Children of the
Group
Ash covered
six Loam
by : N.V.M.
Gonzales
Group ABOUT THE
six AUTHOR
Bibliography ABOUT
the
Name: Date of Birth :
September 8, 1915
author
Néstor Vicente
Madali Gonzales Died :
November 28. 1999
Children:
-Selma Gonzalez-
Cortes
Pen Name : -Nestor Ibarra Manuel
Gonzales
N.V.M. -Michael Gonzalez
Lakshmi -Gonzalez-
Gonzales Yokoyama
1960, the first
AWARDS and Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards
cultural Heritage
LITERARY Award.
WORKS Story Republic Award in 1954 for outstanding
contribution toward the advancement of Filipino
culture in the field of English literature
The Winds of Seven Hills
April Away
Children of the Ash-
Covered Loam
Group ANALYSIS
six ABOUT THE
CHARACTER
S
CHARACT
ERS
• Tarang - the main character ; a seven-
year old boy hungry for knowledge
• Tatay - Tarang’s Father
• Nanay - Tarang’s Mother
• Cris - Tarang’s baby sister
• Paula - the woman who gave a pig to
Tarang
• Tia Orang - the midwife
• Tio Longinos - Tarang’s uncle ; owns the
clearing
• Tia Pulin and Tia Adang - Tarang’s aunts
who were there during the offering
Group ANALYSIS
six ABOUT THE
STORY
The setting of these story was exclusively the countryside. The
novelist's subjects were the common people—the "children of the
ash-covered loam"—leading their simple lives in the farming and
coastal communities of rural Philippines. They either lived in abject
poverty or they barely subsisted in hand-to-mouth existence. They
were stories of their time, in the immediate post-war or the years
prior to the war—in the early decades of the last century during the
American occupation.
With their simple rituals and lifestyle and avid display of folk belief and
superstitions, the people in Gonzalez's stories existed in a milieu far from
the pace and worldly concerns of contemporary life. However, contrary to
the author's assessment that "these stories could easily strike the reader as
belonging to a place removed from the space and time he is familiar with",
his stories still speak to the present readers about the same qualities of
challenges and dangers inherent in life, the same eruptions of human
passions and feeling from grave circumstances, the same whimsicality of
life and nature. The details in his stories are the timeless, universal, and
scintillating details of human fragility and vulnerability against the forces of
nature and human conflict.
Group OTHER
six INFORMATIO
NS
SUMMARY
Tatay came home from Malig with a surprise to Tarang
and it was a pig(a sow) . Now, Tarang has his sow to look
after. Nanay taught Tarang on how to make his pig tame.
Tatay then brought a trough that the kaingin had made.
While they're watching the pig eating off the trough
Nanay intrigued Tatay about the pig. Tatay said that the
pig was given by Paula for a reason Tarang has
something to look after; fatten and let it have a litter, then
all the better for both of them. Afterwards, they gave the
pig its food and pen. Tarang feeds the pig with rip
papayas, as well as green. Sometimes Tatay brought ubod
from the betel nut or the sugar palm and the soft parts to
which Nanay usually saved up for supper, letting the pig
have the rest.
SUMMARY
Tarang's family became very busy working in kaingin.
They were also fascinated with planting so to where the
people from the nearby the kaingins are engaged in. One
morning, instead of leaving Cris behind, Nanay took her
to the kaingin. That was the day Tatay left the hut very
early and returned after breakfast with a white pullet
under his arm and then he and Nanay had a quarrel. Tatay
bartered Nanay's camisa for a pullet. He said that it will
bring luck to them. He then brought it(its blood) to the
kaingin and use it for a ritual. Tio Longinos made a reed
cross. He added citronella, nails and ginger root for a
ritual. That evening they sat outside in the yard. They
watched the sky.
SUMMARY
There were no stars. Black night covered the world;
somewhere to the west, beyond the mountain range, rain
had come. Twice lightning tore at the darkness as though
a torch were being used to burn some dry underbrush in a
kaingin up there in the clouds. That night, Tia Orang
arrived at their home while the rain poured heavily. She
tend Nanay's belly. She ate supper with them talking
about Evil Ones and of Spirits and stuffs. Tarang
remembered the kaingin and Longinos and the citronella
and the nails and ginger root. They went to bed very
early. Tarang thought he should stay in one corner far
from Nanay. He was a man now, he felt. Many times
Tarang awoke. The thunderstorm came closer.
SUMMARY
In his mind, half-awake, Tarang thought the rain was
making music now, shaking songs off the swaying
treetops on the fringe of the kaingin. Tatay, too had heard
the music of the rain. Tarang listened more carefully. He
could hear he grunting. There were little noises too.
Squirming litter. It seemed that at this very hour the rice
grains too, would be pressing forward up the ash-covered
loam. He thought he caught the sound that the seeds also
made. The ground was not too wet. In his house, Tarang
struck a tree stump with his big toe; and the hurt was not
half as keen as it might have been, not half as sharp as his
hunger for knowing, for seeing with his own eyes how
life emerged from this dark womb of the land at this time
of night.
SIGNIFICANT
LEARNING
N.V.M
GONZALES
This story
represent how
family became
strong even
there's a
struggle that
happened in
their lives.
sheath (n.) - a cover for the
N.V.M
VOCABULARY blade of a knife or sword
pullet (n.) - a young hen,
especially one less than one
year old
knead (v.) - to work into
dough or paste with the
GONZALES
hands
underbrush (n.) - shrubs and
small trees forming the
undergrowth in a forest
trough (n.) -a long, narrow
open container for animals
to eat or drink out of
akimbo (adv.) - with hands
on the hips and elbows
turned outward
hempen (adj.) - made from
hemp fiber
Stave (n.) – any of the narrow
N.V.M
VOCABULARY strips of wood or narrow iron
plates placed edge to edge to
form the sides, covering, or
lining of a vessel or structure
frond (n.) -the leaf or leaf like GONZALES
part of a palm, fern, or similar
plant
Chaff (n.) – the seed coverings
and other debris separated
from the seed in threshing
grain
barter (v.) - to exchange (goods
or services) for other goods or
services without using money
threshold (n.) -a strip of wood,
metal, or stone forming the
bottom of a doorway and
crossed in entering a house or
room.
Thank you
