Vanessa Olga J.

Dagondon
BS Chemistry II
Lit 1 4:30-6:00

Biag ni Lam-ang Reaction Paper

Biag ni Lam ang (Life of Lam ang) is great work of imagination sprinkled with the supernatural and
topped with the rich Filipino culture. The hero or the protagonist in the story is portrayed to have
supernatural abilities which started even when he was born. He, in fact, grown into a full man in just nine
months! Single handily, he was able to defeat a group of Igorots to avenge his father. He represents a very
strong, brave and blessed man. His life was full triumphs. The only tragedy in his life was his fathers
beheading and this event acted as a pushing force to his feats. At the end of the epic, he had this journey to
capture a fish called raring for it was tradition but then he was eaten by a big fish, berkahan. He was
supposed to be dead but he was brought back to life by his supernatural pets and still lived happily ever
after. This shows how we, Filipinos, have always come to find a silver lining in the black and white.
The whole epic circled around the battles that the protagonist fought stressing the action-y genre of
the epic. However, there were still some traces of comedy and also romance embedded on the life of Lam
ang. Comedy, in a sense of absurdness on some events, was highlighted after he fled as the victor on his
Igorot battle. An instance was when he, full of dirt from the battle, bathed on Amburayan River with women
surrounding and helping him cleanse himself. What a ladies man, isnt he? Thats not the comedic part,
though. It was when the creatures (mostly, fishes) living on the river died because of the excessive dirt and
stink that he had to get rid of. Another instance was when he was about to court this girl (Ines Kannoyan
from Calanutian) and he brought his supernatural dog and rooster but when reached his love interests
home, he was saddened and rather threatened by the number of suitors Ines have. This isnt that much of
problem for Lam ang for he had the supernatural to his side and getting his loves attention and at the same
time getting rid of those competitions will just take a bark from his dog and a flap of wings from his rooster.
This I meant, literally. This event shows the comical side of the epic. Furthermore, this gives the idea that
way back in our history; Filipinos are already really happy people.Traditions of our ancestors were depicted
in the story. Such traditions include the paying of dowry to consent a marriage, hilot and many more.