what is the main idea of the essay home of the ashfall

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Protected: Home of the Ashfall essay by John Wigley: Summary and Analysis

Written Close Analysis of Home of the Ashfall

Home of the Ashfall is an essay written by John Jack Wigley. It focuses on his experiences and insights during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcanic caldera in the Zambales Mountains, located on the tripoint boundary of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga, all in Central Luzon on the northern island of Luzon. Pinatubo was heavily eroded and unobtrusive from view. The dense forests covering the volcano supported a population of several thousand indigenous Aetas. Its eruptive history was undisclosed to most before the pre-eruption volcanic activities of 1991, just before it erupted on June 15, 1991.

II. Condense

Mount Pinatubo erupted on June 15, 1991. The eruption was recorded as the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th Century and the largest eruption to affect a densely populated area. Ashfall affected almost the entire island of Luzon, and even reached the neighboring countries of Malaysia and Vietnam. Moreover, Typhoon Yunya worsen the situation by bringing with it heavy rains and strong winds.

John Jack Wigley, a management trainee at Pizza Hut Harrison Plaza, had lived in Angeles City for more than two decades, but he was based in Manila to work. Weeks before the eruption, he already read several news and warnings about Mt. Pinatubo. He never knew that there was a volcano in the Zambales mountain range, and he underestimated the strength of the volcano because he thought that volcanoes were conspicuous mountains like Mayon and Halcon.

One day, John Jack Wigley went to see a film; afterwards, he saw parked cars covered with ash when he went outside. He also thought that it was finally snowing because of the streets covered with ash. Wigley got worried that his family might be unsafe in Angeles City. He went to Angeles City on his day-off but a bridge had collapsed so he had to cross the river. People were having a hard time crossing the river. Some people were lining up to cross the river by stepping on coconut trunks and wooden poles attached from one end to another, but he saw barkers holding wooden chairs transporting people to the other side. He paid one barker 15 pesos to get him through. He realized that when calamities happen, the poor transform because of the services they offer while the higher class get too affected by them.

As he was walking towards his house, he thought what the future would hold for that city. He hoped that they would get past all those things soon. He was so worried until he got to his house knowing that his family was safe. He saw his Mother carrying load, telling him that she will go to Dau to bring the load to his ate. He was dumbfounded that his mother was not afraid to cross the river telling him, “Only the old ones are afraid to cross the river.”

III. Culture Reflected

One culture that can be reflected from the text is the abundance of volcanoes in the Philippines; not all countries have volcanoes. The Philippines belong to the Pacific Ring of Fire where most of the volcanoes in the world are found.

Another culture that can be reflected from the text is how most people in the provinces work for a living. Most of them leave their hometown to work in cities especially Manila. Some workers go home during their day-off to spend time with their families.

The dialect of the Kapampangan is also one of the culture that can be reflected from the text. Here in the Philippines, we have 175 dialects. This only states that our culture, especially our language is comprehensive and diverse unlike other countries which have one dialect only throughout their country.

Lastly, another culture that can be discerned is that the Filipino still smile and think positively in spite of devastating calamities. Some people in other countries are too affected during catastrophes; they mostly get depressed.

Texts always include cultures that give the readers idea about the setting or environment of the texts. Texts enable people to know more about the similarities and differences of their culture among others. The text successfully included the authentic culture of the Kapampangan and Filipino.

IV. Literary Technique

The essay is in the mode of first person narrative. The author speaks directly to his readers in this mode of storytelling so that the readers may feel an interaction with the author.

One technique that the author used is including their own dialect in the text, which is Kapampangan. The technique was used mainly because he wanted to emphasize that the Kapampangan have a unique way of talking to each other. The technique also enables the readers to be aware of the similarities and differences of their languages. Moreover, it lets his fellow Kapampangan to be able to relate to the author. Lastly, that technique was applied so that there is something different in that text that readers can remember.

Another technique that he used is applying humorous lines to the text. One amusing situation in the text is when he said that the barker thought he was a sissy. Another comical scenario in the text is when the barker said that he would be charged extra because of his weight. The technique was used for the readers to be enthusiastic and attached in reading the text. Another effect of this technique is also to cause readers to remember something distinct.

One more technique that he included is the use of figurative language which is done by most authors. One example of figurative language in the text is when the eruption of Mount Pinatubo is compared to a firecracker. Figurative language is used to better communicate with the readers because some ideas are too complicated. Figurative language also cause enjoyment on the reader and author.

The author started his text by first introducing the volcano that erupted, which is the main topic of the text. He later on narrated his life before the eruption took place. He explained how he managed the situation when the volcano already erupted. Most part of the text focuses on what happened after the eruption when he went to his hometown. Humor was profuse on that part. That part also focused on how Filipinos act after calamities. The Filpinos help and care for each other, especially their families. One thing I think that can be improved is that he should share more about how other Filipinos specifically acted based on what he experienced because he focused mostly about his own experiences.

Based on my observation, I can say that first person narrative mode of storytelling is irrefutably effective because readers can easily imagine what an author is experiencing. I can say that the author is successful in using the techniques because I felt enjoyment and enthusiasm upon reading the essay. Moreover, I can remember a lot of things about the text. The culture included in the text also caused me to know new things. Home of the Ashfall is overall a successful essay because it contains the quality the readers want to see in a text.

VI. Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pinatubo

alecdanielcruz

November 8, 2017

Close Analysis , Culture , Philippine Literary Works , Philippines , Summary

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Wigley’s ‘Home of the Ashfall’: Philippine literature’s equivalent of Almodovar’s ‘All About My Mother’

• BY Ian Rosales Casocot
• December 29, 2014

However you are starting out on the whole enterprise of reading, you will inevitably be taken in by that inimitable voice— part dramatic, part humorous— usually reserved for campfire stories, or gossip. That voice has the bewitchment of hooks.

This was also the case with Wigley’s first book, “Falling Into the Manhole” (2012), and of which his sophomore effort feels very much like a continuation. And thank God for that, because in that first volume of memoirs, we got compelling stories about Wigley growing up only a few meters away from Clark Air Base, where he was the illegitimate offspring of an American G.I., and soon learning to deal with the hardships of biracial existence and growing up being called “mestisong bangus,” among other things.

That particular biographical detail was what led him to write in the first place, which means issues of race is very much a part of his writerly identity.

“I have never read any memoir that reflected my own story,” he told me once.

Politics and humiliation

That story includes an incisive critique about our love affair with everything America.

In “American Visa,” one of “Ashfall’s” essays, Wigley sets about anatomizing the desperation we fall into lining up for the titular “prize” of the US Embassy. He brings an awareness to the politics and humiliation of the whole affair, this impossibly one-sided devotion we have to America.

There is a way of reading his first and second books, which is to think of the volumes as the linked novel of Wigley’s life, each essay a standalone chapter of an unfolding Dickensian existence. Or, if you like your cultural references local, each one an episode in the dramatic “teleserye” on his life.

Beginning in “Manhole,” there is, of course, the “Miss Saigon”-worthy story of Asian mother and American father, a G.I. who soon leaves for America, but not without leaving traces of hope and resentment in a son he has not seen.

Poor but plucky

Much of the first book is about growing up poor but plucky in the concrete maze of Angeles City—with the slight assurance that being the bright boy in class can lead to a brighter future—a theme continued in the second book.

“You could be President of the Philippines one day,” his mother tells little Jack in “Ashfall’s” first essay, “Getting Lost.”

Indeed, “Ashfall” can be said to be an elaboration of the themes of the first book—but this time around, there is a sure hand defining an arc to the narrative. Three essays into the book, and we know we are getting Philippine literature’s equivalent of Pedro Almodóvar’s “All about My Mother.”

The best of the essays is a distillation of the uncommon grace Wigley’s mother has gone through, and endured—from the harried life of being a single parent, to the painful battle with dementia that ultimately claimed her life.

Search of a father

These highlights resonate in Wigley’s own story, ostensibly the subject of the book. In the title essay, Wigley’s flagging determination to reach his hometown in the middle of the lahar deluge after Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption is challenged by his mother’s display of nonchalant fierceness at the end of the tale.

By the time we get to “Mother’s Passing,” we have come to know Wigley’s mother so fully, his grief over her death becomes our own.

And yet, the book—while glowing with maternal tribute—is also very much about the search for a father.

In “Peering through the Window,” the tale of a bus trip to the mother’s hometown becomes a quiet contemplation about the unexpected pangs of longing for a father figure.

In “The Fancy Dancer,” the story of an impromptu dance set to the tune of “One Way Ticket” in the rundown streets of Angeles becomes more than an attempt to humanize the surface of the city’s sleaze; it also provides a kind of coda for the book’s search of a father.

We see this theme more acutely in “Departures,” Wigley’s reflections on the Oscar-winning Japanese film of the same title, which ultimately becomes a meditation on fatherly absence.

Twist in shared fate

One must take note of the narrative whiplash that occurs regularly in his essays. You think Wigley is talking about one thing specifically—and then you realize he’s actually leading us to a revelation of a different sort.

This is clearly demonstrated in “The Admired Classmate,” where Wigley rhapsodizes the memory of an impeccably dressed, well-spoken classmate in grade school, only for us to be amused by the twist in their shared fate.

But this tendency is subtler in such pieces as “The Choice,” where he seems to recount the joyful occasion of a class excursion—only to spring on us a dark, sad punch coming from out of the blue.

Yet, despite the seriousness of his themes, Wigley remains a funny storyteller. His punchlines, often punctuating a heart-rending tale, are both deadly and welcome, as if to remind us that there is a certain freedom in choosing bemusement as a stance, and accept life for the cruel comedy that it is.

What Wigley has accomplished in the end is being a connoisseur of moments in memory. His words are succulent pieces of life’s all-seeing videogram, and the pictures he takes for us become universal images of our own recollections.

How does he know, for example, that many of us usually pretend we are watching a movie when we peer out of bus windows? His unique life becomes, in his telling, the tantalizing mirror to our own experiences—and that’s the very province of immersive literature.

“Home of the Ashfall” is available at the UST Bookstore (tel. 7313522, 4061611 loc. 8252, 8278) and Solidaridad Bookshop (Padre Faura Street near M. Adriatico Street, Ermita, Manila; tel. 2541068).

The author is an award-winning writer, a literature faculty member at Silliman University, and the workshop coordinator of the annual Silliman National Writers Workshop.

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Home of the ashfall

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