“And
on that warm evening
I
told myself,
That’s
where I want to be,
in
West Virginia, or New York,
or
San Francisco”
Growing up, I have always been mesmerized about America
and everything that has to do with it. Hearing my relatives talk so highly of
that country makes me want to go there myself and see what all the fuss is
about. That has been my goal even until now. The United States of America has
long been considered as the ‘Land of Opportunity’, for the main reason that
even at the moment, there are still millions of immigrants who are leaving
their own homes to find something in that country not readily available in
their own: an opportunity to succeed, according to Congressman Markwayne Mullin
in an article from his website, dated 2017. A large part of that success is
defined by having a job, which is clearly accessible in the US. Aside from those
being mentioned, America is also filled with towering skyscrapers and
astonishing tourist destinations that could not be found anywhere else in this
world, like the Empire State Building in New York, and the Grand Canyon in
Northern Arizona. As we, Filipinos, continue to dream about setting foot in
that dreamlike country one day, we surely could not help but assess our own
lives and wonder why our lives aren’t that thriving as the Americans’.
Comparing one’s self to others is probably one of
Filipinos’ most infamous attribute. We tend to evaluate people’s lives and see what
they have that we don’t, and vice versa. Although this deed that we sometimes
unconsciously do might lead to lack of motivation and losing faith over ourselves,
among other effects, comparisons could also serve as motivators for us to work
harder in order to achieve our dreams. We can attain these ambitions through
the means of shaping our mindset into focusing on what we want to happen. This
statement can be implied from the poem entitled ‘America’, beautifully authored
by Simeon Dumdum, Jr. The aforementioned piece shows the main character, whose
name wasn’t mentioned, aspiring to make it to America; this dream being fueled
by the cousin’s constant descriptions of the foreign country. Also mentioned in the poem is the accent of
the speaker’s cousin, which the former compared to how actors in the movies
speak, and how Ronald Reagan communicate on the radio.
Using the formalist criticism, it can be observed
that the author utilized words with meanings that aren’t hard to comprehend,
which could lead to the overall explanation of the poem being literal and straightforward.
This does not immediately mean that metaphors and symbolisms couldn’t be drawn
out from the text. In the lines “Because cousin says everything there is big
and cheap — big chickens, big eggs, big buildings…” this could mean that there
really are bigger chickens and eggs and buildings in that country, literally,
but they could also signify how much bigger the available resources are, when
it comes to abundance. The word ‘big’ could also be seen as ‘better’, because
of the fact that America is a first-world country with a high standard of
living. In the last line, however, we could observe a change of direction,
although it’s a bit vague. “And he was about to name other roses but the moon
was rising and it was bigger than in America,” suggests that although America
really is great and astounding, the ‘moon’ was of much higher value than the
country. The ‘moon’ could represent the advantage Filipinos have; that while the Philippines may
lack in a lot of things, we, Filipinos, still have an edge on other countries
in other aspects.
In Dumdum’s piece, though his portrayal of America
isn’t entirely wrong, could also come off as somehow biased. We can discern
that all the presented information are only what makes America great. There
isn’t any line that shows the country’s undesirable aspects, and if people who
have only limited knowledge about that country would come across with this
poem, they may be misguided into thinking that America is picture-perfect. However, let us still consider the thought
that this might just be one of the author’s intentions so as to really
emphasize the differences between that first-world country and the Philippines.
Though brief and concise, ‘America’ is still somehow
enigmatic. Just by reading the lines, I can’t really tell if Dumdum intended to
write it that way- seemingly understandable but is really not, or the poem just
didn’t really have that much of a depth as I first believed it to be. Even so,
we could still pick up the implication that the author intended to teach us
that it is alright to be in awe of other countries, or generally other places,
but let us not forget to also be proud of our own. Rather than complaining on what we
don’t have that others do, let us instead focus on ourselves; concentrate on
how we can improve so as to reach the point where we won’t be needing
comparisons to know that we have worth just like everyone else.
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