Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio (A Literary Analysis) “True never
love doesn’t have ends.(1)” Wedding
a happy ending because true Dance, a different kind of
love love
story written by Amador Daguio that takes place in a tribe wherein a wife, Lumnay, is not able to give birth that causes for her husband, Awiyao, to leave her and takes another wife. How scornful it is for them but this separation has to be done in accordance to the unwritten law. If ever Madulimay do not give birth will there be a chance that Awiyao and Lumnay will be together again? Will there love for each other will never end? “If I fail I’ll come back to you... Then both of us will
die together.
Both of us will vanish from the life of our line taken from the story and a proof that
tribe.” A there’ll be a chance that the two can be together again. An
assurance that Awiyao will just marry Madulimay for the sake of the tribe. A promise he gives to Lumnay that even though he’ll marry Madulimay his love for his first wife is
still unfailing - never ending, intends to never die, and will never be burn like lumbers thrown into angry flames of fire. A compliment that if he fails for the second time to have a child, he still wants to spend his life with the first woman he married. “Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only
love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away
(2).”
The
love
story
between
the
two
will
never
end
for it will grow and will retain in their hearts. The author has been indirect to this essence but this is what he really mean - a love that will never lost even it is sacrifice and given or taken away.
They have been married for seven harvest periods yet Awiyao and Lumnay weren't able to produce children and Awiyao badly need one to affirm his virility and to establish his place among his tribesmen so he decided to leave Lumnay and marry Madulimay.The story is set in one of the mountainous provinces in the northern Philippines on the eve of Awiyao's wedding to Madulimay, while gangsas beat and women dance to celebrate the union. Awiyao slipped away from the celebration to convince Lumnay to join the dancing women. Instead, their conversation turned to a passionate goodbye, each expressing love for the other, their speeches filled with recollection of precious memories, finding it hard to let go of one another.The climax was reached with Awiyao running, blood surging, resolved to stop the dance and complain against the tribe's culture that permits a man to marry another woman if the first wife couldn't bear him children. But suddenly she stopped and turned back, defeated.Daguio, in the story presented a clash against a basic human emotion and culture and thus established two important points: that culture transcends love and the bitter truth about the inequality of the sexes. He did not establish though that Lumnay was sterile. Awiyao could have been the one with fertility problems, who knows? Awiyao's pride forced him to leave Lumnay, no matter how he loved his wife. But if he was the one with fertility problems, would Lumnay's love be enough to take him back? On the second point, their culture permits man to leave his wife and take another woman hoping the second wife would bear him children but no such provision for women exists. And although the first wife may remarry, it would only be after her husband left her. And what if, in Lumnay's second marriage, she would bear children, what of the culture now?
The character's goal in the story was to have a child because in their tribe they need to have a child . the main problem was lumnay and awiyao can't have a child so awiyao needs to marry another woman , madulimay. If I were confronted with the same problem , I would get really hurt if my husband were to marry another woman because we cannot have a chld and it will hurt because I know that he loves me but yet he needs to find another for he's own good and for his responsibilities. The type of conflict was man vs. man or man vs. itself because in man vs. man the people in his tribe is telling him to marry another in man vs. itself
he loves lumnay but he needs to marry another so he is making a hard decision. They solved the problem by thinking it over. They talked to each other. The best part of the story was the ending because I think when lumnay went to the wedding dance and its like she wanted to go there but she couldn't its like she already moved on even though it hurts. No , because I thought that it will be lumnay and awiyao because they love each other but yet awiyao married another. If I could end the story I would end it by lumnay and awiyao would be together even though they cannot have a child because if they love each other they should be together because I believe that if you love someone you should fight for him/her and no matter how much people criticize you for that.
REACTION PAPER Wedding Dance By: Amador T. Daguio The exposition started the story to be tragic. It presented the situation of lovers who where they must let go of extreme emotions to give way for the man to marry another woman. Awiyao couldn’t bare the sadness seen in Lumnay’s face anymore. They had to ignore the call of their hearts and free each other — - just for a shallow view of an unwritten law. Sadly it seems to hear such stories. Yet their love for each other will rwmain forever even though they are blocked by great barriers. The view presented are the roots of the theme proposed for this short story: BARRIERS CAN”T HINDER TRUE LOVE. The barriers referred to are the society and culture of the place where Awiyao and Lumnay dwells. There has been a great internal and external conflict between Awiyao, himself and the society — -Awiyao loves Lumnay, yet he needs to redeem himself by remarrying to finally have a child, for the society to accept him and recognize him, and for it says so based from their culture. Its indeed a complicated thing. Since Awiyao can’t do anything, he just followed the right thing to do that any man in his situations would do. However, it didn’t stop there. Their great love for each other can just pass through these barriers.
On reading the part of the night of Awiyao’s wedding dance,
an emotion of pity was felt by me. His separation with Lumnay is unfair in a way that as if the two lovers were innocent people who were punished by crimes they have not committed. Why would they end up as a couple if they were destined to be infertile for them to separate? These situations just break my heart. Even though their bodies are forever far apart, I strongly believe that their hearts are eternally intertwined. Why? Simply because it has been clearly stated that although Awiyao will marry Madulimay to have a child, the only woman he’ll ever live is Lumnay— that even with all the barriers stopping their love for each other, thier hearts can’t be stopped from loving one another for life. We can say that these situations still happen in the present times. Even with great innovations and advancements,
if
Awiyao
and
Lumnay
will
era, they can still experience the same perhaps presented in another way. There
live
in
today’s
situation, but are a lot of
“BARRIERS” that make different versions of Awiyao and Lumnay’s tragic love story through time. But I believe these barriers can’t hinder great love that continually
grows and is felt for life even with barricades blocking it, like that of Awiyao and Lumnay. They may be separated eternally: his body would not anymore be hers, but his heart would still be — -FOREVER!
A Review on Wedding Dance (Amador Daguio)
To bear children is very important element in creating a family and establishing better relationship between husband and wife; but it is something which Awiyao and Lumnay will never achieve. It is a story between two people belonging in one of the ethnic groups in the Philippines, the Ifugao. In order for us to better understand the story, we must understand their law. It states "A couple who wish to divorce due to infertility of either one of the partners is allowed by the law. A husband who divorces a wife without any valid reason will have to leave all properties to the children and the wife, this is another law." Though it was hard and painful, Awiyao wanted to have children so much that he divorced Lumnay and remarried another Ifugao named Madulimay. In the old Filipino culture, when people have not known anything about how fertility happens, a man questions another man’s masculinity if he does not have a child. In the case of Awiyao, though he feels that no one can replace Lumnay as the best wife, he still feels the need to divorce her just for him to have children who will follow him in the fields in the future. Lumnay asked why they should part if they’re love for each other is eternal. Why should they separate if there really is nothing wrong in their personal relationship? I nearly burst into tears while I was reading the story. Daguio had shown the readers the great love Awiyao and Lumnay have for each other by heartbreaking lines they exchange while saying goodbye. Daguio had written a great love story with a great sense of ethnicity. He really showed people how rich culture Filipinos have. In the story mentioned about Gangsas (gongs), which many ethnic groups in the Philippines play at a time of celebration. Women together with other men should dance around the fire at the sound of gongs while children sit and watch. The gangsas in the story is like a spirit calling Lumnay to take part in his ex-husband’s wedding. To her, hearing the gangsas is just like eating a poisoned apple, softly killing her, and taking away her soul. However in the end, the gangsas made Lumnay want to go to the wedding dance and question their law. She wanted to ask them why is it wrong to not bear children if you are
married. Could they not stay the same way? They love each other anyway. I like how Daguio constructed the story. It is very local, very nationalistic, no stain of western culture at all. If I were of another race, I’ll surely be more amazed and curious while reading the story. The story is very cultural from the way Awiyao opened the door and lit their fireplace up to the end where Lumnay ran into the woods and sit with their crops. It also mentioned about beads, and farm tools: the only worldly possession they have. Filipino life before was so simple yet so beautiful. If you would think about it, people in the ethnic group have a very different but astonishing way of living their lives. Now, youth could not live without computer as part of their school life; and gems, diamonds, and pearls are couples’ symbols of love for
each other. In the story, the simple necklace made from beads is the symbol of their promise. See how simple they live in simplicity? I needed to reread the last part because I was not able to understand it that much; but as I was reading it for the second time, I realized what the growing bean pods mean. At the last paragraph of the story states: “The stretching of the bean pods full length from the hearts of the wilting petals would go on.”
In my opinion, Daguio meant that life still goes on. The hearts of the wilting petal symbolizes Lumnay’s broken
heart. It means that though her heart is broken today, still her life goes on and there will be a new morning to face. “She would be holding the bean flowers, soft in texture,
silken almost, but moist where the dew got into them, silver to look at, silver on the light blue blooming whiteness, when the morning comes.”
Her painful experiences from getting out of the desolate memories she had while reminiscing Awiyao’s love will
eventually fade and will transform her to a beautiful bean pod. Though there is a huge gap between ethnic filipino groups from modernized Filipinos, surely the readers of the story could still relate a lot. Filipinos have great adoration of love stories relating to family crisis; and though the Wedding Dance by Amador Daguio is a simple one, it deserves
a
“vote
of
confidence”,
for
it
stands
up
and
shows
the
world how rich culture the Filipinos have.
The Wedding Dance Amador T. Daguio SUMMARY Awiyao and Lumnay is a long married couple from the Mountain tribes. Awiyao is going to marry another woman, Madulimay, because Lumnay was not able to give him a child. Awiyao went back home to see Lumnay because he didn't find her among the dancers at his wedding. He wanted Lumnay to dance at his wedding for the last time but she cannot. On their moment, there are many flashbacks about how Lumnay did her best to have a child, through offering to the god, Kabunyan; and how Awiyao and Lumnay's love was as strong as the river; but "it is just that a man must have a child", and he had to leave her. He promised her that if he fails to have a child, he will come back to her. She wanted to protest against the written rule that a man can marry another woman, so Lumnay went to the wedding dance. But while seeing her husband married to another woman, she could not take it anymore and just went to the mountain to clear away the beans she had thought about. And so Lumnay, waiting for Awiyao a long time, thought of Awiyao's promise as she cleared away the growing bean plants.
