The Summer Solstice: Literary Analysis

The Summer Solstice

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived and became a sinner.” (II Timothy 2: 11-14)

Christianity is what most Filipinos believed in. Traditionally, in Philippines, women accept that they are under by men in terms of power and because it was said in the Bible for wives to submit to their husbands. Nowadays, it seems that everything may change because of one factor—the culture. According to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory, the human individual is considered to be at the center of a series of concentric circles. The elements in each circle influence the circles inside it. In this model, a person is directly influenced by the immediate environment—home, family, and peers. The immediate environment is influenced by the social and economic context. The social and economic context is influenced by the cultural context—the beliefs, values, and guidelines that people in a particular society tend to share. Filipinos are very devoted in culture, or in such traditions like feasts. In relation to that, Summer Solstice is a story of men vs. women which revolves in the cult of the Tadtarin, and how this tradition influenced an individual. How does the culture change the view of a wife—to be submissive—to her husband? Lupe, the wife of Don Paeng, was a fine and conservative woman. She has the image of a true Filipina with the way she dressed; she looked very young and elegant in her white frock, under the twirling parasol. Lupe is a caring wife to Don Paeng in simple way like sharing the parasol to her husband when they were in the procession of San Juan. Lupe started to think that women must be adored by men when Guido had started to flirt her. Guido confessed to Lupe how beautiful she is in his eyes and how he implored her. He even kissed the tips of her shoes as if she is a god. At home, Don Paeng asked Lupe if Guido was still bothering her; he also stated how he was embarrassed as a man when he saw Guido following her like a dog. From then on, Lupe kept on her mind that maybe, as a woman, she doesn’t only want to be loved and to be respected, but to be adored. Lupe’s curiosity turned her to be very eager to go to the Tadtarin that she is still insisting despite of Don Paeng forbidding her. The cult of Tadtarin is celebrated on three days: the feast of St. John and the two preceding days. On the first night, a young girl heads the procession; on the second, a mature woman; and on the third, a very old woman who dies and comes to life again. It was described in the story how everyone dances in these processions: The crowd parted, and up the street came the prancing, writhing women, their eyes wild, black shawls flying around their shoulders, and their long hair streaming and covered with leaves and flowers. But the Tadtarin, a small old woman with white hair, walked with calm dignity in the midst of the female tumult, a wand in one hand, a bunch of seedlings in the other. Behind her a group of girls bore aloft a little black image of the Baptist…

The old woman closed her eyes and bowed her head and sank slowly to her knees…. They covered their heads with their black shawls and began wailing softly, unhumanly [inhumanly]—a hushed, animal keening.

Lupe, perhaps, was hypnotized by the cult of the Tadtarin because she ran into the crowd of dancing women and began to do the same. The black shawls of the dancing women that had been mentioned twice and the black image of the Baptist can symbolize the demonic spirits. The fact that the women in the story worship the tree, and the men praise the image of San Juan, means committing idolatry to other gods. After those horrible rituals, it seems like Lupe changed into a different creature. The couple had an argument because Don Paeng is trying to give Lupe a whipping for she behaved like lewd woman in that ritual. Lupe explained her side and now, she made up her mind that she has the power over Don Paeng when she even took seeing her husband kneeling down and saying that he adored her, and that despised Don Paeng being a man. In conclusion, it shows that the culture, which is the Tadtarin, took a great part in the changes happened to Lupe, who is a simple wife before. The culture influenced the community which influenced the people around Lupe, particularly Guido and Amada who directly influenced Lupe to alter her view from being submissive to being supreme over Don Paeng. What God says is for the wives to submit to their husbands, as is fitting in Him (Colossians 3:18); however, it does not mean that a wife should follow her other half like a “dog”, because we are all equal in the eyes of the Lord.