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De Vera, JulesOctober 19, 2019

Dingal, Shannen Pearl C.

ABLCS 2-1

An Analysis of Julia Salas’ Character and Her Comparison to a Dead Star

Abstract

Dead Stars is a short story written by Paz Marquez Benitez. This story is about a man named Alfredo having an affair with Julia Salas despite already having a relationship with a woman named Esperanza. When he was married, Alfredo was separated from Julia for a long time. When they got to see each other again, he realizes that he no longer feels the same way about her and that all these years he had been seeing the light of dead stars long extinguished yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens.

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The researchers of the study analyzed the character of Julia Salas in order to gain an understanding of her comparison to a dead star and her character as a whole. This study only focused on the character analysis of Julia Salas. It does not include the analyses of other characters in the story.

The gathered data for this study was collected from the text. No theory was used for the analysis of this study.

Keywords

Introduction

“Dead Stars” was written back in 1925 by the author Paz Marquez Benitez, it is a short story that gave birth to the modern Filipino-English language. This is a story of “what if”, Alfredo who is now married to his wife Esperanza once again meets Julia Salas, the woman he fell in love with in the past. However, he discovers that his feelings for Julia are no longer the same and that all these years he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens. This study focuses on the deeper analysis of Julia Salas’ character. It aims to find the explanation of Julia’s comparison to a star. Character analyses are an effective way to understand a character in any literature, it provides detailed information to their characterization. In some literature characters are just as important as its theme. They can be impactful in way that doing an analysis to a particular character may produce new perspectives in the literature. Character Analysis focus on the inner workings of a character their motivation, personality and how these factors lead to the end of the work CITATION The19 l 1033 (The Writing Center). Her behavior, actions, interactions with the other characters and her attitude to each of them will be examined in order to have a better understanding of her character as a whole.

To conduct the character analysis, close reading of the text is necessary. Close reading a text may feel like over-analyzing, however close reading is a process that is about getting as much information possible (Character Analysis). The metaphors used in the story will be analyzed to understand Julia’s characterization. In recent decades, scholars have considered metaphors as instruments of meaning making and how people construct reality. “Metaphors, which are figures of speech used to compare one thing to another, signal more complex meaning making and thus can be useful as a means of qualitative data collection and analysis” (Redden 1).

Review of Related Literature

Recent study by Redden entitled Metaphor Analysis showed how metaphor can be interpreted in different ways and purposes. Aristotle described metaphors as decorative elements designed to dress up language (Redden 2). It is a literary device commonly used to put spice on the text and to make ordinary language special. But more than that, metaphors provide an opportunity for readers or audiences to engage with the text as well. Redden states that metaphors go further and equate unrelated concepts in ways that require audiences to think about the main object of comparison in new and different ways (2). In the short story, the use of the dead star as a metaphor in comparison with Julia Salas’ character sparks interests as well as the curiosity of the readers. Metaphors in other words are ornamental but also meaningful at the same time. It can’t be put in a text for the sole purpose of ornamentation but to provide other meanings to the context as well. Understanding metaphors also requires consideration of context (2). It is important to pay close attention to the tone, context, and intention of the metaphor itself so as not to cause misinterpretation. In the short story, it was evident that the use of the dead stars as a metaphor was intended to compare it to Julia Salas. Redden also states that metaphor analysis is useful for uncovering hidden or ambiguous meanings (6). However in the story, the meaning behind the metaphor wasn’t really hidden for it was explained somehow by Alfredo: “So all these years–since when?–he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens”.

Analyzing the characters of a story is necessary for the readers to have a fuller and deeper understanding of the whole context of the story. Analyzing a specific character in a story can also affect how a reader perceives the situation he or she is reading. In this study, Julia Salas is the one being analyzed in order to have a better understanding of her character. A research entitled Studying Literary Character and Character Networks studied what a character is based on different definitions by various scholars and how analyzing characters can greatly affect readers’ experience and perception. Characters are the media through which readers come to terms with new kinds of social experiments (Piper et al. 1). Julia Salas’ character enables the readers to see how it was in that situation that Julia was in. By doing that, it makes the readers experience things without being actually there. The meaning of any character is a function of his or her relationships with respect to all the other characters introduced over the course of a story (Woloch). Julia’s relationship with Alfredo tells how much of a respectful woman she is. She became friends with him and get comfortable. But when she learned about Alfredo having a fianc? already, she didn’t show anger, rather she became formal with him and respected both him and his fianc?. The story was told in a third person point of view and the readers had access to the thoughts of the characters. Julia’s thoughts, however, wasn’t really focused much in the story. But that one part of the story where he congratulate Alfredo for his upcoming wedding, showed what Julia felt after she learned about it. By that sudden withdrawal of comfortableness, it can be an implication that she was disappointed and hurt at the same time. Because for one, she thought that there was something going on between the two of them and that she herself is already developing interest for Alfredo and it was evident in her lines and actions in the story and her reaction after learning about Alfredo’s marriage.

Decades after the short story was written, Dead Stars still captures the hearts of its readers. The faltering love of Alfredo towards Esperanza, his girlfriend for four years and fianc? and the development of his feelings for Julia, a woman he just met. In the story, the attraction between Alfredo and Julia is a forbidden and taboo phenomenon. They both felt is to be real but never accepted their mutual attraction nor confessed it (Dead Stars Analysis). Both of them were in denial of their own feelings at first. Alfredo soon accepted his feelings but were too afraid to confess. Afraid of what the society has to say. But for a moment he thought of actually breaking free from the social ordains but still, he didn’t. Characters like Alfredo and Julia are fighting not just against the odds fate has put before them but also their circumstances, public and moral obligations (Dead Stars Analysis). Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first study that has done a detailed analysis of Julia Salas’ character. Julia Salas is one of the main characters of the short story “Dead Stars” she is the sister-in-law of Judge del Valle and the woman Alfredo fell in love with. Based on the story, Julia Salas is a tall woman, her looks are not that outstanding, her eyebrows are clearly defined and she has modeled hips, she has brown skin that is a smooth rich brown. Aside from her good physical appearance she is also considerate, this trait of her was shown when she first met Alfredo.

Alfredo called her Miss del Valle throughout the evening.

He was puzzled that she should smile with evident delight every time he addressed her thus. Later Don Julian informed him that she was not the Judge’s sister, as he had supposed, but his sister-in-law, and that her name was Julia Salas.

To his apology, she replied, “That is nothing, each time I was about to correct you, but I remembered a similar experience I had once before.”

“A man named Manalang–I kept calling him Manalo. After the tenth time or so, the young man rose from his seat and said suddenly, ‘Pardon me, but my name is Manalang, Manalang.’ You know, I never forgave him!”

He laughed with her.

“The best thing to do under the circumstances, I have found out,” she pursued, “is to pretend not to hear, and to let the other person find out his mistake without help.”

Unlike Alfredo, Julia Salas is energetic and vibrant, however sometimes she can be enigmatic as well. This was demonstrated when she was talking to Alfredo.

“Up here I find–something–“

He and Julia Salas stood looking out into the the quiet night. Sensing unwanted intensity, laughed, woman-like, asking, “Amusement?”

“No; youth–its spirit–“

“Are you so old?”

“And heart’s desire.”

Was he becoming a poet, or is there a poet lurking in the heart of every man?

“Down there,” he had continued, his voice somewhat indistinct, “the road is too broad, too trodden by feet, too barren of mystery.”

“Down there” beyond the ancient tamarinds lay the road, upturned to the stars. In the darkness the fireflies glimmered, while an errant breeze strayed in from somewhere, bringing elusive, faraway sounds as of voices in a dream.

“Mystery–” she answered lightly, “that is so brief–“

“Not in some,” quickly. “Not in you.”

“You have known me a few weeks; so the mystery.”

“I could study you all my life and still not find it.”

“So long?”

“I should like to.”

Julia Salas is a dynamic character, because she has a change in her personality in the story, this was shown during her first meeting with Alfredo, her attitude towards him was formal but throughout their reoccurring meetings she got closer to Alfredo and started to treat him as a friend. They even went on the beach together when she was invited. However, her personality towards Alfredo reverted back to being formal when she learned of his upcoming wedding.

“Mr. Salazar,” she broke into his silence, “I wish to congratulate you.”

Her tone told him that she had learned, at last. That was inevitable.

“For what?”

“For your approaching wedding.”

Some explanation was due her, surely. Yet what could he say that would not offend?

“I should have offered congratulations long before, but you know mere visitors are slow about getting the news,” she continued.

He listened not so much to what she said as to the nuances in her voice. He heard nothing to enlighten him, except that she had reverted to the formal tones of early acquaintance. No revelation there; simply the old voice–cool, almost detached from personality, flexible and vibrant, suggesting potentialities of song.

Near the end of the story, Alfredo was already married to Esperanza and for a long time he was separated from Julia, however when he visited Julia’s hometown for a case he was working on, he reminisced the moments when he was with her and wondered if she can still remember him. Alfredo went to find Julia’s house and when he saw her again, he discovers that his feelings are not the same anymore.

She had not changed much–a little less slender, not so eagerly alive, yet something had gone. He missed it, sitting opposite her, looking thoughtfully into her fine dark eyes. She asked him about the home town, about this and that, in a sober, somewhat meditative tone. He conversed with increasing ease, though with a growing wonder that he should be there at all. He could not take his eyes from her face. What had she lost? Or was the loss his? He felt an impersonal curiosity creeping into his gaze. The girl must have noticed, for her cheek darkened in a blush.

Gently–was it experimentally?– he pressed her hand at parting; but his own felt undisturbed and emotionless. Did she still care? The answer to the question hardly interested him.

So that was all over.

Why had he obstinately clung to that dream?

So all these years–since when?– he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens.

The researchers of this study aim to find the explanation for Julia’s comparison to a star which was taken from Alfredo’s perspective.

Based on the data gathered from the text, the explanation for her comparison was that, stars are vibrant, bright and compared to other heavenly bodies they easily distinguished for their unique characteristics. As for Julia, she was a radiant woman, she was pretty and full of life which was seen by Alfredo this happened when they visited the beach.

There was a breeze from the water. It blew the hair away from her forehead, and whipped the tucked-up skirt around her straight, slender figure. In the picture was something of eager freedom as of wings poised in flight. The girl had grace, distinction. Her face was not notably pretty; yet she had a tantalizing charm, all the more compelling because it was an inner quality, an achievement of the spirit. The lure was there, of naturalness, of an alert vitality of mind and body, of a thoughtful, sunny temper, and of a piquant perverseness which is sauce to charm.

Moreover, Alfredo’s relationship with Esperanza could also be taken into. Alfredo was long engaged with her and because of the time that they’ve spent together, they were expected to get married eventually. However, for Alfredo, it seems that he already became too comfortable with her and the spark that they once had, eventually cooled down, to which they are both at fault, both are placid when it comes to their relationship.

This was not the case however with Julia Salas, Alfredo’s calm and placid personality was in stark contrast to her lively and vibrant personality. This difference in them could have excited Alfredo leading him to this comparison.