little or nothing which can claim to be literature in the sense of elegant and artistic writing.” The author expresses that the literature of the Philippine languages is literature just in the more extensive sense of written speech, and it is in this sense that he uses the term “Philippine Literature.”

   Beginning with the pagan tribes, not many of the languages of this group exist by any means in written structure. The northern neighbors of this island are the Mangyans of Mindoro. The island and its neighbors possess native alphabets, which as indicated by the author are most likely not used aside for short inscriptions. All remaining works in the languages of the group are imprinted in Roman type. The author concludes discussing the languages of this group by stating that the main five languages have any composed landmarks and not a single one of them have more than one or two illustrations.

   Next is the Mohammedan tribes – they are not familiar with printing and subsequently their literary masterpiece all begin in manuscript form. They are written in a somewhat changed variety of the Arabic alphabet. The author classified their writing into four headings: Historical annals, Legal codes, Religious texts, and Writing of varied character.

   Lastly, the Christian tribes that establish the main component of the native population. In the sixteenth century, during the time of the Spanish discovery and invasion, the now Christianized Filipinos knew the native alphabets. That is because these were preserved and protected like the ancient alphabets. Frank Blake, the author, records the quantity of works published in the various languages of the Christian tribes. He also acknowledged several other forms of writing that these tribes have, such as newspapers and poetry. This tribe has the most substantial amount of written documents and they spread out to subjects beyond religion and history.