GETTING BETTER & SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES

The rule in love is “love one another”, if it doesn’t work, just swap the last two words, “love another one!”=)

Getting better is a wake up call to those people who give their all when they are in love but receiving too little or nothing in return. This story tells that sometimes, you have to give up on things especially when it only cost you pain. Love isn’t easy, it is hard, painful and shattering at times so you have to make sure that the one you love is worth all the sacrifice or else you’re losing half of your life being with someone who doesn’t deserve your love. Put in mind that when you’re happy with the wrong one, how much more when the right one comes along. Like in the story, Karen loves Miko so much to the extent that she’s doing everything for him just to satisfy him even of it is a real torture for her. She lets him yell at her anywhere in front of her friends and she lets him boss her around as if she’s not thinking about her own good anymore, it’s always Miko, what’s best for Miko, that’s what she’s all about. Her whole world is revolving around Miko and Miko only, that’s why when she caught him cheating on her, he couldn’t help but feel so sad, she tried almost everything like being on blind dates, indulging herself to forget the pain temporarily, isolate herself from the crowd for a short while to think about things and reflect with herself and things like that and she even make out with him after knowing what he did, this one was really stupid, I mean she’s fully aware that this guy is a chicker, no good boyfriend, a cheater, guy version of a whore and all that yet she managed to still let him touch her, well, there’s plenty more fish on the sea girl, don’t let that stupid guy play with you anymore, that’s what I want to tell her.

But then later on, I realized that she was strong actually, she isn’t that stupid after all, because she managed to have a bigger catch upon dating Bert Reyno. She deserves to be happy after all what she went through while she’s with Miko, Bert Reyno seems to love her and respect her in a way that she go with her shopping at the mall (which most guys hate doing) and things like that. I like this story and I enjoyed reading it because I can somehow relate to it, I can feel how Karen feels when Miko and her broke up and when she starts dating Bert Reyno, there are also some places that I can picture with my mind so it’s as if I’m a part of the story. This story isn’t just for but, if you really analyze the points of it, you’ll get to see that the author wants us to see the real value of love, forgetting is painful, that’s for sure, but it’s sure a lot easier that holding on to something that isn’t there anymore.

The story Smaller and Smaller circles is a freaky and scary. I can feel every single pain the victims are going through. Painful, bloods dropping, little by little life was taken from innocent kids who did nothing wrong. What made this story more convincing is that there’s a rumor that a white van was roaming around different areas killing people and getting their internal organs in exchange of money and this was what the story is about.

The author based the story in real life settings so it gives me Goosebumps. This story tells about how a past incident could turn a man to do a crime to somehow regain his normal state of mind.

The story is about serial killing at Payatas area, the victims are all little boys, ranging from twelve to fifteen years old, all from poor families which made them small and skinny for their age. The two priests, who are the main characters made it possible to identify the real killer by analyzing all the clues left by the killer including the date and time of the incident, the way the victims were killed and who the victims were. According to them, the suspect was someone familiar, a common face, that’s why he isn’t noticed easily because he was usually seen around the area.

The killer was non other than the resident dentist, and he kills because he was once harassed when he was a child. There were other children who undergo the same thing when they were kids, they are all small and wasn’t able to pass P.E. so their teacher Mr. Gorospe made them do awful things and abused them in exchange for a passing grade. He killed the children because in his mind, they were those other kids who knew that he was someone special and it embarrasses him to death, so to regain his peace of mind, he killed all those children whom he though was the other kids who knew about the harassment he went through.

It’s like the past incident made him psychologically impaired and angry. What I realized was every act of killing was symbolic, he takes the genitals as a sign of sexual conflict and takes the face too so that they would not be identified. The heart was taken probably to somehow not feel the pain anymore. This story was really great; every point was important and leads to another clue. An unusual novel but worth reading.

Generations!

~ There are certain people in our lives who do nothing but lead us in pain and misery, it’s destiny that decides to put them in our lives, but making them stop or letting them continue is our choice. ~

Generations by Ninotchka Rosca is very different from other stories I’ve read. The usual stories are about close family ties, the common family that helps one another, protects each other and loves every single member like no other, but this story is different, the family seems to not go along with each other very well. They always argue which ends to physical pain. Sad to accept but the father, who should protect the family is in fact the reason for all the troubles they are going through. The mother was weak and can’t fight back to the father. The children are still young to be able to understand what’s happening around them and the only person who was able to stand strong was the daughter, a pretty girl whom they look up to because she’s pretty and probably she would be known someday and she could help them rise from the poor life they belong.

This girl was strong, she knew how to handle and take care of herself and the family when the father was not there. She always follows her mother as a sign of respect even if sometimes she thinks she’s wrong. Like when the mother gives solid food to Tata Selo, she thinks that it’s no use to give the old man equal amount of food because he won’t be able to eat those, the food would only go to waste. But because her mother believed that everyone should have equal food, she obeys her without objecting.

I knew from the very start that this girl was strong, but I never realized that she was as strong as how she really was until I read the next part of the story. One night, the father went home in rage smashing the face of his wife without giving any reason why. Then after that, he left the house, but because he was drunk, the mother demanded the children together with the girl to follow him, the girl refused at first but because her mother begged, she followed.

They followed him, they try to stop him but he insisted, he said they should go home because its late but they couldn’t go home without him, their mother would just feel bad when they do it. Then they came to a checkpoint, they saw the soldiers arrest their father. The girl told her brother to go home and tell their mother what happened, the boy doesn’t really want to leave but the girl said that she’s sure that she can get him out of jail made the boy follow.

Then the next part shows how strong the girl is, she doesn’t have money but she pain the soldiers in a different way, using her body. Even the father only cost them trouble, she still sacrificed herself knowing that the father won’t even thank her after that. While she’s paying, the father rest not knowing what’s happening to the next room were the girl was being harassed.

After that night, the soldiers released the father and then he saw the girl waiting for him outside. He asked what she’s doing then she just answered she waiting for him. The upon their way back home, she tripped and the father accidentally the stain in her shirt, obviously he was able to know what happened but he did nothing, he just smiled and whispered “yeah right, waiting.” This made me feel sad for the girl, after doing everything for his useless father, he’d only laugh at her, the later on the girl hit the father’s head hard, which caused his death. I know its rude but this is probably the only way the girl know to stop the father from causing them any trouble, and that she could take care of her family better without him, killing is bad but perhaps if she won’t kill him, he would only cause trouble.

Then later on, her brother saw the dead body of their father, I knew that he’s aware of what happened, but he pretended he din not know a thing. Then they headed back home with a new hope, that maybe this time, without their father, a better life awaits them.