Abakada...Ina December 1, 2013
"Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown proposed as things forgot."
And things unknown proposed as things forgot."
-Alexander Pope, English
poet
Abakada..Ina is a movie that depicts how illiteracy can change
the course of one’s life.
Just because her slippers were ruined on her way to school,
Estela decided to go home, give up her studies and not return to school anymore.
She spent the next years helping her mother sell kakanin until she finally got married to her childhood friend,
Daniel and have children of her own—Gina, Beth and Joan. Her husband is a
graduate of a nautical course but because of the failure every time he takes
the yearly exam for Marines, he was not able to get a good job and became a
ship rust remover instead. That was also the reason why they could not get a house
of their own and kept on living with Daniel’s mother, Matilda.
Among Estela’s daughters, Beth is the most intelligent. She
always gets the highest score in examinations at school. Gina on the other
hand, is the dullest. Their grandmother Matilda, being a teacher, always checks
their report cards. She was always proud of Beth’s performance in school but
got disgusted every time Gina showed her report of grades. Estela felt that
Matilda was belittling her daughter because Estrela was illiterate. They always
had an argument and Estela wished so hard that Daniel would come back home so
they can move away from Matilda’s house.Because of the discouragement and
suffering he experienced at the ship, Daniel finally came home and after
several arguments with Estela, agreed to move to Manila and start a new life.
They had not realized what life awaited them as they leave
their town. With the help of Daniel’s mother, he paid a fixer to quicken the process of his papers at the Marine Company and
looked for a short-term job as he waited the day of examination. Gina kept on
selling kakanin. Because of Estela’s
ignorance, she and her family were put into risk a couple of times. One
incident was when a lady bought kakaninand
said, “Keep the change”. Because of not understanding that term, she regretted
for giving the costumer the change of her payment.Another incident was when
Gina and Beth did not come home for hours that made Daniel and Estela worried
and went looking for them. Estela thought that she was following Daniel until
she rode with him on the jeepney and brought somewhere. She realized later that
she was mistaken and worse, was lost. Good thing she found that lady costumer
who helped her come home. On the other hand, Gina and Beth were almost raped by their new 'friends'. After more suffering brought to them by their fate,
Daniel and Estela decided to go back to their province.
Their family suffered even more as they continued to live
with Matilda. Estela’s argument with the old lady worsened that she decided to
leave with her children, but because Daniel grabbed the children away from her,
she left with nothing but tears in her eyes.
Her daughters felt deep longing for their mother, especially
Joan who kept on crying for many nights. Her youngest tried to find her way to
Estela who was living with her mother far on the other side of their town.
Despite the hardship of walking alone, the little child finally found her
mother with the help of a man from the same place. Their reunion brought tears into
the eyes of both of them. Estela’s loss from their home brought a lot of change
not only to her daughters but to her husband as well. Daniel tried to change
and look for a better job, and tried to get Estela back. It was very noticeable
that despite the pain he had given Estela, he still loved his wife very much.
Soon, Estela realized that her illiteracy was the main reason
of their suffering and decided to reconcile with Daniel, her children and
Matilda. She went to school with her youngest and talked to Matilda. That was
my favorite part in the movie because as Estela says that she needed to
continue her studies to become a good wife and mother, Matilda answers her that
there is no need to learn about that. She can teach her everything from the
book, but she can’t teach her to become a good mother because she already is.
The story ends well as each character faces a better life with Estela telling
the story to her son, the newest part of their family.
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento