Direction and Purpose Essay

Metaphors provide creative images for readers. They give flavor to literature and allow free interpretation of a piece thereby making a conversation in a story, an image in a poem, a symbolism in the darn and such, more interesting. Through the use of such a figure of speech, the images atomic number 18 laid bargon and presented fresh. This creates an interaction between the reader, the author and the piece as readers be made to analyze the images presented and the idea that the allegory is trying to introduce. It send offms the poem, manilla, efficiently develops the parable that is the Philippines society during the colonial era, through a succession distinguish.It takes the hassle of colonial manilla paper into the modern Filipino mindset. The poem begins with an introduction Lines 1-3, which gives us the first glimpse of the similarities between the city of Manila and the recluse holler. The deliver the goods stanzas 4-8 elaborate the physical conditions of the count rys capital and finally, the poem concludes l9-14 with the mental capacity upheld by the nation. To appreciate how allegorys lay b are Espinos Manila, allow us analyze the imagery create in the poem, line by line.Unlike most poems, Manila begins with an epigraph from Nick Joaquin, which reads Dust and crabs, spread and crabs. We ignore assume that this quote gives a foreview of what Federico Espinos poem will highlight. though very little is conveyed in this line, we are able to suppose that the metaphor will hold signifi atomic number 50ce to the poem proper. Dust may be described as either something that depicts age or some body of an explosion. We also k straight of crabs as an animal that suck ups and has claws. Crabs are also able to survive on land for short periods of time and can literally live on dust.Manila begins with the line A hermit crab beside the tide of times, if we look at the concept of the hermit crabs as a description of Manila, the line merely tells us th at time has passed. It tells us that Manila has an old history and that it has endured more. The next line She bears the traces of her former homes/ the home plates of foreign cultures and the slime, tells us that the countrys history contributes overmuch to its identity. The city has withstood much to the get that it is now isolated and delayed in comparison to the developments of other countries.The former homes are the shells that the crab has already leftover behind. The foreign cultures such as that of the Spanish, British, Japanese and Americans have all freed the country, just their influences dating back to colonial times legato linger. But as hermit crabs changes its shell, Manila now looks for a new shell of protection as she enters a nonher era whilst trying to retain its identity. withal with the passing of time, the mix of culture is still protected and preserved, which the narrator describes as both positive and negative incriminateing that though the fore igners have given us a rich culture, they have made us endure much slime and shit (considering that slime is a gastropods mucus secretion) in order to take what was rightly ours freedom.In the succeeding lines Now she looks for nutrient as small waves comb/Upon the shore where bits of driftwood lie, we now see a direction in the poem. Again it highlights how the hermit crab searches for something and we now see she looks for food. Keeping in mind that food is parallel to bread and butter since it is necessary in sustaining life the hermit crab looks for nourishment in a place which seemingly has very little to give. From Nick Joaquins Sa Loob ng Maynila, we understand the devastation in the city when it served as the focalize of the revolution, and we see that starting anew is difficult when one is left on what is being portrayed as a deserted island.As expected, she finds energy in her hungry quest/ Instead she hears the raucous seagulls cry/ Which is a shriek beyond the roc k-ribbed nest. In these lines, the seagulls native predators of the hermit crab are foreign countries. We can assume that not only are we looking up at the seagulls but that they are also in a position to take good of us. In relation to the Philippines history, foreign countries are soaring. Other countries progress and it is a caper when ironically the countries we defeated fighting for our in aimence are now more stable than we are they still rise above us. We are still beneath them in a sense to the point we have to crawl in order to get anywhere. These lines are merely creating the image of a third world country. All seems futile, especially when you have nowhere else to go.It mocks her as she crawls upon the sand The sidewise movement of the hermit crab/ Which Dylan saw on a deserted strand/ And used as a metaphor in runes that throb It is possible that Dylan represents a foreigner (since it is a true name for an American boy) and he saw our aimless wandering and toke advantage of it however, this is more of a hunch than a legitimate argument. What is clear though, is the point of our sideways movement, which is the natural direction a hermit crab follows. By this we can concur that the movement has become innate. We are not paltry forward. We want so much, yet work so little. Perhaps, these lines also imply that we search in all the wrong places.With life. Yes, this city is a bridge of claws/ Creeping, crabbing with all its tragic flaws. These last lines of the poem summarize the intent of the unblemished poem. Here it is implied that the people of the Philippines are aware of the damage in their society. Slowly, close lifelessly, the Filipinos attempt to move through the things we dislike in our country. We complain so much yet we do very little and perhaps that is our downfall. trustworthy there is no prefect nation, but in most nations you see a progression.In reference to Nick Joaquins opening epigraph, perhaps the dust is the remains of those countries that once colonized us. We never bothered to clean up what was left to us good and bad. Espino hints that perhaps that is why we are not moving forward, there is too much to fix all at once. And this can be related to what we call crab mentality or the Filipinos attitude of clawing at those who have gotten ahead to pull them back again. We cringe and crawl in our own flaws in our own mistakes instead of choose ourselves and walking. It is our own claws that hold us back.The generalizations made by Espino are obvious. though the title is Manila is it clear that the city, being the heart of colonial Philippines, is a synecdoche for the entire country. And when all aspects of Espinos Manila are examined, we see that the metaphor is in the intricate, descriptive design of the Philippines as a hermit crab trapped on a deserted island. Though she is attempting to escape, she is crawling blindly in no particularly direction. It seems not much has change.Though Mani la was written a long time ago, it is relatively surprising that the school text paints Manila in a sad, accurate manner. We fought for our freedom. Now we merely oppose with it. It seems our nation cannot decide independently like a hermit crab, we depend on our symbiotic relationships. We cannot survive alone and we rely on what can be give to us by those who protect us. The dependence relayed in the poem explains why we have no direction, no purpose, and no resources. We are truly stuck.