Literary Analysis of John Daniel Niñora

“Sinigang”, Sinigang is one of the most loved Filipino dishes that has a different version in every part of the country. Sinigang is branded to taste sour, salty but delicious at the same time giving it a very unique and varied characteristics that truly makes it a rare gem. So that makes you wonder in the first place, why the title of the story is Sinigang?

In the short story Sinigang, the reader feels a twinge of pity for Liza, the protagonist who also serves as the narrative’s narrator. Her troubles seem to create an emotional barrier separating her from her father and from many other plot points in the story. However, Liza makes an effort to close these gaps in ways she never intended to accomplish but nevertheless does, either out of necessity or on purpose.

The narrator uses the pronoun “I” to indicate that the story is being delivered from a first-person point of view, meaning that the reader only sees what the narrator sees. Since our opinions are mostly based on the speaker’s observations, what we learn from the narrator affects how we perceive the other characters and the plot’s progression. Since our knowledge is also restricted to our own area of expertise, we occasionally experience the same level of surprise as the narrator whenever something unexpected occurs. Additionally, the POV utilized in the novel enables us to empathize with Liza’s feelings, to experience her inner conflicts in some way, and to comprehend her personality in a more profound way. The flavor of “Sinigang”, which is a delicious combination of fruity sourness and meaty smack, is similar to Liza’s experience at the wake and mirrors the entire tone of the narration, which is wrath over her father’s infidelity.

The short story “Sinigang” is written in 2001 by Marie Aubrey J. Villaceran a professor at the Univeristy of the Philippines, Diliman. Liza, who narrates how she deals with the issue of her father, having an affair with another woman, and how it emotionally separates her from him. The story was started when Liza and tita loleng start their cooking on Sinigang. It is through aunt loleng’s question with the procedure of preparing sinigang which flashed back to the revealing stories not only in the memories of how Liza found out about her father's other family, as well as the fact that it was not easy for her to finally met Sylvia, or how rancorous and pretentiously impassive she is towards her father, But also, these flashbacks disclose how unconditional her mother's love is, that no matter how much Liza denies her love for her father in spite of all his flaws is never really lost. The father says sorry to Liza, a word that Liza needed the most – yet, whether she has forgiven her father.

The main character exemplifies her domestic duty as a daughter in a Filipino family, which entails submission to and compliance with parents’ expectations and requests, by being calm and strong in the face of familial strife. Despite having a tendency toward greater assertiveness and possibly, eventually, rebellion at some points in the text, she has managed to retain her virtues as evidenced by her mature handling of difficult circumstances and has reclaimed her concept of a complete family, which is implied by her imagining the dinner with his father who is actually in the frame, even though the connection is not the same as it was.

The application of inferring meaning that gradually leads us to the overall unifying themes of the short story was made possible by the literary analysis of the text’s form. In particular, the Filipino family should uphold the value of forgiveness and acceptance in order to endure; generally speaking, life is a struggle; how one views and approaches these struggles determines how one’s life will turn out. Since happiness is essentially a choice, Liza made the decision to accept and live with her father’s mistakes as well as to start afresh.

We all make blunders that can harm other people. It can be quite difficult to forgive someone sometimes, especially when their actions have a lasting negative impact on your life. However, learning to forgive is the only thing that will bring peace into your life.