LOVE AS TEST IN THE SHORT STORY

HOW MY BROTHER LEON BROUGHT HOME A WIFE

BY MANUEL E. ARGUILLA

OCTOBER 13, 2014

INTODUCTION

Love, as defined in the dictionary, is a variety of different feelings, states,

and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to
pleasure ("I loved that meal"). It can refer to an emotion of a
strong attraction and personal attachment. It can also be a virtue representing
human kindness, compassion, and affection"the unselfish loyal and
benevolent concern for the good of another". It may also describe
compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's self or
animals. And as it was defined, love is clearly felt by everyone regardless of
what age, gender, and culture you may be. And as defined in the Bible;

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not

proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily

angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices
with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres.8 Love never fails

(1 Corinthians13:4-8)

Love is not selfish but selfless and it is not ill-mannered. It never gives up
but endures sacrifices and trials and its patience never fails. And it was the
thing that was emphasized in the short story, specifically by the female
characterMariaher love for her husband Leon.

The story tells about a womans struggle, as she tries to gain the
worthiness needed to be accepted by her husbands family. They couple took a
surprising route home, where the wife face many challenges along the way. The
entire story serves as a test for the wife. Tests that were meant to show if the
wife could endure sacrifices she made and whether the wife could live with
strangers all for love, as James Baldwin quoted;
Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a
battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

The story shows how true love can surmount all trials. The wife was
challenged to ride on a cart with Labangthe family bullhitch to it, instead of
castano and the calesa, which is more comfortable than that of the cart, since
that the story is set in Barrio Nagrebcan, Bauang, La Union. She was also
challenged when they passed through the so-called Waigthe field which
could be used as a path to Leons home during dry seasoninstead of the
paved road Camino Real.

Such in the case of Maria, where she and Leon were having a
conversation along the way;

"But it is so very wide here," she said. The light of the stars broke and
scattered the darkness so that one could see far on every side, though
indistinctly.

"You miss the houses, and the cars, and the people and the noise, don't
you?" My brother Leon stopped singing.

"Yes, but in a different way. I am glad they are not here."

Shows how the wife adjusts to her husbands rural lifestyle.

As the story goes by, Maria admits of having some fear of rejecting by
Leons family, especially of his father. As seen when she said;
"I am afraid. He may not like me."

But clearly shows that it did not stop her when they reach Leons home.
And it actually shows of her braveness, that she can give up some of the things
in her life in order to reach a goal. In her case, in order to find at least the best
happiness that can be found in that particular life with Leon.

The scene where BaldoLeons younger brotherwas asked by his father

about the things he noticed along the way to their home, where, I think, the
father discovered that Maria was somehow worthy for Leon to be his wife and
that she had passed the tests, which I think, Leons father himself had
planned.

It is the scene when they came at Leons home, where his mother stood
at the doorway. And the first words uttered in Leons lips were;

"Father... where is he?"

And his mother told him that his father is in his room, bothered again by his
legs that were wounded during Japanese revolution, and after his father asked
Baldo and told to water Labang, Maria and Leon came into his fathers room,
where Manuel E. Arguilla resolves the story.

The love thing in that was shown by the characters in the short story is
the one that must be preserve, a love that will walk across certain sacrifices
and trials or surrender a part of ones life can be described as an unconditional
love or a sacrificial kind of love, as in the Greeksan Agape loveas they
classify kind of love. And the fact that Leons hometown is far different from
Manila where Maria and Leon first met and later fall in love with each other,
can be somewhat daunting the closer they get to Leons home, but Maria still
manages to overcome challenges she encountered. And the essence of love
where culture or such kind of living(as for the characters in the short story
where Leon resides in a rural area before he came to Manila where Maria lives)
is not a hindrance in order to be happy with the one you love.
True love can surpass anything; even fear and death, for its faith, hope,
and patience never fail and for love is eternal as Anas Nin quoted;

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know

how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies
of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.