SHORT STORY ANALYSIS

The White Horse of Alih

By: Emigdio “Mig”Alvarez Enriquez
and

Submitted by:
Calantas, Febronia P.

Submitted to:
Ms.Begawen, Mary Ann T.

September 27, 2010

A. ELEMENTS OF STORY

• Setting
 The story happened on July 4th in a city with a parade of people.
• Characters
 Alih- a Moro who plans for killing the people celebrating the Filipino-
American Friendship Day
-the protagonist
 Omar- the older brother of Alih who dictates him on what to do in every
aspects of his life
 Imam- the village priest who tried to dissuade the two brothers, he explain to
them that the prophets did not teach to do it
 Lucy - girl who lived in the reservation area where the Americans live
-she is the first girl Alih liked
 Fermina - a beautiful bar maid with a mole near her mouth
- Alih likes her so much but the woman doesn’t like him because of his
impertinent manner towards her.
• Plot
• The story started off as Alih the protagonist, moved along the crowd which was
celebrating the Fourth of July celebration. They were expecting a lot of people in
this event because they planned a mass assassination in the town. The story then
went on concentrating on the actions and what the characters are thinking before
their planned killing. Alih was thinking of his houri and the past memories of their
family. His father was accused of killing a man that he did not kill. Alih and Omar’s
father was the hadji back then and that he attended the Mecca. The Americans
wanted him to submit to the judgement of the Americans. The story continued with
the life of Omar and Alih as merchants. They sold their house, their boats, fishing
nets and even their mother’s pearls. They then worked for Lim Ching which was a
Chinese merchant. They were then robbed by men with guns and clubs. They then
went back to sea and stayed there for a long time. After the consumed all their
stock of food and water Omar began thinking of killing and dying. By killing we can
wash our shame away’ said Omar while staring into the space. The story then went
on moving to the parade. Alih saw a girl which resembled his friend that he rode
with in the carousel. After confirming that the girl he is looking at is really Fermina,
his brother Omar then went berserk and unsheathed his sword and killed people.
Omar then went to kill Fermina but Alih protected her and killed his brother Omar.

 Conflict- Alih did not want to kill but the fear he had for his brother while he
was growing urged him to the killings and also because his brother taught
him that killing will be their way to wash away their shame and gain respect
for their father had died by the American soldiers without any reason.
 Complication- when they decided to become merchants there were rebels
who stole their commodities
 Rising Action - He saw a float with a girl whom he thought of as Fermina. He
went near the float and assisted the girl to go down to the ground and found
out that it is Fermina when he saw the little black mole on the corner of the
girl’s mouth
 Climax- As he was about to hold her completely, Omar came but to his
surprise, he was drunk and tipsy! All along, he realized that Omar had been
drinking tuba. Omar was about to kill Fermina.
 Falling Action- Alih kills his brother despite their plans to gain the white
horse for him to protect Fermina.
• Theme- the short story tells about the tradition, beliefs and faith of the Filipinos.
“Love is mightier than revenge in the heart”.
• Point of View - third person limited.