''Tree'' is a 1978
historical novel by
Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José
Francisco Sionil José (December 3, 1924 – January 6, 2022) was a Filipino writer who was one of the most widely read in the English language. A National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, which was bestowed upon him in 2001, José's ...
. A story of empathy and subjugation, it is the second in José’s series known as ''
The Rosales Saga
''The Rosales Saga'', also known as the ''Rosales Novels'', is a series of five historical and political novels written by National Artist of the Philippines F. Sionil José. Chronologically, it is composed of five interconnected novels, namely ...
'' or the ''
Rosales Novels''.
[Yoser, Elizabeth G]
Under the Balete Tree: F. Sionil José’s Rosales Novels
World Literature Today, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Winter, 1988), University of Oklahoma, pp. 82-84, jstor.org[ The ]tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
in the novel is a representation of the expectations and dreams of 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 ...
s.
Description
Set in the 1950s in the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
,["Tree" by F. Sionil José]
Don Vicente: Two Novels, Modern Library Paperbacks, amazon.com ''Tree'' was the story about an unnamed Filipino boy, the son of a plantation manager and “subjugator of other Filipinos”,[ who grew up in an Ilocano town known as ]Rosales
Rosales () is an order of flowering plants. Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Rosales". At: Trees At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see ''External links'' below) It is sister to a clade consisting of Faga ...
, Pangasinan. He was surrounded by acquaintances beneath his social class, relatives, and servants.["Tree" by F. Sionil José]
amazon.com He was described as a youth who “searched for parental love” and a “place in a society with rigid class structures”. He was also the grandson of the landlord protagonized by José in the novel '' Po-on''. In ''Tree'', the boy narrated the weakening relationship between the peasants and landowners in Ilocos, including how Don Vicente Asperri took over their lands.
Once the center of rice trading in eastern Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
, Rosales became insolvent, thus making the protagonist child a witness to a series of social inequalities,[ humiliations and tragedies, making him despise his father, the overseer for the wealthy provincial][ and feudal][ landowner known as Don Vicente Asperri]["Tree" by F. Sionil José]
, Don Vicente: Two Novels, tribo.org (Asperri’s illegitimate son, Luis Asperri, became a main character in José’s My Brother, My Executioner[) The Philippine revolution brought no changes in the feudal system of the Philippines’ agrarian economy, except for the shift from Spanish to American colonialism. Only the Filipino landowners, their people, and the industrial leaders benefited from the free trade that was established between the Philippines and the ]United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The tenants of the land and industrial laborers became impoverished. In spite of the injustices and suffering during the American period, the poor tenants became guerrillas to fight the Japanese occupiers in return for improved living conditions.["Tree"]
by F(rancisco) Sionil José, Contemporary Novelists, 2001, The Gale Group Inc., Farmington Hills, Michigan, encyclopedia.com The inequalities received by the tenants of the plantations resulted to the birth of an uprising that would change Philippine society forever.[
]
References
External links
{{FSionilJose-RosalesSaga
1978 novels
Novels by F. Sionil José
Historical novels
Philippine English-language novels
Novels set in the Philippines
Fiction set in the 1950s