RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITYCBET 02-501A SHORT STORY: THE VIRGIN BY KERIMA POLOTAN-TUVERA Submitted by: | Jennilyn G. Terencio walking with an economy of movement. "you will wait for me. with an abruptness she knew annoyed the people about her. pushing the familiar form across. graceful and light. watching pale tongues run over dry lips. she had said thousands of times. Miss Mijares did not look 34. Sign here." she said. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 2 . she was filled with an impatience she could not understand. Miss Mijares thought how she could easily have said. or even write at all.The Virgin by Kerima Polotan-Tuvera CARLOS PALANCA FOUNDATION LITERARY WINNER 1951 -52 FIRST PRIZE H e went to where Miss Mijares sat. but she had learned early how to dress herself to achieve an illusion of hips and bosom. Miss Mijares would turn away to touch the delicate edge of the handkerchief she wore on her breast. dirt crusted handkerchiefs flutter in trembling hands. feeling the impatience grow at sight of the man or woman tracing a wavering "X" or laying the impress of a thumb. Please wait for me. While he read the question and wrote down his answers. Invariably. almost bony. She liked poufs and shirrings The Virgin. if they could speak English. speaking distinctly in the dialect (you were never sure about these people on their first visit. He sat in the low chair worn decrepit by countless other interviewers and laid all ten fingerprints carefully on the edge of her desk. She spoke now peremptorily. a tall. she glanced at her watch and saw that it was ten. a man who knew his body and used it well. big man. Where she sat alone at one of the cafeteria tables. "I shall be coming back quickly. or will you wait for me? But years of working for the placement section had dulled the edges of her instinct for courtesy. When she talked with the jobless across her desk. rolling a pencil along with it." As she walked to the cafeteria. asking them the damning questions that completed their humiliation. her finger held to a line. She was slight. She pushed a sheet towards him. the poor were always proud and to use the dialect with them was an act of charity). a man kissing a woman's mouth while her own fingers stole unconsciously to her unbruised lips. to sink into a seat as into an embrace. She teetered precariously on the border line to which belonged countless others who you found. On her bodice. fatal coquetry of all? To finally. a mother to care for. When she was younger. She had gone through all these with singular patience. she was no beauty. talking face. but Nature's hand had erred and given her a jaw instead. holding in her hands the tiny. a married friend's baby or a relative's. pure dreams would burst The Virgin. a quiet hand upon her shoulder (I wait. to think: how did it look now. She had thin cheeks. And yet Miss Mijares did think of love. in the kitchen of some married sister's house shushing a brood of devilish little nephews.and little girlish pastel colors. small and angular. unmasked of the little wayward coquetries. short-lived thoughts flitted through her mind in the jeepneys she took to work when a man pressed down beside her and through her dress she felt the curve of his thigh. there had been other things to do--. receding chin. falling down to what would have been a nondescript. she had a lippy. for it had seemed to her that love stood behind her. spread upon a pillow. Her brow was smooth and clear and she was always pushing off it the hair she kept in tight curls at night. her eyes straying against her will to the bedroom door and then to her friend's laughing. Secret. surprising on such a small face. And in the movies. So while not exactly an ugly woman.college to finish. if they were not working at some job. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 3 . when she held a baby in her arms. if she bent her shoulders slightly and inconspicuously drew her neckline open to puff some air into her bodice. astride or lengthwise. in the darkness with a hundred shadowy figures about her and high on the screen. how went the lines about the mouth and beneath the eyes: (did they close? did they open?) in the one final. When displeased. Do not despair) so that if she wished she had but to turn from her mother's bed to see the man and all her timid. what thoughts did she not think. biding her time. a niece to put through school. miserably bury her face in the baby's hair. almost sensual pout. there sat an inevitable row of thick camouflaging ruffles that made her look almost as though she had a bosom. pulsing body. beginning to laugh. approaching." he replied. an old gift from long ago. get a hold. In the room for her unburied dead. a miniature eagle or swallow? felled by time before it could spread its wings. cupped like that. and nine years gone. kneading her mother's loose flesh. In his hands. struggling to awaken the cold. She took it away from him and put it down on her table. thinking in a mixture of shame and bitterness and guilt that they had never touched a man. When she returned to the bleak replacement office. caught between amusement and sharp despair. Towards the end. sluggish blood in her drying body. whoa. a hold! He had turned it and with a penknife tightened the screws and dusted it. durable fingers. it looked suddenly like a dove. an undistinguished. badly done bird. "Some one shot it. In this man's hands. In the end. hour after hour. she had held up her hands to the light. She had laughed and laughed that day it had fallen on her desk. thin-haired." and she had laughed and laughed till faces turned and eyebrows rose and she told herself. facing her." she said. But it had taken her parent many years to die. The Virgin.her toothless. the man stood by a window. flabby-fleshed mother --and Miss Mijares had pushed against the bed in grief and also in gratitude. he held her paperweight. only the empty shadows. The screws beneath the block had loosened so that lately it had stood upon her desk with one wing tilted unevenly. a hold. noting the thick. as though poised for flight. a heavy wooden block on which stood. she had died --. nine years. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 4 . half-bending over something he held in his hands. and she had said. plop! "What happened? What happened?" they had asked her. Then she picked up his paper and read it. "Here.into glory. it had become a thankless chore. But neither love nor glory stood behind her. his back to her. It had come apart recently. "have you signed this?" "Yes. You know carpentering." "Thank you. he towered over her. going over with him the list of old hands due for release. for two or three months after which there might be a call from outside we may hold for you." he said. his foreman. depending on your skill and the foreman's discretion. His clothes. She was often down at the shanty that housed their bureau's woodcraft.He was a high school graduate. he talked too much and without call. wanting to put him in his place. were pressed and she could see the cuffs of his shirt buttoned and wrapped about big. "I heard about this place. "you will not mind working in our woodcraft section. Thursday." he said. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 5 ." she said. He was not starved. three times a week at two-fifty to four a day." Seated. Tuesday. like the rest." he said with a quick smile. Sunday. "I'm not starving yet. though old. talking with Ato. but my team broke up after that and you got too many jobs if you're working alone." he continued. He was bursting all over with an obtruding insolence that at once disarmed and annoyed her. "you can't finish a job quickly enough if you got to do the planning and sawing and nailing all by your lone self. speaking in English now. "I still got some money from that last job. He was also a carpenter. So then she drew a slip and wrote his name on it. "from a friend you got a job at the pier. Miss Mijares thought. They hired their men on a rotation basis and three months was the longest one could stay." Perhaps he was not meaning to be impolite? But for a jobseeker. You got to be on a team. The Virgin. strong wrists. He came on the odd days. "Since you are not starving yet. "I'd do it for any one. After that. pinched face. had detoured down a side alley." "Only a half. planning what was to become the side of a bookcase. It was noon. and then seeing he was low on gas." the stubborn foreman shook his head. talkative fellow. angry and also ashamed. "But he's filling a four-peso vacancy. feeling the malice in his voice. said. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 6 ."The new one there. "Only a half-peso --. for to look at me. "We're breaking him in proper. The houses were low and dark. stopping Miss Mijares along a pathway in the compound. he took still another shortcut to a filling station. she sat tightly. quickly running a pencil down.Ato would have given it to you eventually." Ato said once. now loomed like a sinister stranger over the wheel. feeling oddly that she The Virgin. when it seemed the sun put forth cruel fingers to search out the signs of age on her thin. something happened to her: she lost her way home. The crow's feet showed unmistakably beneath her eyes and she smiled widely to cover them up and acquitting a little. "Come now.yet. "give him the extra peso. How much was he going to get? Miss Mijares asked Ato on Wednesday." he said. and even the driver. though I don't need it as badly as the rest." he said." She looked at him sharply." And he looked across several shirted backs to where he stopped." "Ato says I have you to thank. hey. who earlier had been an amiable. Miss Mijares was quite sure she had boarded the right jeepneys but the driver. Through it all. She looked at the list in her hands. hoping to beat traffic. the people shadowy. but you spoke for me. "three-fifty." surprised that she should wheedle so." she said and turned away. his big body heaving before her. The following week." "Yes. "Thank you. he rode through alien country. as though he had found out suddenly that the ruffles on her dress rested on a flat chest. tiredest. chewing away on a cud." the old man said. that unhappy hour of the day when she was oldest. "Three." she said. you would knew I have no wife --. Again and again. familiar road home. she had changed direction. "You could have sent someone to tell us. But that evening. someone else who needed a job badly was kept away from it. in that dream. on his return. for something huge and bewildering stood blocking the old. The driver stopped at a corner that looked like a little known part of the boulevard she passed each day and she alighted and stood on a street island. it upset the system. "It was an emergency. that some night not very long ago. losing her way each time.had dreamed of this." he said." she said. ma'am. That was regulation. the hemline of her skirt awry." he said. the ruffles on her skirt crumpled. the passing headlights playing on her. "I went to the province." "How so?" A slow bitter anger began to form inside her. ma'am. "My son died. the bureau jobs were not ones to take chances with. shaken woman. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 7 . The new hand was absent for a week. a tired. she was lost only for a while. When a man was absent and he sent no word. she had taken a ride in her sleep and lost her way. In the absence of a definite notice. Briefly though they were held. Miss Mijares waited on that Tuesday he first failed to report for some word from him sent to Ato and then to her. "But you said you were not married!" The Virgin. grinning stupidly." he said. "Are you married?" she asked loudly. sick all at once. It rained that afternoon in one of the city's fierce. ma'am." he said gesturing. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 8 . The Virgin. unexpected thunderstorms. "I did not think. "I am not married to his mother."No. it seemed to shine outside Miss Mijares' window a gray. Without warning. She looked away. and two large throbbing veins crawled along his temples.you had a son!" she said. and for the first time she noticed his two front teeth were set widely apart." "But you have -. "No. unhappy look." she said and she put forth hands to restrain her anger but it slipped away she stood shaking despite herself. suffusing it. "You should told us everything." he said." she shouted. ma'am. "Your lives are our business here. A flush had climbed to his face. " the man's voice sounded at her shoulders. She looked up into the carpenter's faintly smiling eyes. "Main street's a block straight ahead. "Only this far. conjuring in her heart the lonely safety of the street island she had stood on for an hour that night of her confusion. now by the banks of overflowing esteros. Miss Mijares stepped down to a sidewalk in front of a boarded store. telling herself she must not lose her way tonight. When she flagged a jeepney and got in." the driver spoke. ventured outside the office.It was past six when Miss Mijares. Sorry. I won't come out of it in a year. "I am sorry if you thought I lied. somebody jumped in after her." She gestured. The Virgin. "Ma'am. "Sorry." someone protested. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 9 . The cold tight fear of the old dream was upon her. She nodded her head once in recognition and then turned away. But if I got into a traffic. disappearing in the night." One by one the passengers got off. black. bestowing pardon. folks. Before she had time to think. The wind had begun again and she could hear it whipping in the eaves above her head. She stood on the curb. walking swiftly. distraught face." "But it's raining. the driver had swerved his vehicle and swung into a side street. But it wound itself in the same tortuous manner as before. again behind faintly familiar buildings. rainy curtain continued to fall. She bent her tiny. Night had come swiftly and from the dark sky the thick. stopping his vehicle. Perhaps it was a different alley this time. and where his touch had fallen. lain tenderly on the edge of her desk and about the wooden bird (that had looked like a moving. In her secret heart. It was as though all at once everyone else had died and they were alone in the world. Miss Mijares' young dreams fluttered faintly to life.seeming monstrous but sweet overwhelming. seeming monstrous in the rain. in the dark.Up and down the empty. she thought wildly. but he had moved and brushed against her. her flesh leaped. rain-beaten street she looked. shining dove) and she turned to him with her ruffles wet and wilted. The Virgin. near this man --. in the dark she turned to him. and she recalled how his hands had looked that first day. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 10 . I must get away. sacrificing herself. She realizes to her disappointment that love and marriage have eluded her. It is the period of 1970’s to the present time. a pathetic figure. She lives a dull life and behaves with stiffness and aloofness. After a confrontation. though behind this façade is a woman vulnerable to different kinds of emotions and to her physical needs and desires Miss Mijares also is a dutiful daughter. and becoming a spinster. the two find themselves stranded on an The Virgin. in this case.SHORT STORY ANALYSIS Characters o Miss Mijares a thirty-four-year-old woman who works at a job-placement agency as a hiring officer. for a sick mother. Miss Mijares is past her youth. camouflaging her tiredness and loneliness with ruffled and pastel-colored clothes. Referring to her as "Miss Mijares" underlines her primness. she is unwittingly drawn to the man. her sternness of manner and abruptness of speech. disguise for an aching loneliness. When a new carpenter applied at her agency. but she had learned early how to dress herself to achieve an illusion of hips and bosom (which contrasts with the carpenter's physical strength and size) o new man at the carpentry shop one of the countless applicants for a menial job at the factory. Plot Having spent most of her adult life caring for an ailing mother. as well as her distance from the carpenter. She is slim and frail-looking. There is no specific season for this story. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 11 . he was a high school graduate and also a carpenter Miss Mijares eventually became drawn to him Setting The time setting for the primary action happened on the morning where there a lot applicants applying for the same position. was introduced in the story as a strong and confident woman. she forgets about herself and continues to live life without the need of others. and Miss Mijares allows herself to be led by her feelings for the carpenter and responds to his invitation. Also because of what happened to her mother. the narrator has the ability to look in to the hearts and minds of all characters at all times. Theme "The Virgin" tackles themes of feminism considered radical for its time. Conflict Internal conflict confronts the leading character. Reflecting on her virginal state. Kerima Polotan-Tuvera | 12 . a cherished value of Filipino Male culture. This gives us the subject-virginity. When a new carpenter applied at her agency. It is internal character in a way that Miss Mijares close his mind and her heart on the possibilities to have a companion because of her ambition and desire for success. she is unwittingly drawn to the man. and may describe the thoughts or feelings of anyone. Resolution The conflict was settled by the appearance of the carpenter in which he is the one that made the life of Miss Mijares somehow colorful. in third person omniscient point of view. the two find themselves stranded on an unknown street in the rain. After a confrontation. Miss Mijares does so "with a mixture of shame and bitterness and guilt" The Virgin. Furthermore.unknown street in the rain. Point of View The story uses the third person omniscient because the all-knowing narrator (like God) gives thoughts of and judgments about the characters as well as details of action and dialogue. female virginity. By presenting its protagonist as "victim" rather than heroine of this value system. the text subverts it. and Miss Mijares allows herself to be led by her feelings for the carpenter and responds to his invitation.