Footnote of the Youth Creative Connector Literature 10

Theme no. 1 – Growing up – Pain or Pleasure?

Growing up is my theme because not only is it the most obvious one but
because it is practically the plot of the story. Growing up is both pain and pleasure
pain being the hardships along the way and pleasure not only being sexual but
pleasure in seeing your child learn from his/her mistakes and making his/her own
choices. Growing up is something everyone experiences and WILL experience.
Growing up can either be physically or mentally but in this case both since Dudong
not only has grown wiser but has grown up physically aswell and has followed his
dad’s footsteps. Specifically his dad’s past choices to let his son marry at such an
early, early age. In conclusion, Growing up is something we all need to face and
experience, such is life, full of ups and downs just like a roller coaster ride.

It’s relevance to the 21st century is that teen pregnancy is not that
uncommon as to compared to the past years, as if it is slowly growing larger.
On July, 11, 2019, Nearly 200,000 Filipino teens get pregnant annually (source:
ABS-CBN). The story is telling us the growing problem of teenage pregnancies,
The story was published at 1933 meaning that it was also a problem even before
the 21st century. The author is reminding us the struggles and that moment of
hope in the eyes of the teenage parents. In the story, Teang had a very heavy
workload, to cook, to do the laundry, to clean the house and many more. Due to
that she is growing thin and yet thanks to the chains of love that bind her to the
house that her husband and children have made, also having second thoughts on
her marriage with Dudong and also having thoughts of leaving this “marriage” thing
behind to pursue something else that she has on her mind especially since she is
still so, so young.
Theme no.2 – Everlasting Love

My 2nd theme is everlasting love because the love between Dudong and Teang
is so strong that not only will Teang cope with the physical pain of serving her
family members just to be rewarded by their “thank you s” and smiles. Dudong
working hard just to feed their family at such a young age, also Teang. They both
love each other so much that neither will complain at the other because of the
burden of an early marriage because, you guessed it, of their love for one another.
Yes, love is important and an essential thing in the “life” package that God has
given us BUT love can wait, we all have the right to have fun, to experience the
joys and failures of being a teenager and being a young adult, to drink, to dance,
to party, to explore and much, much more. Dudong’s and Teang’s love blinded them,
blinded them so much that they made a child at such an early age. This must be
the case because people that live in rural areas haven’t experienced, technology,
malls and especially proper education. So you can’t say it’s both their faults for
being uneducated, that’s just how to world works, the poor are poor and the rich
are, ya know?, rich.

It’s relevance to the 21st century is similar to that of theme no. 1 but the
slight difference is the perspective we’re coming from. In the 1st theme we
tackled teenage pregnancies, whereas this correlation is WHY teenage
pregnancies happen, or in simple terms “love”. Love can make someone feel
happiness and also feel regret and disappointment. Love is such a simple yet
powerful word, it can make someone work so hard that he/she is on the verge of
collapsing, it can make someone rethink why they married that person, why they
chose that person and if they made the right choice. No marriage is perfect,
there will be arguments, there will be hardships, there will be happiness.
Nowadays, kids my age have a girlfriend/boyfriend and have to study, work and
meet up with their with them. Covering up the stress, the workload just because
of this stupid yet amazing thing we call “love”, admiration, and respect. In
conlusion, love is a choice that cannot be judged, if both parties love each other
truly, then why should we judge? It’s just a matter of the people around them
either thinking that they made the right/wrong choice. But who cares about that?
As long as both of you can handle and manage it then other people’s thought can
be nothing to you.

Theme no. 3 – Isolation

My 3rd theme is isolation because well, both Dudong’s and Teang’s parents
and them aswell are isolated from cities and have to rely on the knowledge that
their parents have given to them. The story doesn’t say that Dudong had proper
education, or even if he went to an actual school. So that leaves us to conclude
that both Dudong and Teang don’t have proper education. Even their parents
married at such a young age, so it is most likely that they both will marry at such a
young age and they did. Theres nothing wrong with an early marriage but as time
goes by, burdens will get lighter/heavier depending on your social status and your
education and how honest you are to your partner. As the years pass by, Teang
began to work harder and harder, not even getting salary but just doing her
responsibilities. Having a small window to take a breath and to just look at her
surroundings. Dudong being unable to stop his son from also marrying because it’s
his son’s choice, his uneducated son’s choice. No one is at fault, it’s just the
growing problem of rural areas nowadays, we can’t call them wrong for not being
able to get a warning, unless they by some chance have a connection to the urban
world but they don’t.

It’s correlation to the 21st century is that isolation will continue to happen
unless the world becomes one, but that is nearly impossible because there will be
arguments, fights and people who get mad easily and people who accuse without
evidence in the world. That is the world we live in, sensitive yet rude at times.
Isolation can also apply to people who thanks to their circumstances haven’t seen
experienced such a thing. Such a thing can happen because they don’t get
informed or haven’t received such information. How can someone without a TV or a
radio know today’s news? There is only one way, through other people that know
such information. Gossip can also be a way to tell others, it’s just that gossip is
not fully the truth like a rumour, like an illness, something the hasn’t been
confirmed that if it actually is an illness or just a feeling. Isolation is also a
problem in school aswell, someone who wasn’t invited to a class gathering because
they aren’t liked by the “class” or because they forgot. Isolation can also be
applied to counties, for example, North Korea, they are isolated, their people
know not of the outside world and are blindly worshiping because that’s what their
parents told them to do and because of the lack of outside information that is
being spread there. In conclusion, Isolation can not only mold what a person
becomes but also molds their future choices, marriages, financial choices and also
their livelihood.