BSEDEN 3-1D
A Literary Analysis on Welostit by Romina Gonzalez
Welostit (We Lost It) is a sad-funny story made by one of the Philippines renowned author, Romina Gonzalez. It won the 1997 Palanca Awards (3rd Prize for the short story category). The story is about a love affair between a 35 years old woman who fell in love into his favorite teen-aged nephew’s best friend (Mike) that happened on the early 90’s were EDSA Revolution already happened. Their age gap caused a big issue every time they go out in the sophisticated city of Manila that time, especially to the people whom they know. The speaker in the story is the woman. They had a child but they lost it when it died “…the baby looked just like me; we had the same belly button. I smiled dazedly and was lulled by Demerol to return to sleep, but not without hearing you whisper, “Welostit,” which I thought was what you wanted to name her… I was told that my baby had “expired” because of a previously undetected congenital heart ailment.” (that’s why the story was entitled Welostit).
I will analyze this story using deconstruction with little inputs of psychoanalytic. Using deconstruction, I will try to provide readings that are not normally seen or questioned. I will use the psychoanalytic approach to reveal how the main characters handled their id, ego and superego. The id is present at birth as the repository of basic instincts, which Freud called "Triebe" ("drives"): unorganised and unconscious, it operates merely on the 'pleasure principle', without realism or foresight. The ego develops slowly and gradually, being concerned with mediating between the urgings of the id and the realities of the external world; it thus operates on the 'reality principle'. The super-ego is held to be the part of the ego in which self-observation, self-criticism and other reflective and judgmental faculties develop. The ego and the super-ego are both partly conscious and partly unconscious