Women then, and now.

She finds herself trapped, desperate and trying to breathe. She believes she is condemned to a life that is mediocre, trivial and ironically lifeless. She believes that she has no choice, no decision, no say in what she will become except that which society will dictate.
Both stories tell of how women in those times see a world with four corners within a few feet of them. They are meek, content and submissive, afraid to move, to create ripples because of what society might think of us. But it is in our nature to be different, to be unique, to be an individual. To do otherwise would be to deny our own humanity.

Love in the Cornhusks
Tinang finds herself regretting and after a few moments, forgetting. I assumed from the text that she was with child well before marriage, to a man named Amado. [Her child, a bastard child born out of a passionate moment in the fields behind the tractors.] It was because of being pregnant that she sought out the man that had the most interest in her, the Bagobo. And in her haste and panic, she had left the home she was tending and then after sometime, Amado, and then she married the Bagobo, A man whom at first, she did not see as an equal but rather a man who’s social stature was below her, until now. I believe that she had feared what society might have thought of her, a loose woman, promiscuous or perhaps even a whore., hence she married a man she did not love, but who loved her.

The Corral
Our persona finds that she is steadily approaching a turning point in her life. An age where most women find themselves a husband, become a wife and hopefully, hopefully they become mothers. She is seen exercising her motherly instincts by being a teacher in the school, teaching and caring for the students, as with the way she cares for her father, making him meals and tending to their home.
The story describes how the society at that time “traps” the women. As shown in how the father treats her as well as her suitor treats her, trying to one up each other in who “wins” her affection. The corral symbolizes the entrapment of women, how men build fences, to capture women, its foundations deeply and heavily rooted into the society. And she sees herself as a fish, trapped, despondent and dying. But she isn’t dying, but rather her dreams, her desires and her future.

These days these things would have not been the case. Tinang would most probably have had an abortion or better yet take control and hunt down Amado. Pilar would not have been trapped, but rather set free by her own dreams. She might have gone elsewhere to work, find another man who would woo her, a man that she approved and not an ugly principal, who think that he is God’s gift to her. Women are more liberal, more decisive, commanding and powerful. They take hold of their lives and live it the way they want to be. Often times better than what most men would have or could have become. It is this former social status that gives them strength, as well a society who’s eyes have been opened to what the capabilities of women are.