LITERARY RESEARCH

DESIRE by: Paz Latorena

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 About
INTRODUCTION
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“A woman’s desire is to be loved because of who she is. Not to be loved because of
her body.”

Everyone of us desires to be loved purely. As inner beauty plays a big role in love,
we cannot deny that physical appearance is one of the basis for us to find true love.
This story is about a girl who has an ugly face and a beautiful body. This story gives
us a glimpse about the struggle of a woman for having an ugly face and being desired
by men for her body and not for who she is.
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 About
INTRODUCTION
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This literary work was written by Paz Latorena. It was written in 1928 and
considered as one of the early feminist stories to appear in Philippine Literature. It
served as an eye opener for everybody that women should be loved and valued for
who she is and not for how she looks. The author successfully narrates the story
using metaphors and personification. She used this as a way for the readers to
understand what are the feelings of protagonist in the story.

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 THE LIFE
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AUTHOR

Paz Manguera Latorena was born in Boac, Marinduque in January 19, 1908. She
was the eldest among the ten children of Magda Manguera and Ricardo Latorena. Paz
Latorena was one of the notable writers of the first generation of Filipino English
writers, in both literary writing and education. She was a poet, editor, author, and
teacher.
At a young age, Paz was brought to Manila where she finished basic schooling at
St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and the Manila South High School that’s now
known as Araullo High School.
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 THE LIFE
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AUTHOR

• Before the year ended, she won the third prize in Jose Garcia Villa’s Roll of Honor for the Best
Stories of 1927 for her story, “The Small Key.”
• She became the literary editor of the Varsitarian and published her poems, “Insight” and “My
Last Song,” under her nom de plume, Mina Lys.
• She shortly earned her master’s and doctorate degree while teaching literature courses in UST. In
1934, her doctoral dissertation, “Philippine Literature in English: Old Voices and New,” received
the highest rating of sobresaliente.

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 STORY
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ELEMENTS
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Setting: Time: one early evening

Place: at Manila bay, inside the car, at the Chapel, at home
Character/Characterization:
Unnamed woman – described as a woman who has a homely face and magnificent
body. Her body has been a source of unusual desire for men so she hid it with shapeless
dresses.
White man – someone who has blue eyes and comes from the West who believed to be
an American man. He meets up with the unnamed woman after reading her writings.
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 STORY
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ELEMENTS
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Symbol/s:
THE PROTAGONIST OR THE UNNAMED WOMAN: She represents all the women in reality. As
a woman who desires for true love, she is desired by men because of her body. This shows us the
reality that inner beauty alone can’t capture a heart.
ROSES, MOON AND LIGHT: The terms roses, moon and light used by the author symbolizes the
beautiful body form of the female character. It is used to create imagery in the reader’s mind.
DESIRE: The desire in the story portrays the source of female power and the voice of women during
Latorena’s period.
Theme: The theme of the story is the title itself, “desire”. The desire of the female character to find
true love and the desire of men for the female’s body.
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 About
BACKGROUND
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Historical Context
As the researcher reads the story, there were questions asked such as: how did the perception of
society’s beauty standard affects the female character and what period was the story written. These
questions were to be answered by giving its historical context.

The researcher found out that the Desire by Paz Latorena was written during the period where
not much respect and recognition are given to women. During this period women were facing
struggles to find their value. And since the female character of the story is described as someone
who has a homely face, it is harder for a woman like her to find someone that would appreciate her
for who she was. 8
 About
BACKGROUND
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Historical Context
Since the researcher knows the background of the story, she was able to conclude
that the female character struggles to find her worth and value through men’s eyes.
For they see her beautiful body as something to be desired with lust and not
something that is needed to be valued.
 

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 BASIC INFORMATION FOR UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
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THESIS

Filipino women of Latorena’s time were faced with the problem of adapting their
identities as women to the new social order brought about by American colonial
government. In the present study, “Images of Women in Short Stories of Paz
Latorena,” it attempts to show which images of women were constructed, whether
intentionally or unwittingly, by a Filipino woman writer living during the American
Colonial Period of the Philippines.

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 BASIC INFORMATION FOR UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
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THESIS

The different personas of women as portrayed in the stories of Latorena were also
comprehensively discussed by Eva Kalaw. She explained that the traditional images
of women—the woman as martyr, who has a free choice used for a cause or
principle, and the woman as wife and mother, who lives the unarticulated life of her
sex—are both dominant in Latorena’s stories.

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 BASIC INFORMATION FOR UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
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THESIS

Many of her colleagues also believed that Latorena’s way of writing her short
stories is because she wanted to show us how brave women are. According to
Kanapi, a Professional thespian, Latorena’s literary audacity “makes us push
ourselves to be brave as well.”
According to Kanapi, “She was very good in describing and just knew the
sentiments of a woman which probably at her time were unspoken of”.

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 ANALYSIS/ARGUMENTS
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A. NOT ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS GIVES US HAPPINESS

Having a beautiful body doesn’t make the protagonist happy. In fact, she hated
herself for being desired because of her body. This made her to seek for true love,
one that is pure and sincere. In the story, the woman didn’t get the love she is looking
for. At the end, after feeling that her prayers are answered, her dreams were shattered
after knowing that the white man loves only her body and not for who she really is.

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 ANALYSIS/ARGUMENTS
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B. BEAUTY COULD BE A CURSE

For us, the perception of beauty is a blessing. But for the protagonist in the story,
it is the other way around. She perceives her beautiful body as a curse for it brings
men to stare at her with desire — not the desire she wanted but the desire for her
body alone.

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C. DESIRED TO BE DESIRED
The protagonist in the story desires to find true love. This desperation leads her to
hide her beautiful body, to wear shapeless clothes. This results men to forget her
stunning body. She now desires to be desired, to find true love and to find a man who
will love her for what she is and not her sole body.

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 ANALYSIS/ARGUMENTS
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D. AUTHOR’S TECHNIQUE/STYLE
The author introduces the story smoothly and the words used are easily understood by
the readers. The words used are plain and simple yet it didn’t fail to touch my heart with
the sense of morality. The author also used metaphors to describe the physical attributes
of the characters in the story.
Personally, I admit that this story has an impact for me not only because it talks about
how a woman should be loved but also it gives an impact about the reality in today’s
society.
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E. ENDING
The ending is the real twist in the story for me. After meeting with the white man
and feeling that finally she found the love she is looking for, she goes back into
showing off her gorgeous body. After having a dream come true, her dreams were
suddenly shattered after knowing that like all the other men, the white man admits
that he loves only her body. With tears in her eyes, she admitted to herself that she
will never find the true love that she desires.

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 About
CONCLUSION
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This literary work gives us the idea about what love really is. Love is being
desired not for how we look but for who we are. Though the story was written in
1928, it is still applicable in present times where in physical appearance plays a big
role in the standard of beauty in our society.

It is an eye opener specially for men to stop their sinful desires for it can lead into
someone being hurt. This shows that women should be respected and loved no matter
how they look and who they are.
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 About
CONCLUSION
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This also shows how God perceive women as precious jewels. They are intended
to be loved purely and not to play with.

I felt sad for the protagonist in the story for not getting the desire to be loved
purely and to finding true love. It made me wish to have a better ending. One where
she finds true love and lived happily with the love of her life. This made me realized
that no matter how much we wanted something to happen, if its not meant to be, it
will not be.
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REFERENCES
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http://rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph/aliww/english_platorena.html

https://www.scribd.com/document/364828878/Desire-Lit-001

https://www.jstor.org/stable/42634172

https://varsitarian.net/literary/20090307/ust_pays_homage_to_paz_latoren
a_lady_of_letters_and_beloved_mentor

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