AN ANALYSIS OF THE NOVEL

WITHOUT SEEING THE DAWN

Of

JOANNE LEE B. CAMBA

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Analysis about the Author -------------------------------------------- 1

II. Characters and Characterization ------------------------------------ 2

III. Synopsis of the Novel --------------------------------------------------- 3

IV. Literary Devices employed -------------------------------------------- 5

A. Classical Literary Devices ----------------------------------------- 6
B. Figurative Language ------------------------------------------------ 7
C. Literary Symbols ---------------------------------------------------- 9

V. Tone of the Author ----------------------------------------------------- 10

VI. Mood of the Author ---------------------------------------------------- 10

VII. Theme ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 11

 ANALYSIS ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In the late ‘50’s Javellana’s short stories were published in Manila Times magazine. One of
this is his story entitled “Transition.” He had fought as a guerrilla in a war against the
Japanese invaders, after World War II. He graduated from the University of the Philippines
College of Law in 1948. He had published a first novel in the US 10,000 miles away that
became a bestseller of sorts. Javellana lived most of his life in Iloilo where he was born
1918, only 22 years after Jose Rizal's execution in distant Manila in 1896. When the young
man was moved to write a novel about his country and people, he quite naturally picked as
his book’s title a line from a speech by a character in Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. Javellana
stayed in the U.S. after the war ended in 1945, and like the man in “the flying trapeze,”
came out with the book a scant two years later in 1947. The novel became an instant
bestseller in the US and in Manila because of the interest of the U.S. in a country and people
who were bombed on the same “day of infamy” (although on different dates) in Dec. 1941.

Javellana never published another book or novel in Manila or in New York. The writer from
La Paz, Iloilo City in the Visayas died in 1977 at the age of 59. For three decades (1947 to
1977) he led a brief but celebrated life as writer-novelist. Fifty-five years after his first novel,
twenty-five years after his death, he has been one of the—if not the most neglected Filipino
writer.

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 CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION

CARDING (husband of Lucing, son of Tatay Juan)

 A tall well-built young man and handsome, strong, industrious, respectful and
honest young man, hardworking, hot-tempered at times

LUCING (wife of Carding, daughter of Teniente Paul)

 Loving, loyal and a caring wife, lovely, hardworking

ROSING (lover of Carding, a slut)

 Pretty, adorable, irresponsible, brave

TENIENTE PAUL (Father of Lucing, teniente del barrio of Manhayang)

 Shows great love to his town Manhayang, a sentimentalist person

TATAY JUAN (father of Carding)

 Thrifty, hardworking, and an ever supportive father

MANONG MARCELO (an orator, debater, storyteller of Manhayang)

 Brilliant, has answers of many things

GONDOY (Carding’s cousin)

 Lump, a man of honor

RUBEN (a friend of Carding, lover of Alicia)

 Patient and an understanding companion, brother, and lover

INDAY PICAT (neighbour of Lucing and Carding)

 Hefty woman, loves scattering gossips to the neighbourhood

LUIS (Son of the landlord of Mang Juan)

 Nice young man, handsome

NESTONG (an informer of the Japanese)

 Traitor, a gambler

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 SYNOPSIS

The novel "Without Seeing the Dawn" first published in 1947, is set in a small farming village
called Manhayang, Sta. Barbara, somewhere in Negros. Like most rural baranggays, the
hardworking and closely-knit village folk there had simple needs, simple wants, and simple
dreams. They were living their own simple lives when the violence of war reached their
place and brought death to their village, their homes and their hearts.

Here revolves the story of one Ricardo Suerte, also called Carding, son of Juan Suerte. An
industrious, strong and sometimes quick-tempered young man, he aspired to marry sweet
Lucia, the daughter of the teniente del barrio. Though his father thought he was not yet
prepared and had wished to send him to school, he gave his blessing to the decision of his
son. He consented to asking Lucia's hand from her parents in the traditional pamamanhikan,
accompanied by the village's best orator and the godmother of the lass. After agreeing to
the conditions of the village chief, the marriage was set. Tatay Juan gathered up almost all
of his hard-earned savings for the dowry and expenses for the wedding feast. Meantime,
Carding excitedly built their house despite the advice of the elderly- that building one's
house in May will bring misfortune to its inhabitants.

And so it came to pass that after the grand wedding and the feast that followed- which was
even attended by their Representate (Representative)- the newlyweds lived happily on the
land entrusted to Tatay Juan by Don Diego, but not ever after. Misfortune struck early when
their first child was stillborn. A more difficult trial came when Lucing disgraced herself, her
family and her husband by the temptation of a houseguest-Luis, the son of their landlord.
Caught naked, he was beaten up by the strong, angry husband whose honor and pride were
hurt. The couple patched things up, but the land that Carding and Juan Suerte had been
tilling for a very long time was given to another tenant.

With no land to till, the pair tried their luck in the city. There, in Iloilo, Carding met Rosing
and Nestong. The latter was his fellow stevedore and union member, and the former, a
prostitute besotted with him, and also the reason why his wife left him and returned to
their barrio. Soon, Carding followed Lucing with news that the Representante entrusted
them with land to till in Badlan. Lucing too, had news for her husband: she was again
pregnant.

They moved to Badlan and worked harder than ever. They were blessed not only by a
promise of a bountiful harvest, but also with a healthy son they named Crisostomo. Sadly,
their landlord sold the land, and they were given time to harvest what they sowed.
Misfortune was like a shadow though. A great flood destroyed everything that they had-
harvest and carabao as well.

Wanting to own their own piece of land, they were convinced to move to Mindanao, but
Carding was drafted for military service. When he returned, he was delighted to find his wife

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heavy with another child. Misfortune welcomed him again as he was told that Tatay Juan
and Crisostomo died of some illness. Little did he know that the Japanese soldiers who
attacked their village killed his father and son and raped his wife. When he found out the
truth, he became like a fearsome madman that even his wife and mother-in-law thought
him to be bad. As his neighbours, relatives and friends in barrio Manhayang were tortured,
raped and massacred by the Japanese soldiers, Carding too became a seemingly heartless
executioner to his enemies, and not even his friend nor the brother of his mother-in-law
were spared. He also almost killed the child that his wife had just delivered, were its not
born dead. For that, Lucing was so enraged that she sent him away and wished him dead.

The Japanese ordered everyone to enter a collective barrio or else be considered guerrilla
supporters and be shot. But the villagers of Manhayang also refused to be considered
enemies of their own sons, and so they decided to evacuate in barrios farther away.
However, Lucing was hesitant to go. She was waiting to see her husband despite everything,
knowing that he will be leading the suicide attack to the Japanese garrison. When they did
see each other, Carding asked for her forgiveness and left her cash he had as he bade her
farewell. In the end, Lucing refused to flee for she knew that she was still his wife, duty-
bound to receive the corpse of her beloved husband.

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CLASSICAL
LITERARY
DEVICES
 Classical Literary Devices
Sound /s/

Carding clucked his tongue smartly and the water buffalo came to a stop, its large hoods
firmly planted apart in the deep furrows of earth, perspiration standing in glistening drops
upon its black cavernous nostrils.

They shook their carved black horns from side to side and made a great splash as they
rushed into the water.

FORESHADOWING

“Raising a house in the month of May,” they pronounced oracularly, tracing slowly the
printed word with grimy, broken fingernails on their much-handled almanacs, “will saddle
the owner of that house with ill-luck. Misfortune will hound his heels and he will drink his fill
from the cup of misery.” The author uses foreshadowing to state what might happen to the
next flow of the story to prepare the reader.

But the old women, looking out of their windows at the house passed by, nudged each
other and wishpered, “Didn’t I tell you so? Did not I say that Carding would meet will ill-
luck?” and snatching the Almanac from the wall, they hurriedly turned its pages and read
the prophetic words again, “Raising a house in the month of May will saddle the owner of
that house with ill-luck. Misfortune will hound his heels and he will drink his fill from the cup
of misery.” they looked at each other and smiled malignantly. “Perhaps this is only the
beginning,” they piously, shivering with malicious delight. – This above statement gives the
readers assurance of the possibility of that event.

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 FIGURATIVE SPEECH
PERSONIFICATION

 Overhead, high upon the branches of the silent trees perched rare orchids like slim,
green birds with a plumage of brilliant white.
 “He is never taken by surprise whose eyes know no sleep and whose ears are bent to
hear the tales the wind whispers to the grass. Be more careful.”
 Shadows hugged the little wildwood and he felt safe and secure.
 His small but thick-lidded eyes were set deep above his cheek bones in a slight
Chinese slant and seemed to be laughing even when he was not in mirth unsteady
flames flickered through the open window into the hushed darkness outside like the
baleful red eyes of the kapre, the evil spirit which they say haunts men on dark
nights
 He would tell him how the earth which his shining steel plow share turned up to the
sun had become browner and sweet-smelling, the grass greener and soft under his
bare feet, how sweetly the birds sang and how the bright stars winked at him on
sleepless nights like shameless sluts from the city.
 Pensively he fingered the white veil which Lucing had worn during the wedding and
the orange blossom crown of wax, cold and dead at his touch.
 Such in a drowsy light.
 The bamboo trees, which had shed most of their leaves, stood upright like the
skeletons of giant fishes, and the tobacco plants, hang in the barnlike sheds for
aging, were like group of fox dancers poised on their toes and holding their skirts
high.
 The heavy silence of twilight hung in the air.
 Then you will say, perhaps, that it was just the sighing of the passing wind among the
branches of the sea.
 It was on a night as this, when the moon was sleeping on the silvered treetops, like a
buxom white woman.
 It even reminded him of the night before when he looked out of Rosing’s window
and watched the sleeping city.
 And the rain comes in through my roof and I can hear the wind laugh on stormy days
in each crack and hole in the walls.
 High upon the branches of the silent trees.

SIMILE

 “He is indeed like a prince who finally caught the golden Adarna and married the
beautiful princess in the play.”
 The midwife, tall and spare, with abundant hair like the untrimmed mane of a horse,
had never married.
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 Huge billows of clouds scudded to the south like a flock of angry geese.
 That struck him like a thunder clap.
 She was a pretty woman with white skin and her mouth was very red as if she had
bitten on a bloody hunk of meat.
 She was a short woman with a beard and as stout as a fattened hog.
 But now, standing there, she looked as beautiful as fairy: Her lips were red as a
gumamela flower in full bloom, her small face was white and her cheeks were like
pink rosebuds. Her eyes, large and black and a little mysterious, reproached him
lovingly.
 The lights cast a pinkish, unreal glow upon their faces and half-closed eyes as they
embraced each other tightly and glided across the floor like elusive dreams.
 He opened his eyes like a medium waking from a trance.
 But her half of the trunk was empty, like the socket from which the eye had been
gouged out.
 Maria, the widowed mother of the twins, stood there grim-visaged and pale, like a
terrible angel of vengeance.
 He was only eighteen years old but already he was tall, as wide as a house, and he
had big strong arms like those of the town blacksmith. He could carry a fat sack of
rice about as easily as the fecund women of his village carried their babies at their
hips.
 “America is a nation of big, sprawling cities strung together by hands of concrete and
steel. America is a place where the buildings, like giants, brush their shoulders
against the smoky skies, where the bridges are like fairy rainbows of steel girdling
the seas to the ends of the world. America is a land where people burrow into the
earth like toads and rats, glide upon it like snakes and lizards, and fly in the air like
bats and crows.”
 His heart pounding against his breast was like the distant booming of the sea as it
lashed upon the surf.
 Her hair clung in his wisps to her moist forehead. When he laid palm on her face her
perspiration was as chill as spring water.
 In the evening when the three-quarters moon, like a bite of ripe papaya, gleamed
brightly upon the Chinese blue plate that was the sky, the youths, with their fingers
lightly touching the strings of their guitars, paused to look up at the heaven as a song
died on their lips.
 Misfortune had always followed at his heels like a faithful shadow.
 Tomatoes as big as a child’s fist and as red as a coxcomb. I see your newly hatched
chicks scratching among the alogbate leaves.

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 LITERARY SYMBOLS

 Cow -- This cow was slaughtered at the wedding of Carding and Lucing. This shows
that an important event like a wedding is prepared grandiosely. The cow served as
the offering and the feast for the wedding.

 White Pig – (Purity; to purify) “Find a pig that is all white with not a spot of black on
it. Roast it. We’re going to use it to appease the evil spirit.”
 Concrete and steel – signifies America’s strength.
 Dawn – this symbolizes the hope of the Filipino of attaining the peace and
independence over their native land which sought them to go thru numerous battles
even with the succeeding downfall and miseries that besought them along the way.

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 TONE and MOOD of the AUTHOR
TONE

In the first part of the story, the tone of the author is quite happy. Because in the first part,
the author stresses the occurrence of Carding’s wedding, the contentment of the people in
the village of Manhayang; the joyous laughter of the children; the stillness of night; a vast
land to till, these signifies the peace of the soul that once the people in Manhayang had
bore within them before. As you go over the flow, tragedies smoothly occurred in the life of
Carding, the tone slowly became moody. His first child was stillborn, he lost his land, and
when they went to the city to try their luck there but of no avail and his wife left him
without a word. Carding, being hopeful, gone back to their village to settle the things
between him and his wife and to bade farewell to their family because they will be going to
Callinog to till the land that Representative Sola had given them. In this chapter, there came
the hope for a new beginning of a better life. For few years in Callinog, they had led a simple
yet fruitful life, Carding even built his house, and he even had his child who’s healthy and
stout which they named, Crisostomo. Here, as the scenes from this chapter evolves, the
tone from being moody is shifting to be somewhat at ease and is happy. But after the
author uses foreshadowing of what might happen after the flood (there’ll be a big flood
which would destroy different towns and they will fled), succeeding disaster and great
miseries had followed Carding’s back like a faithful shadow. From this chapter to the end,
the tone expresses extreme sadness.

MOOD

The author was able to convey to the reader the heartaches that Lucing felt when she
betrayed her husband Carding. The author explicitly told how Carding found out that several
Japanese soldiers raped Lucing. It showed depth on the situation where the town of
Manhayang has gone thru. With the help of the creative and expressive manner of the
writer to give every characteristic, plots, situations and events live with emotions; the
readers are able to feel the intense agony of the story.

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 THEME
“Money and lust can rob you of happiness, but Education will secure you with a good life.”
- Carding was supposed to study in the city with his cousin Gondoy but he chose to
remain in their village and marry Lucing. Few years later after their marriage, he led
a desolate life because he doesn’t have a land to till and there’s no good thing to
work in the city.
- Attaining education is a matter of importance, it may not make you rich but it will
make you unignorant, it would widen your views and perspective of the things and
the world.

“Marry when you’re old enough so you can earn more lessons from life, and let it be your
foundation in building a harmonious family.”
- Because he married early, he wasn’t able to know what and how to do in dealing
with various problems. There’s so much chaotic events Carding had faced (when he
caught Lucing with Luis making out, when he lost the land his tilling, when he doesn’t
have job...) and he always seeks the advises of his father and the elders.
- Marrying at early age would lead to a disaster. You don’t have quite a lot of
experience yet to teach you the principles of life.

“Marry the one you love talking with; a company you enjoy a lot.”
- Lucing was so shy to even talk with Carding about what she feels. When there’s a
problem, she kept it within herself. Lately, their relationship didn’t work out and it
ended up gloomy.
- Love isn’t enough; sometimes it requires a deal of interaction with one another. It
would be the way to understanding.

“Do not lean to your own understanding; let the elders be of guide.”
- Carding sometimes hesitates to listen to the teaching of the elders, at the last part
of the novel he’s full of regret but there’s no turning back now.
- Even being the wisest among the brainiacs of the world, you still need to lend a
listening ear from the outside. Well, they might not know what you know. But then
again,you might not know what they know.

“Getting married is not like a handful of rice that when you eat it and get your tongue
burnt; you’ll spill it out.” [Ang pakikipag-asawa ay hindi parang kanin na kapag ika’y
napasao, iluluwa.]

- Because of the subsequent miseries Carding is going through, and maybe because
he’s still young enough, he can easily be fooled with tempting situations.
- Marriage is sacred, it requires a great time of deciding. If you went on it, there’s no
way out. You have to deal with it, face it, whatever the situation and consequences
would be.

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