Short Stories by Selected Women Writers

This study was conducted to determine the usual Form of the five short stories. It is also analyzed the events and character’s situation in the story. The Formalistic Approach was used in the study. The study found that the writings of the five authors Kerima Polotan Tuvera, Aida Rivera Ford and Irish Shiela Crisostomo show their great knowledge of the Philippine history. This study was conducted through the use of Formalistic Approach. The researchers gathered all five short stories by selected women writers and read the story, analyzed and studied.

The researchers use the formalistic approach to analyze the form of the study. We choose form for easy to make the structure of this study. Furtheremore, this study analyze the elements used in Kerima Polotan-Tuvera’s The Virgin and A House Full of Daughters, Aida Rivera-Ford’s Love in the Cornhusk and The chieftest Mourner and Iris Shiela G. Crosostomo’s The Steel Brassiere. The chapter 1 included the problem and its setting.

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It is also include the statement of the problem, the significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study and definition of thr elements used. The chapter 2 discusses the review of related literature and studies, the plot summary and the author’s biographies and the approach used in the study. Theoretical and conceptual framework was also included. In the chapter 3, the research design, research instrument, research process and research locale are also included in this chapter. Presentation, analysis and interpretation which employed formalistic approach were in chapter 4.

The summary, conclusion and recommendation were also shown in chapter 5. The tables of the five short stories are in the appendices including the elements used in this study.

APPROVAL SHEET

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Bachelor of Arts in literature, thesis entitled “Short Stories by Selected Women Writers” prepared and submitted by Cheah Kaye Rosales and Charisma J. Tabingo, is hereby recommended for approval and acceptance.

Prof. Dayenne Sipaco

Adviser

Approved by the Committee on Oral Defense with a grade of _______.

DR. MA. RITA C. TUBAN DR. PATRICIA O. ELBANBUENA

Panelist Panelist

Accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Bachelor of Arts in Literature.

DR. MILAGROS D. ARQUILLANO DR. EVEYTH P. DELIGERO Director, Evening Program Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researchers would like to thank the following individuals who helped a lot in making this research and study:

Prof. Dayenne Sipaco, ourv adviser, thank you for helping us to make and finish this study, thank you for your understanding, patience and criticism.

To our panel members, Dr. Ma. Rita C. Tuban and Dr. Patricia O. Elbanbuena, thank you for your patience, understanding and giving us a good idea in this study.

To our parents, thank you for the support in financial and moral support. Thank you for the encouragement and prayers. And most especially to our almighty God, thank you for giving us a strenght, guidance, knowledge and good health to finish this study.

C.K.R and C.J.T

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Declaration of Originality ……………………………………………..... i Title Page ……………………………………………… ii Abstract……………………………………………… iii Approval Sheet………………………………………………. v Acknowledgement ………………………………………………. vi Table of Contents ………………………………………………. vii List of Tables ………………………………………………. x List of Figures ………………………………………………. xi

Chapter
1. THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING ………………………... 1 Statement of the Problem ……………………….. Significance of the Study ……………………….. Scope and Limitation ……………………….. Definition of Terms ……………………….. 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature ………………………... Plot Summary ………………………... Related Studies ………………………... Testimonies on The Virgin ………………………... Testimonies on A House Full of Daughters ……………………. Testimonies on Love in the Cornhusk ………………………... Testimonies on The Chieftest Mourner ………………………... Testimonies on The Steel Brassiere ………………………… Formalistic Approach ………………………… Conceptual Framework ………………………… 3. METHOD

Research Design ………………………… Research Instrument ………………………… Research Locale …………………………
Research Procedure ………………………… 4. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND

INTERPRETATION OF DATA …………………………. Form and Content …………………………. Elements …………………………. Similarities and Differences of the Short Stories …………….. Analysis Data …………………………. 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ……. Summary …………………………. Conclusion …………………………. Recommendation …………………………. APPENDICES

Appendix A Table
The Virgin …………………………. A House Full of Daughters ………………………….. Love in the Cornhusk …………………………. The Chieftest Mourner …………………………. The Steel Brassiere ………………………….. The Five Short Stories

The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera………………………. A House Full of Daughters by Kerime Polotan-Tuvera……… Love in the Cornhusk by Aida Rivera-Ford………………….. The Chieftest Mourner by Aida Rivera Ford………………… The Steel Brassiere by Iris Shiela G. Crisostomo…………… BIBLIOGRAPHY

CURRICULUM VITAE

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
1.1 Conceptual Framework …………………………… 1.2 Plot Structure …………………………...

Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Literature is the art of written work and can, in some circumstances, refer exclusively to published sources. The word literature literally means “things made from letters” and the pars pro toto term “letters” is sometimes used to signify “literature,” as in the figures of speech “arts and letters” and “man of letters”. A short story is a brief work literature, usually written in narrative prose. In so doing, short stories make use of plot, resonance and other dynamic components to a far greater degree than is typical of an anecdote, yet to a far lesser degree than a novel. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel, authors of both generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. In Philippines, the most notable literature was written during the Spanish period and the first half of the 20th century in Spanish language. It includes the legends of prehistory, and the colonial legacy of the Philippines.

The history of Filipino women writers is an account of how they became literary “mistresses of the ink” and “lady pen-pushers” who created works of fiction or factual and historical storybooks, poetry, novels, short stories, essays, biographies, autobiographies and other known writing genres. Writing in English, Spanish, Filipino and other languages, female writers from the archipelago utilized literature, in contrast with the oral tradition of the past, as the living voices of their personal experiences, thoughts, consciousness, concepts of themselves, society, politics, Philippines and world history. The problem that the researchers have noticed that some of us have poor in writing skills especially the college students nowadays.

The proponents believe that proper use of elements, which are the main ingredients in writing prowess of the students. There are many subjects that focus on the proper way of writing. Some students do not develop their writing skills. These problem result to a bigger issue which is the lesser Filipino authored books being published and read in the country today. The need to address the issue is the reason for conducting this research which aims to help future Filipino writers how to use properly the elements in writing. With the use of Formalistic Approach the researchers study the novels and how the authors used the elements in achieving the form of their stories to impart these to the future Filipino writers.

The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera is a story about Miss Mijares, the stereotypical uptight, conventional, old fashioned and strict spinster. For a long time, she’s been living in a routine life. When she met the guy, she’s attracted to him because he doesn’t “fear” her. She loses herself when she’s with him, but not completely. The symbolism of her getting lost literally is the way she feels with the guy. She is trudging on to a wholly different and new experience. She finds herself caring for the man – a subordinate – but she didn’t care. When she found out that he has a son, she felt betrayed – her feelings betrayed. This is what she is getting into – not all of the things are in her control. In the end, she let’s go of all her inhibitions. A House Full of Daughters also by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera is a story about a mother who has seven daughters, and realizes that it’s not about something to give wealthiest to her children, but what matters most how good motherhood she gives in order to make them good daughters. Love in the Cornhusk by Aida Rivera-Ford is another kind of love story.

But the ending is not like the other love story that they live happily ever after in the end. In this story, they're love did not last till the end. The girl marries someone instead of the guy that she loves. The story shows that "true love waits". The Chieftest Mourner also by Aida Rivera-Ford is a story of "another woman". Even if the Legal wife did suffer with her husband while they are together, it’s not her, who helped the narrator’s Uncle when he was in his lowest moment of his life. And it was the other woman who did a great sacrifice for the uncle and she mourned greatly upon his death. But it is not advisable that young women or woman should be "The other woman" because as far as society is concerned, it is a sin.

The researchers decided to conduct this study because The Virgin and House Full of Daughters by KerimaPolotan-Tuvera, Love in the Cornhusks and The Chieftest Mourner by Aida Rivera-Ford and The Steel Brassiere by Iris Sheila G. Crisostomo are all written by Philippine women writers. Since formalistic approach, often referred to as the New Criticism, it assumes that a work of literary art is an organic unity in which every element contributes to the total meaning of a work. The proponents of this study chose five short stories that would represent the attention of the readers to look for different structural relationships and patterns not just in words and their relationships but also in larger units such as the short stories of the different women writers in structuring the plot, the setting including its actual place and time and its ambience, point of view, theme and language that may contribute to the uniqueness of each work.

Statement of the Problem
This study was intended at investigating, understanding and evaluating the similarities and differences in the relationship of various formal elements of a text to make up a whole in the short stories by the women writers through formalistic approach. Moreover, the study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What is the form of the selected short stories?

a. Setting
b. Characterization
c. Plot Structure
d. Point of view
e. Theme
2. What are the short stories similarities and differences in terms of form? Significance of the Study
The study is intended to benefit the following:

Students. The study may assist mainly the literature majors as they expand their awareness of the application of formalistic approach that will further enhance their positive response to the world of literature. College of Arts and Sciences. This study may enhance the teaching approach in literature. The study may uphold supplementary learning in reading short stories. This study undergoes numerous processes to come up with a factual and reliable result. Therefore, learning in this case can be more interesting and it will help them to dig deeper their understanding of the work. Literature Curriculum.

The study may help to understand fully how a work of an art is analyzed using a specific approach, particularly formalism. These may help improve the current stragedy used in literary criticism. Through this, there will be improvement in critical analysis and making a short story. Being good in literary criticism will help to have better analysis in studying literary works. Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study explored the different structural patterns, as well as understanding the forms which the five short stories are portrayed through an analysis of characters, plot, setting, point of view, style and tone. This study was limited to the short stories The Virgin and House Full of Daughters by KerimaPolotan-Tuvera, Love in the Cornhusk and The Chieftest Mourner by Aida Rivera-Ford and The Steel Brassiere by Iris Sheila G. Crisostomo. Definition of Terms

The following are operationally defined according to how they are used in this study. Short Story. A short story is a brief work of literature, usually written in narrative prose. Chieftest Mourner. Who suffered most, the mistress or second wife; because the second wife wants to prove to the poet's family that she has a great right to the dead body of the poet rather than the legal wife. Point of View. Author’s decision about who is to tell the story and how it is to be told. Plot. The arrangement of events that make up a story. For a plot to be effective, it must include a sequence of incidents that bear a significant causal relationship to each other. Setting. The time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play. Theme. A story’s theme is its idea or point.

Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
This chapter contains related literature and studies, plot summary of the five short stories, review of related studies, formalistic approach and the biographies of the three Filipino women writers. The review of related literature contains the information about the story, the person behind their situation and the reviews about them. These studies discuss about the characters and their personalities. Formalistic Approach

The twentieth century formalistic approach, often referred to as the new criticism assumes that a work of literary art is an organic unity in which every element contributes to the total meaning of the work. This approach is as old as literary criticism itself, but it was developed in the twentieth century by John Crowe Ransom (1884-1974), Allen Tate (1899-1979), T.S Elliot (1888-1965) and others. The formalist critic embraces an objective theory of art and examines plot, characterization, dialogue and style to show how elements contribute to the theme or unity of the literary work. Moral, historical, psychological and sociological concerns are considered extrinsic to criticism and of secondary importance to the examination of craftsmanship and form. Content and form in a work constitute a unity, and it is the task of the critic to examine and evaluate the integrity of the work. Paradox, irony, dynamic tension and unity are the primary values of formalist criticism.

The term formalism describes an emphasis on form over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or philosophy. Formalism has the advantage of forcing writers to evaluate a work on its own terms rather than to rely “accepted” notions of the writer’s work. Formalism is intrinsic literary criticism because it does not require of any body of knowledge besides literature. Formalistic Approach first step in explaining the literary work is to discover what the words actually mean in their full denotative and connotative value. The object of formalistic criticism is to find the key to the structure and meaning of the literary work. Related Literature

This part includes the summary of the five short stories to give the readers a brief picture of the story. Author’s biographies of The Virgin, A House Full of Daughters, Love in the Cornhusk, The Chieftest Mourner and The Steel Brassiere are also included so as to give the readers an information about their lives and inspirations. The Formalist Approach which is used by the proponents is also discussed to let the readers understand how the research is being conducted. Finally the reviews about the stories are also found in this chapter to give the readers a glimpse and idea on the feedbacks of the people who have read it. Plot Summary

The Virgin is a story is about a woman named Miss Mijares, she doesn’t look like 34. She was slight, almost bony but she had learned how to dress herself to achieve those shapes of her hips and bosom. She had pushed against the bed in grief and also in gratitude and thought that neither love nor glory stood behind her, only the empty shadows. Alone the room with her unburied dead, she had held up her hands to the light, noting the thick durable fingers, thinking in a mixture of shame and bitterness and guilt that she had never touched a man. She met a jobseeker man, applying to her in their woodcraft section. They had talked along with the interview, and the man told her that he wasn’t married. She was often down at the shanty that housed their bureau’s woodcraft, talking with Ato, his foreman, going over to him with the list of old hands due to release. They hired their men on a rotation basis and three months was the longest one could stay.

The new hand was absent for a week, Miss Mijares waited on that Tuesday he first failed to report for some reasons. Until, Miss Mijares got angry when she knew that the man lied to him that he wasn’t married. It rained that afternoon in one of the city’s fierce, unexpected thunder storms. Without warning, it seemed to shine outside Miss Mijares’ window a gray, unhappy look. And the man calls her and apologized to her about why he lied. Up and down the empty, rain –beaten street she looked. It was as though that all at once everyone else had died and they were in the world, alone. In her secret heart, Miss Mijares’ young dreams fluttered faintly to life, seeming monstrous in the rain, near this man, seeming monstrous but sweet overwhelming.

She wanted to go away from him but he had moved and brushed against her and where his touch had fallen, her flesh leaped, and she recalled how his hands had looked that first day, lain tenderly on the edge of her desk and about the wooden bird, in the dark she turned to him. A House Full of Daughters is a story about a mother who has seven daughters. She thought, sooner maybe she could have seven dowries or seven beauty parlors. She has a house full of seven young women, a veritable avalanche of femaleness. For her, there is some guilt in one’s motherhood, remembering with what heartbreak each daughter had come because one had wanted sons instead. Her friends told her how lucky and blessed she was. She often burst into tears and they thought she cried from joy. But she’s not one of those mothers keeping a score of what exactly the baby has to give, like nice clothes, jewelry, fun and good times. She has a friend, that she can say a complete mother, beautiful in her pregnancy, beautiful in her motherhood. Her friend has a way of wearing maternity dresses that looks her elegant. She never ate sweets, keeping strictly to juices and veggies, in short, she is a correct mother. But suddenly, her friend ran out of nowhere with another man and left those beautifully-tended babies.

There is no moral here, but she suspected she would have stayed if she did allowed her herself, with saving humor, the luxury of some mistakes. Her daughters are transferring their idolatry from movie actresses and pop singers to their schoolteachers and real-life friends, but they are mildy hostile to those who strain their accents. She has caught one daughter, fifteen, stock-still on the cemented walk, arrested on her way home late afternoon by sounds she no longer hear. When they met for supper that night, she seemed different, she couldn’t say a thing, so secretive and sad and her heart constricted because she knew that her daughter had a long way to go. If all that she has given a daughter is a mere correctness, not rightness, mere form, not substance. If she distill motherhood of nearly twenty years, that just about sums up all she taught them. Only because she doesn’t want them accomplished such a thing but wanting it to be an experience for them. It is a miracle to her life that her daughters learned love from her, who wasn’t always able to give it, she who wanted only the beginning to survive their number. They lived in a large musty house canopied by ancient trees and they fight daily over the bathroom, seven young women and this she sow, but in gay confusion, they keep their good relationship.

Love in the Cornhusk. Is a story about Tinang, she visits her former master, Señora, whom she was working for before she got married. While carrying her baby boy, she walks through the entrance of the house of her former Señora and meet his former young master, Tito, and the Señora. Upon getting inside the house, Señora asks her some questions how her married life is together with his Bagobo husband and also how is it to be a mother of a baby boy. Their conversation continues and they reach to the point of talking about the tractor drivers of Señora, especially the one who was good, Amado. After that, Tinang finally tells her former Señora about her intention of being there. The baptism of her baby is about to come and she wants Señora to be a Madrina or a Ninang to her child. The relationship between Tinang and her former Señora with her family remains good. And so, Señora hastily agreed to be so and yet wants to provide baptismal clothes for the baby and the fee for the Priest. Before she left from Señora’s house, she was told by her that there is a letter for her in the drugstore, which also serves as the post office of the barrio. By that moment, she thought that someone might be dead or maybe that letter comes from her sister.

So she hurriedly takes her way home and passes by that drugstore to get the letter. As she continues walking in a muddy road to her way home, she tries to look for a place where she could lay down her baby, hoping that she could read the letter before she arrives home. Finally, she finds a good place where she can stop for a while. There is a Kamansi tree and under of it are scattered cornhusks. So, she prepares a heap of it using her foot and laid her baby upon it. Then, she starts reading the letter. After doing so, she finds out that the letter is a love letter, her first love letter, which comes from Amado, her boyfriend, saying that he does not want to break up with her when he left from the field of Señora without telling the reason why he did so. Time cannot be back anymore. It is already too late that she discovers that Amado still loves her.

However, she was not informed that his mother’s worst illness made him gone for some time. Instead, Tinang marry a Bagobo man, whom owns 2 hectares of land. After all, what she does is only to remember her past with Amado until the time comes when she has to leave upon noticing that a snake is sneaking towards her baby boy. In the end, she leaves the place without noticing that her first love letter fell down among the cornhusks. The Chieftest Mourner. Is a story about narrator’s uncle, husband of her Aunt Sophia is said to be dead. He was the last of a distinct school of Philippine poets and a handsome man. But, he was living with another woman, she brazenly followed his Uncle everywhere calling herself his wife, a confusing situation ensued. When people mentioned Uncle’s wife, there was no way of knowing whether her Aunt Sophia or to the woman. The narrator was puzzling over who was to be the official widow at his funeral when word came that it was her, the narrator to keep Aunt Sophia’s company at the little chapel and there were only a few people present. There were two women, each taking possession of her portion of the chapel just as though stakes had been laid, seemingly unmindful of each other, yet revealing by this studied disregard that each was very much aware of the other.

Her Uncle’s clan certainly made a short work of her Aunt and when she returned, her Aunt is sobbing. As though as to comfort her, one of the women said, in a whisper from the door, that the president himself was expected to come in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the woman spoke in whispers, and then the voices raised a trifle. Still, everybody is polite. There was no more talking back and forth and the suddenly the conversation wasn’t polite anymore. The woman strikes, and angry talked to the clan. After her strike to the clan, Aunt Sophia wants to stop her by pleasing her clan. After all, the entire woman’s face became livid with shock and rage. She stood wordless, her face began to twitch and then the sobs came and she tell them they can have the dead body and she left the burial after. The Steel Brassiere is a about a wife and her Tiya Anding’s steel bra.

Her Tiya Anding was a friend who had no living relatives. When she died, her house and the 300-square-meter lot reverted to the government. With the impending demolition, she had hastily driven to that humble abode hoping to save a few memories of a past life. One of the queerest things she recovered from the pile of old clothes was an old bra. It wasn't fit for any young lady's breasts because it was made not of soft cotton or lace but of cold and hard metal. The bra looked like pointed armor ready to deflect an ax or a lance from the enemy--a sure protection for the delicate female flesh underneath. She remembered Madonna in her skimpy get-ups, net stockings and all, her tits in similar, pointed cones. After while, the cold of the metal against her skin produced a strange feeling. The bra properly belonged to an ancient warrior princess yet she felt she was too weak to fight her own bottles. She had married to Lindoln for eight years but it felt like she had been living with a stranger. Lindoln was a good provider, the sales manager of a pharmaceutical company that paid well. He gave her wife a big house with a lush garden, a dutiful maid and an excellent cook.

There was nothing more to ask but she felt she really had nothing. She took her children to the park. Later in the afternoon, they wandered through the playground and spent time pushing one another in a swing. Twin metal chains fastened the swing to a horizontal steel bar and once again the fell of the cold steel between her fingers made her think of her Tiya Anding’s breast armor. The rain was now falling harder and she was dripping wet. Trotting to the car with the children and they run to the parking lot. As expected, the children came down with a cold and Lindoln kept her wife up all night with his how to be a good mother lectures. He barked then crept into bed with his back turned to her. She lay awake for what seemed like an hour before she heard a faint snored. Then she went to the balcony for some air. She wanted to cry.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to laugh if it would help. She remembered her Tiya Anding. After lunch, she helped the maid get the laundry from the clothesline. After a few minutes under the hot midday sun, she went back inside to the kitchen for a cold glass of water. The feel of the cold pitcher in her hand made her think of the cold metal she once wore against her breast. The feel of the steel brassiere was as comforting and reassuring as the ice water running down to her throat. The phone was ringing and it was Lindoln. Her husband told her that he’s friend Jimmy will be coming for dinner but the line was bad and she told her husband to call her again. But suddenly, when the phone rang again and again, she doesn’t put the phone up anymore. For her, the steel bra reminds her as her Tiya Anding’s words of comforting and reassuring. Review of Related Studies

In this part, the proponents include the critical analysis made on the five short stories. This is to make the readers understand the story deeply. In addition, the researchers aim to explain to the audience how and in what way the stories are being presented by its respective authors. This includes the studies related to the characters and events in the stories. Testimonies on The Virgin. In the book of The Virgin, Kerima Polotan-Tuvera showed her writing skills to the readers about womens personalities and situation. The story was created passionately and beautiful for women who have struggles about love. Based on the short story, the various personalities that the main character named Miss Mijares 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. The major problems that Miss Mijares encountered in the story was the death of her mother wherein she mourned on that very day needing 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, 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.

Testimonies on A House Full of Daughters. Another short story of Kerima Polotan-Tuvera that she created the story as inspiration for the women and especially to those who work so hard to raise their children. The story was creative and beautiful that Kerima was using a female character or the narrator of the story to show how motherhood is important. According to the story, “the fatal error of most women is to let motherhood smother them to be so sold on its high mission and incalculable purpose, as to think that there is nothing more afterward. Daughters outgrow their daughterhood and when that happens, what have you got but old teething rings and some vague memories?” Certainly, the narrator of the story showed her side to the readers that a motherhood means new dimensions, a new level of pain, another depth of heartbreak, a truer height of joy, but rightly or wrongly, she fight against having her daughters loom so large in her life that the other people drown her.

She struggled for air and as a consequence broke many of the rules. We can tell that the narrator of the story is Kerima Tuvera, as she portrays the story, there might be connected to her or maybe she encountered other woman like the narrator or maybe she have experience with it. Kerima was using her creative skills that she write this story to express her side to the readers that being like her as a mother has a big purpose and important. Aside in the story, the narrator has a friend, a complete mother, a beautiful motherhood, which ran away with her man and leaves her good husband and her beautiful babies. Kerima wants to know the readers that why this complete mother runs away with her man? It’s because she’s afraid of her responsibilities from her husband and her children? In short, this complete mother wants to leave her responsibilities.

The story was simple yet it has a moral lesson for those women who afraid of their responsibilities and for those who leave their responsibilities. “There is a world beyond the one circumscribed by pungent blankets and damp rubber sheets, and the young mother must sneak off to reassure herself of its herself of her existence so that she might return, strong enough for her other, more immediate universe.” Testimonies on Love in the Cornhusk. Aida Rivera-Ford has lived with her husband in their large farm in Davao. 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 Señora with a good vibe that shifted to a different one lately. With a little similarity with the Telenovelas shown in television, this story shows that a lowly one, a nanny and a barrio girl, can be its main character, whom is experiencing twists in her life. However, she did not experience some kinds of abuses nor having an enemy in her life because the story is stressing not on these matters but on how decisions a person does could affect his or her entire life.

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 two 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. Marrying is not a joke and to marry the bagobo is not just a coincidence in Tinan’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.

That snake is the represent 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 situations 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 part of her life. Testimonies on The Chieftest Mourner.

Testimonies on The Steel Brassiere.
Theoretical Framework of the Study
The Formalistic Approach stresses the close reading of the text and insists that all statements about the work be supported by references to the text. Formalistic Approach is used in this study to dig deeper in the elements. In the Formalistic Approach the data are presented, analyzed and interpreted. Formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret or evaluate inherent features of a text.

FORMALISTIC APPROACH

Setting
Characters
Point of View
Plot Structure
Exposition
Complication
Conflict
Climax
Resolution
Theme
Figure 1
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The Virgin and House Full of Daughters
by: Kerima Polotan-Tuvera

Love in the Conhusks and The Chieftest Mourner
by: Aida Rivera-Ford

The Steel Brassiere
by: Iris Sheila G. Crisostomo

In this study, wherein the proponents used formalistic approach, all elements mentioned must be taken to completely achieve the ideal form of a work of art. Provided by the information given in this chapter, this study produced an analysis using an approach applied to the five short stories and ignored the factors outside the text. This study used the formalistic approach that focused only in the internal elements that the five short stories contained.

Biographies
KerimaPolotan-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. Aida Rivera-Ford was born in Sulu. She crossed over to Negros Oriental in 1949 for an English degree at Siliman University. Records toast her as the first editor of Sands and Coral, the school’s literary folio. In 1954, she flew to the University of Michigan on a Fulbright grant to secure her master’s degree in English. Her work “Love in the Cornhusks” is one of five well-crafted stories for which Rivera-Ford won the Jules & Avery Hopwood Prize in Michigan. In 1955, the Sunday Chronicle’s This Week magazine featured the prize winning story, with illustration by RodDayao. From N.V.M Gonzales to Epifanio San Juan, critics were one in hailing the story with uncommon praise, citing its masterful subtlety but also its earnest vision- a rare case of art prevailing upon all creeds and manners of persuasion. Iris Sheila G. Crisostomo has a degree in communication arts from University of the Philippines at Los Banos. She is getting her MFA at Dela Salle University while working at the National Commission for Culture and Arts.

Chapter 3
METHOD
This chapter presents the method used in conducting the story. Research Design

The proponent’s uses descriptive method and they are now to present the data in a descriptive manner. It enabled the proponents to describe or present the picture of events under the investigation and analysis. The descriptive method of research was used for this study. The researchers focused in presenting the form used in the five short stories. The primary goal for formalistic approach is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers. In this study, its intention is to study the elements such as setting, character, point of view, plot structure and theme. Research Instrument

This part shows how the researchers organize the data gathered. The elements of the five short stories are placed in the table. Setting, characters, point of view, plot structure such as exposition, complication, conflict, climax and resolution/denouement and theme.

SHORT STORIES
SETTING
CHARACTERS
POIN OF VIEW
PLOT STRUCTURE
(Exposition, Complication, Conflict, Climax and resolution or denouement THEME
The Virgin

A House Full of Daughters

Love in the Cornhusk

The Chieftest Mourner

The Steel Brassiere

RESEARCH LOCALE
This study was conducted within the USEP Campus, specifically at the CAS Learning Center and Library. Other supplementary information was gathered through the use of internet.

RESEARCH PROCESS

Initial background inquiry of the preparation and needed materials were done such as reading the primary sources (the short stories The Virgin and House Full of Daughters by K.P. Tuvera, Love in the Cornhusks and The Chieftest Mourner by A.R. Ford and The Steel Brassiere by I.S. Crisostomo). The sources that came from the books (Handbook of Critical Approaches, etc.) and through Internet research are used as secondary sources. RESEARCH PROCEDURE

The proponents for this study begin the research by selecting the five short stories by different female authors that interest them the most and are they had to be worthy of the investigation. When the primary sources (the short stories) are at hand, the proponents started to read, analyze and interpret the works to examine what approach was suitable to be applied. The proponents picked out an issue that needed explorations and further study from the short stories and they were able to identify the similarities and differences in the stories through the elements of the plot, setting, characters, theme and point of view.

To gain more ideas and information that would support the study, the proponents will also accessed the secondary sources from the internet and they made use of thesis as references found in the University Library and CAS Learning Research Center. When the data and information had been gathered, the proponents organized them in meaningful pieces of information. Here, the ability of the proponents in matching the information was related to how the research was tested. After the paper was organized, the proponents ended by presenting the conclusion with all the evidences and proofs that would support the research mentioned.

Chapter 4
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
This section contains the gathered information of the researchers in the subject of the study. It also includes the analysis and interpretation of data. Form and Content of the Short Stories

Table 1. It is the content of the short stories The Virgin and House Full of Daughters by KerimaPolotan-Tuvera, Love in the Cornhusks and The Chieftest Mourner by Aida Rivera-Ford and The Steel Brassiere by Iris Sheila G. Crisostomo. The content includes the setting that determines the time and place of the short stories, characters, plot with its parts: exposition, complication, conflict, climax, resolution and denouement. The other element is the point of view which identifies how the short stories are told. Lastly, the theme, which is the central idea of the story that will serve as a message to the readers.

The Virgin
The story of The Virgin is set in the office of Miss Mijares. She is the main character in the story, a single, not look 34 and not exactly an ugly woman, she was no beauty and she did think of love. “She had gone through all these with singular patience, for it had so her that love stood behineemed d her, biding her time, a quiet hand upon her shoulder…” The story was told in a third person limited where in the narrator only tells the story and focuses to the protagonist. The exposition includes the background information about the main character, about her life, the people outside her and their attitude toward her.

The story starts in a protagonist, Miss Mijares where she interviews her applicants in her office. She went to the cafeteria and went back to her office after. When she talked with the jobless across her desk, asking them the damning questions that completed their humiliation, watching pale tongues run over dry lips, dirt crusted handkerchiefs flutter in trembling hands, she was filled with an impatience she could not understand. “Sign here, she had said thousands of times, pushing the familiar form across, her finger held to a line, feeling the impatience grow at sight of the man or woman tracing a wavering X or laying the impress of a thumb” The complication is when Miss Mijares interview the man, one of her applicants also. When she returned to the bleak replacement office, the man stood by window, his back to her, half-bending over something he held in his hands. “In his hands, he held her paperweight, an old gift from long ago.

He had turned it and with the knife tightened the screws and dusted it. In this man’s hands, cupped like that, it look suddenly like a dove” Miss Mijares is denying herself about her feelings to the man and this man wills never her love. But when the man was absent for a week, Miss Mijares waited on that Tuesday he first failed to report for some word from him, in the absence of a definite notice, someone else who needed a job badly was kept away from it. “I went to the province, ma’am, he said, on his return. You could have sent someone to tell us, she said. It was an emergency, ma’am, my son died, he said How so? She asked. A slow bitter anger began to from inside her. But you said you were not married! she said, No ma’am, he said gesturing. And she asked him loudly, are you married? And the man said, No ma’am. She asked again, but you have…you have a son! And the man replied, I am not married to his mother, he said grinning stupidly.

A flush had climbed to his face, suffusing it, and two large throbbing veins crawled along his temples. Miss Mijares looked away, sick all at once. “You should have told us everything, she said and she put forth hands to restrain her anger but it slipped away she stood shaking despite herself. Your lives are our business here, she shouted.”

The story ends in that day, it rained that afternoon in one of the city’s fierce, unexpected thunder storms. Without warning, it seemed to shine outside Miss MIjares window a gray, unhappy look. It was past six when Miss Mijares, ventured outside the office. Night had come swiftly and from the dark sky the thick, black, rainy curtain continues to fall.