“The Pongo’s Dream” was an interesting read. The story of ‘a little man’ or also known as a pongo ( “a lowly house servant) may seem quite simple but is embedded with numerous symbolic scenes which relate to the strong sense of mistreatment in the feudal system where the identity of an individual determines one’s place in a society, and the inner ‘determination’ to desire for “independence and opposition (of the reality)” can be identified; for sure, many other representations are portrayed throughout the story.
When I read the first three pages before the pongo asked the master for a permission to speak about his dream, I was quite shocked at how the master treated the pongo with harsh actions and belittling words; from the way the master treats the pongo, the status plays a huge role during this time, and the detailed description such as “Stand on all fours…Walk sideways like a dog,” really showed how the servants and the pongos had to endure to survive under the rule of a master in a household. Until the pongo speaks up to talk, the master does not question, nor is curious about the pongo, rather the master commands the servant what to do. As the pongo shares his dream about the master and him laying dead together and comes into the judgement before the dear father, Saint Francis, he finally lets out his spiritual story; the two angels, one with the beauty (that was holding a golden honey cup), and the weak, feeble angel who brought along the gasoline, come into play, and the Father (Saint Francis) gave the order to let honey cover the ‘master’s’ body and the gasoline to the Pongo’s; then another order by the Father was: “Whatever the angels had to do with you is done. Now, lick each other’s bodies slowly, for all eternity,” and the old angel regained his strength and hope. I personally believe that in Pongo’s dream, the story of the pongo, represents that the outer side of a human means less than what is inside the person. Heart is more powerful and meaningful than the look; even though the pongo wears torn clothes, acts weak, and is obedient without questions, and does not talk much usually, I believe that he is constantly thinking and pondering about life and reality; this constant thoughts and prayers about the unfair treatment by the master and the pongo’s living situation may have led him to the dream of encountering the Saint Francis, the father who is ‘higher'(the position in life) than the master, making an interesting approach to show the master to straighten up and let the pongo know that there’s light and hope in any terrible situations and conditions. An interesting note that I wanted to add was that the master keeps asking the pongo “And then?” on p.g 277; this shows the side of the master that we have not seen before until the pongo started telling the story of the dream. The master is worried, interested, but actually curious about what happens next when the pongo tells the dream; this is the first time ever for the master to truly listen to the pongo. Secondly, another interesting point that I have noticed is that the pongo is influenced by the European approach for religion as we can witness from how he treats Saint Francis sacred; from this fairy tale, the clear feudal system and the European influence can be witnessed, but an important message that the strong heart and hope can be more powerful than materialistic factor such as being the master, rich and higher up in the socioeconomic hierarchy. I would like to go back to the last two sentences of the story: “[Old angels’] wings regained their blackness and great strength. Our father, Saint Francis, entrust him with making sure that his will was carried out”; a strong sense that even though the present situation of living through adversities is ‘real’, our father is still watching over us to bless us with hope and ‘dream’ for something different, but positive.
Class Question: So, do you think that the pongo will be able to see light in his life? Did the writer, Arguedes, may have deeper meaning to the pongo’s dream? (Dream can be portrayed as his will or his ‘actual’ dream that he dreamt and shared with the master.) The dual meaning of the word dream…?
Hey there! I really like your interpretation of the pongo’s dream – I didn’t think to consider why he dreamt it in the first place! In regards to your question, I think that the pongo’s dream was symbolic of an aspiration or hope of justice or revenge for himself and his people.
Thanks for the comment Magalee! Appreciate your insightful discussion in the breakout group as well.
“An interesting note that I wanted to add was that the master keeps asking the pongo “And then?” on p.g 277; this shows the side of the master that we have not seen before until the pongo started telling the story of the dream. The master is worried, interested, but actually curious about what happens next when the pongo tells the dream; this is the first time ever for the master to truly listen to the pongo.”
I also think that this is very interesting. In the first instance, it reminds us of the context of a spoken tale, such as this one, in which the audience can interject and ask for more, and a kind of dialogue is established between speaker and listener. But it also shows that there is something about (what we might call) popular culture that can provoke the interest even of the most hard-hearted master. In short, I’m interested in the way in which the story also dramatizes a scene of story-telling, in which the master becomes caught up in the telling.
Hello Jon,
Now that I have understood the concept of folktale as popular culture, it made more sense to as how these stories relate to how it can be impactful for the people (Folk) and their ways of thinking about the society through these ‘folktales’ or ‘a part of popular culture.’
An extra story**After reading this story, I was able to relate to one of the folktales told in the South Korean culture; a quick summary on it is that a race between a turtle and a rabbit happens, but rabbit definitely is way faster than turtle, so it speeds up at the very front and rests in the middle until the turtle can catch up. Turtle, without any stoppages, continues to go to the finish line diligently. The rabbit, in the middle of the race, becomes snobbish and takes a nap… The turtle wins the race. This folktale presents an ideology or a lesson that even though if you have all the skills, talent, and confidence to succeed, those who assiduously follows to achieve their goals and continues to put into the effort will have a positive result (better than those who depend on their talents only). The main lesson is to be humble with any advantageous situations that we are in; theses situations may not be so advantageous forever.
Thank you for your comment sir,