''Banaag at Sikat''Santos, Lope K. ''Banaag at Sikat'', Bookmark, Philippines, 1988 or ''From Early Dawn to Full Light'' is one of the first literary novels written by

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

author

Lope K. Santos Lope K. Santos (born Lope Santos y Canseco, September 25, 1879 – May 1, 1963) was a Filipino Tagalog-language writer and former senator of the Philippines. He is best known for his 1906 socialist novel, '' Banaag at Sikat'' and to his contrib ...

in the

Tagalog language Tagalog (, ; ; '' Baybayin'': ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, ...

in 1906.''List of Recommended Titles''), pcgny.net, November 11, 2002
/ref> As a book that was considered as the "Bible of working class Filipinos", the pages of the novel revolves around the life of Delfin, his love for a daughter of a rich landlord, while Lope K. Santos also discusses the social issues such as

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

, and the works of the united associations of laborers.Quindoza-Santiago, Lilia (Dr.) Philippine Culture during the American Period''), Publications about Culture and Arts, About Culture and Arts, ncca.gov.ph, 2002
/ref>

Analysis and reviews

Although a work that discusses politics in the Philippines, Rivas, Virgilio. ''Literary Approaches'', Reflections of Kafka, veraqivas.wordpress.com, July 27, 2006
/ref> ''Banaag at Sikat'' is the only novel included by the Filipino critic Teodoro Agoncillo to a list of important books about Tagalog literature in 1949, because according to Agoncillo the book has a weakness but it started the system of writing a Tagalog novel. Thus, this book of Lope K. Santos paved the way on how to write other Tagalog-language novelsMallari, Luisa J. ''The Canon in Southeast Asian Literatures: Literatures of Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam'', David Smyth (editor), Curzon/Routledge, 2000
which has a combined themes about love,

livelihood A person's livelihood (derived from ''life-lode'', "way of life"; cf. OG ''lib-leit'') refers to their "means of securing the basic necessities (food, water, shelter and clothing) of life". Livelihood is defined as a set of activities essential t ...

, and the truthful and moving status of society.San Juan, Epifanio. ''The Philippine Temptation: Dialectics of Philippines-U.S. Literary Relations'', Temple University Press, 1996, page 218/total of 305 pages
Furthermore, despite of being one of the first long narrative in the Philippines that provoked the mood of society, it also motivated the cause of the

Hukbalahap The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (), better known by the acronym Hukbalahap, was a Communism, communist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were originally formed to Philippine resistance against Ja ...

(''Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon'', literally the "people’s army against the Japanese occupiers" during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

).Herbert, Patricia M. and Anthony Crothers Milner (editors), “Philippines”, ''Southeast Asia: Languages and Literatures – A Select Guide'', Southeast Asian Group of Libraries, 1989
However, this is not the first Tagalog novel,“100 Tagalog Novels”, filipiniana.net, WikiPilipinas, 2007
/ref> because Lope K. Santos' novel was published after ''Nena at Neneng'' - ''Nena and Neneng'' - (1905), which is considered as the first Tagalog novel published as a book and written by Valeriano Hernandez Peña. Still, there was another Tagalog novel, ''Cababalaghan ni P. Brava'' (literally, P. Brava’s Mystery) by Gabriel Beato Francisco, which appeared in installment on the pages of the magazine ''Kapatid ng Bayan'' (literally, Comrades of the Nation) in 1899. The title ''Banaag at Sikat'' is translated by critics and reviewers into ''From Early Dawn to Full Light'' of the sun, a translation derived from the reviews done by Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso.Abinales, Patricio N. and Donna J. Amoroso. State and Society in the Philippines, a review, Lanham, New York, Oxford:Publications of Rowman and Littlefield, Inc., 2005, page 27/xxxiv-with 353 pages/; and Newsletter of IAAS/number 43, iaas.nl
, In 2021, Penguin House published an English edition of ''Banaag at Sikat'' translated by Danton Remoto as ''Radiance and Sunrise'' as part of their Southeast Asian Classics.

Plot summary

Primary characters

The novel is about two friends: Delfin and Felipe. Delfin is a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, while Felipe advocates the works of an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

. As a socialist, Delfin believes and wishes to spread the principles of

to the public, where the citizens could have more right in all the businesses, properties, and other national activities. Although he is poor who studies law and works as a writer for a newspaper, Delfin still strongly believes that a society inclined to the cause of the poor through peaceful means, a challenge that could be achieved through violence. On the other hand, Felipe – who advocates

anarchy Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...

– believes in the forceful way of destroying the existing powers and cruelty harbored by the rich landowners. He wants to dispel the abusive members of society who rule society. Even though he is the son of a rich town leader, Felipe hates the cruel ways of his father. He would rather see a society with equal rights and equal status for all its citizens: where there is no difference between the poor and the rich classes.

Selected scenes and scenarios

Due to his hatred of his life as a son of a cruel and rich landowner, Felipe left his home to live a life of poverty. He left his life of luxury in order to join the common class of society. He decided to live with Don Ramon, a godfather through the Catholic sacrament of confirmation, in Manila. Later on, Felipe also felt hatred against his godfather who was just like his father: a rich man cruel to his helpers. Felipe fell in love with Tentay, a commoner but with dignity despite of being poor. Felipe was forced by his father to return to their home in the town of Silangan, but was only forced to leave the home after teaching the farmers and household helpers about their inherent human rights. Don Ramon, Felipe’s godfather, has two daughters. Thalia was the eldest and Meni is the youngest daughter. Delfin - Felipe’s friend – fell in love with one of these two siblings, Meni. Meni became pregnant and was disowned by Don Ramon. Meni decided to live with Delfin to live as a commoner. Because of what Meni did, Don Ramon left the Philippines, together with a favored household helper named Tekong, but was murdered while in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Don Ramon’s body was brought back to the Philippines by Ruperto, the long lost brother of Tentay, Felipe’s sweetheart. It was Ruperto who revealed the reason why Don Ramon was killed by an unknown assailant: he was ruthless to his household helpers. The novel ends at a scene when Felipe and Delfin decided to stay for a while at the grave of Don Ramon. They talked about their principles and social beliefs. They left the cemetery while approaching the darkness and the depth of the night.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Mojares, Resil B. Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel: A Generic Study of the Novel Until 1940), Leonard Casper (critic), Journal of Asian Studies, volume 45, number 1, November 1985, page 198-199Brakel, L. F., M. Balfas, Mohd. Taib Bin Osman, J. Gonda, Bahrum Rangkuti, B. Lumbera, and Hans Kahler. Literaturen (Literature), in English and German, L. J. Brill Archives, 1976
.
Talledo, Tomas. Only By Struggle: Reflections on Philippine Culture, Politics and Society by Epifanio San Juan, Jr., Giraffe Books, Quezon City, Philippines, 2002, Ibon.org. 2008
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