The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera free essay sample

Kerima Polotan-Tuvera’s â€Å"The Virgin† is a short story that is centered on two characters namely Miss Mijares and The Carpenter. The title â€Å"The Virgin† reflects the subject virginity which is an important and cherished value for Filipinos. A Filipina should be proud to have maintained her virginity but in the case of the thirty-four-year-old Miss Mijares,the main character named showcased were her stiff and aloof behavior wherein her superiority to herself makes her unfriendly and detached to other people. Also her attitude when it comes to dealing with people wherein she often humiliates them by asking them questions with regards to their standing in the society. Moreover, her life was effusively based on caring for her ailing mother and putting to school her niece thus, her realization to herself when it comes to her own personal life such as love and marriage was eluded. Miss Mijares is a thirty-four-year-old woman who works at a job placement agency wherein her perspective in life has put her into a situation of helping first her family before herself. We will write a custom essay sample on The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page she is ashamed of it. In her thirty-four years of existence, she had never been committed in a relationship. When she was younger, there had been other things to do and she never put love on top of her priorities. She had college to finish, a niece to put through school, and a mother to take care. Her duties became hindrances for her to be in a relationship. Miss Mijares’ childhood experiences and duties affected her personality. She was slimy and almost bony. She also knows how to dress herself to hide the small chest she has by putting puff and ruffles on her chest part. She was not an ugly person but not also beautiful. She was a woman that has full of priorities that she later realized that she was old enough to find a man that she can marry. Miss Mijares, a dictator woman also a choosy manager of the company that speaks English during the interviews of the construction workers that was not really appropriate to do. The major problems that Miss Mijares encountered in the story was the death of her mother wherein she mourned on that very day kneeding her mother’s flesh and struggling to keep herself strong which also changed her ideals in life which made her superiority as a women more resilient. Another problem that she encountered was confronting her emotions especially with her feelings to the new man at the carpentry shop wherein during the interview and application for the job. It was a rainy evening but the driver unloads his passengers. They protested but the driver has no choice. Miss Mijares and the man stepped down to the sidewalk and his touch had fallen on her flesh. The first encounter of the two characters is at the job interview. The way Miss Mijares treat him is as aloof and cold just like the way she treated her other interviewees. She looks at herself as superior which explains the impolite language she uses to communicate with them. According to the text â€Å"When she was younger, there had been other things to do-college to finish, a niece to put through school, a mother to care for. † Her childhood experiences affected the way she is now, it greatly affected her personality. According to the theory of Sigmund Freud namely Psychoanalytic Theory of Freud, a person’s childhood experience and unconscious mind contributes to his or her personality (Cherry). The way Miss Mijares keep her distance from other people and the way she talk to them serve as a defense mechanism. Her unsociable manners coupled with frank and abrupt way of speech is a disguise for her loneliness. Miss Mijares shows a bossy or arrogant kind of personality towards the guy, furthermore she was unwittingly drawn to the man especially during the time that both of them were stranded on an unknown street because of heavy rain and Miss Mijares driven by her feeling and emotions to the guy allowed herself to the invitation of the man. One day, she met a man applying on the job she was handing. Unlike the other applicants, she felt an unusual and strange feeling and she noticed that he’s teeth has a missing tooth. The man, unlike the other workers, has a big impact on Miss Mijares. She cared a lot on that man and even cared if he’s around or not. Miss Mijares looked at the man sharply feeling the malice in his voice knowing that the man has no wife†¦ yet. She was ashamed knowing that as if that man knew the ruffles on her blouse was one of the ways to put impact and volume on her chests. One day, this man was absent and Miss Mijares lost her way home which was a question why since it is been ages that she sauntering in that place. She found the man on the street and asked the reason for being absent in a week. She discovered that this man lost his son but he was never been married to its mother. About the Author: Kerima Polotan-Tuvera (December 16, 1925 – August 19, 2011) was a Filipino author. She was a renowned and highly respected fictionist, essayist, and journalists, with her works having received among the highest literary distinctions of the Philippines. Some of her stories have been published under the pseudonym Patricia S. Torres. Between the years 1966 and 1986, her husband served as the executive assistant and speechwriter of then-President Ferdinand Marcos. Her husbands work drew her into the charmed circle of the Marcoses. It was during this time (1969) that Polotan-Tuvera penned the only officially approved biography of the First Lady Imelda Marcos, Imelda Romualdez Marcos: a biography of the First Lady of the Philippines.