Comparing Dusk, And When The Goddess Rainbow Wept By Cecilia Brainard

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As a Filipino-American first generation college student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I cannot help but wonder how far my family and I have come after our migration to the United States of America. I never thought that my life would drastically change when I was only thirteen years old. I thought I knew everything that I needed to know about the Philippines, but reading Dusk by F. Sionil José and When the Goddess Rainbow Wept by Cecilia Brainard gave me a deeper understanding of my roots and history. The more I read, the more similarities I find between me and the central characters of each novel. Istak’s and Yvonne’s migrations mirror my migration, yet at the same time, clash with my own ideals and beliefs. Dusk by F. Sionil José entails the story of Istak and his family from 1880 to 1889 during the end of the Spanish colonization era until the start of the American colonization of the Philippines. Istak, the main character, and his family are Ilocanos who move to southern Pangasinan in an effort to flee from Spanish …show more content…

Her life turns upside down when the Japanese invade the Philippines, and her family is forced to migrate and hide from the Japanese in a jungle. She encounters a collective suffering and tragedies from other Filipinos. Her father, an American-trained engineer, is an instrumental part of the resistance movement, which was called guerilleros. They hope for the United States to aid them to victory against the Japanese invasion, but things do not go the way they had wished for as the Americans dreadfully deceive the guerilleros. Yvonne and her family realize that it is up to them and their fellow Filipinos to fight for their country’s independence. The novel unveils similar themes in Dusk, such as religion, social responsibility, and Japanese and American

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