Group #6, E12K

DYAD
Members: Masilungan, Nicole C.
San Pedro, Mylene Joyce R.

Teacher: Ms. Jenny A. Pinca

Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World (ENG S211)
Date: August 10, 2019

Author’s Background
Lacambra Ypil, born Lawrence Lacambra Ypil, is a Cebuano born and raised poet and
essayist who studied Biology at the Ateneo de Manila university who is known to weave words into
poetry that don’t impose. He received an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Washington
University in St Louis on a Fulbright Scholarship, and has recently completed an MFA in Nonfiction
Writing from the University of Iowa. His first book of poems, The Highest Hiding Place was given
the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award. His work has received The Academy of American
Poets Prize, the Philippines Free Press Awards, and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards
among others. He is currently writing a book inspired by the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair, which
examines photographs and objects from the Philippine exposition and explores the role of material
culture in the construction of cultural identity and memory. He currently teaches Literature at The
University of Iowa. Although his initial dream was to be a medical doctor, he dropped out from his
Junior year in Medicine to pursue Literature.

Brief Description of the Piece

Lacambra Ypil’s Five Fragments: A Confession was generally written as a confession of
the poet’s identity: He was gay. The story is about a boy who is confused to what his sexuality is and
his journey to self-discovery. He was lonely and scared of showing and expressing his true self to the
world. He loves taking care of flowers that symbolizes his feelings and manages a garden in his room
that symbolizes his dark little secret. At first, his room is locked, and the key is place inside to make
sure that he is the only one who can enter his room, but little did he know that with this simple
gesture he was slowly revealing his secret. He considered himself as a sinner and doesn’t believe in
the word of God, he finds himself having a hard time to understand it. But he believes in the power
of Science which makes him want to discover more of himself. He developed a crush on his
 Group #6, E12K

neighbor, and it makes him happy just by seeing him. He felt as if his life suddenly lights up which
eventually makes him feel lost too. He felt sorry because he couldn’t stop himself from wanting
things that he shouldn’t crave for. Until one day, he spilled the beans, and everybody judged him, his
surroundings became noisy. But he wasn’t expecting to feel nothing despite the thought of him
being violated. Instead, he saw and felt the beauty of it. For so many years, he kept himself to a
room full of doubt, loneliness and afraid of everything. But by the end of the piece, he was now full
of happiness and acceptance.

Literary Theory
The first literary theory that was assigned to us is formalism. Formalism usually takes one of
two forms and can be defined as a critical approach. The focus of formalism is the arrangement of
language, rather that the implication of words. The Explication wherein it examines the relation of
parts. The Exegesis wherein it unfolds the meaning of the piece line by line or even word by word.

The second literary theory that was assigned to us is structuralism. Structuralism the
methodology that implies elements of human culture must be understood by way of their
relationship to a broader, overarching system or structure. It works to uncover the structures that
underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. It challenges the belief that a work
of literature reflected a given reality; instead, a text was constituted of linguistic conventions and
situated among other texts. Structural critics analyzed material by examining underlying structures,
such as characterization or plot, and attempted to show how these patterns were universal and could
thus be used to develop general conclusions about both individual works and the systems from
which they emerged.

Application of the Literary Theory (Formalism)

(I) “Why is the beginning of a story the discovery of a boy?”

The statement above pertains to the lead male who wants to discover himself and wants to
know the real him. The boy questioned his own being.

“A dead one.”

The word dead pertains to his feelings or himself feeling dead or simply miserable.
 Group #6, E12K

“In the garden.”

The word garden pertains to his sacred place that he doesn’t want others to see.

“Under a mound of flowers.”

The mound of flowers pertains to the feelings his not showing off to the public.

“With his arms tied behind him, and his mouth shattered.”

The statement above wants to explain to the readers that the lead male was being locked up
and tortured with his own thoughts.

“And his eyes flayed into stars,”

The statement means that his eyes being lost into the stars.

“A hole in his chest the shape of a key.”

The word hole in his chest pertaining to him having a feeling of being incomplete.

“Why is the beginning of a boy telling of a story?”

This means that he wants to tell the whole story to discover himself.

(II) “Let’s say there’s a boy who lives at the end of the street who likes flowers;”

The statement above wants to express that the lead male is living at the end of the street
where he can hide himself and that he had so much likeness on flowers.

“Grows them. Tends them in a pot that’s orange to match the table he puts it on, which is
brown.”

Wherein he grows them and put it in a matching color of pot colored orange to the brown
table for blending of colors.

“Right under the east window to catch the sun at its brightest, its yellowest.”

He put it on the place where the sun rises and experience the sunlight that brightens his life.
 Group #6, E12K

“Orange pot, living flower, sun of all colors! In a hierarchy of hope.”

Pertains to being colorful can get positive vibes that will make his high hopes for becoming
better.

“And an otherwise happy picture;”

The statement above means that those positive vibes and positive colors can make him
happy.

“What does he think of when he wipes the dust off the leaves?”

With the question above it means that the lead male is questioning his own self again.

“Where does the water come from at night?”

The tears he shreds every night that waters the flowers.

“Only he doesn’t leave it.”

Means that he does not get to leave the room and always focusing to the flowers.

“What do you think of when I say: Beautiful garden of his world”

Pertains his own room.

“When he writes in his diary: beautiful garden of my room.”

Garden pertains to the flowers and those flowers symbolizes his feelings.

“Confession: when I came out to my mom, it was night.”

A night where he let himself out his room and let the real him saw by his own mother.

“We were in the sala. And there was no one else in the house.”

Means that he and his mother were the only people in the sala, and no one can hear what
they are about to talk.

“She had asked question, so all I had to do was answer.”

Means that his mother is also confused to what he really is.

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“The one who asks the question risks the bigger mistake.”

Means that his mother will experience more difficulty after she questions his son. Because
with that, she’ll know the truth, and this could either make or break their relationship.

“So, she was in tears and I was thinking of my boyfriend.”

Means that his mother cried because of the truth, on the other hand, he was thinking about
his other half.

“When she was asking the question, I was thinking of what story I could tell to make her
stop.”

Means that he decided not to tell her the whole story instead he just wants her to know some
parts of it.

“Let us say the room of the boy is locked and no one can open it because the key is inside.”

Means that the “room” was him and the key remains inside, and with that no one else can
enter.

“In the belly of the boy.”

The place where he kept the key.

“In its ten drilled lock.”

As the lead male continues to lock himself, he found himself missing again.

“Having swallowed the key in a fit of fear.”

Because of his fear of rejection, he chose to hide the truth so that no one can get to know
his secret.

“Let us say he reads a book in the morning after watering the plants.”

The book that he is talking about pertains to the Bible that he read after watering the plants.

“In the beginning was the Word.”

The statement above is about the word in the book or the bible.
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“And he does not understand it because

The word was with God.”

The lead male does not understand and confused with the writings and proverbs stated in
the book and it was with God that made him confused even more.

“And he was alone. And the word was God;”

He was alone and God can’t be found. That the word in the Bible is what God wants.

“And he didn’t believe it because although

He was in the beginning with God”

The lead male in the story do not believe the words of God even though he was with God in
the beginning.

“He was in the beginning by himself standing stiff

On the fulcrum of his heart.”

The statement tells us that he was alone after all and that he is missing something.

“Let us say that this is a story that fixes the parts of this room to the natural movement of
the boy’s desires when he rises from his bed of petals to the world.”

In accepting himself, he was able to discover more of him that he found his way home and
that he can show the world what he really is.

“Let us say we know his name.”

In this part he shows his true self and accepts what he really is.

(III) “And we have called him it when he was out of hearing,or at its edge.”
That when he was calling God, He was nowhere and like a deaf that can’t hear anything even
when he needed someone the most.
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“Murmured our snides to his back while his arms a-flutter. And his fine hands hold a tip of
his glass for his lip to kiss.”

The word snides means unpleasant that someone judges him and murmured unpleasant
words, stabbing him at the back. But he just sat there and pretend to not hear anything.

“And this seemed enough evidence for us. For the longest time. While his mother’s
pregnant wish for a girl bloomed his aromatic amniotic fluid.”

With the way he is moving he is showing us the evidence and with what his mother wants—
a daughter, and that made him accept his being.

(IV) “We believed the books of Science would herald the new age and all the old
sins be forgiven: all its ribbon.”

He was filled with confusion when he realized that in Science, he wasn’t a sinner and he is
acceptable even though his sexuality is very confusing. Even though his mind is tied up with
different thoughts while in the bible he has sinned because he opposed God.

“The pins for each part of the body and the long tedious experiment of its reading.”

The lead male is exploring his body after he have read the book of Science. Discovering
something that is new to what he knew.

“ Knife of the eye on the eye, and one slit precisely the wide grith of the hand and the belly,
shin of the leg to the edge of the foot, till one reached the ole of the mouth where slept the
tongue with its many questions; presuming you need this questions:”

Eyes open, hips and legs being measure that makes him questioned himself, his like. The
word knife means the lead male is being suspicious on the eyes of everyone. That he in his
every move he examines himself to what will happen to his body and become curious onto
discovering more in his body.
 Group #6, E12K

“What is the longest vein of the body?”

What lay posterior to the heart?
What is the pubis?”
Above were the questions he found confusing as he read the book of Science. But made him
accept himself and let him explore his body. Suspicion is what comes to his mind when he
starts to read and understand the book.

“A confession: Forgive me/father, my words for they have sinned, I have no control over
them.”

That the lead male is being sorry for what he did, but he cannot stop himself from doing it.

“Especially at night. When I sleep with my mouth open, my legs open, my hand--- Three
times last week: and I couldn’t get enough of it.”

He wanted to stop but he just can’t, and he never felt satisfied.

“Not when the man from across the street cleaned his car every morning without a shirt on
and I could see his glorious body glisten when the sun hit the water and he scrubbed wind-
shield, rearview mirror, edge of the bumper, roof of the car, rear of the car,
scrubbed/clean/rough, shin the edge of the left door, left tire, right, round hard steering
wheel, polished smoothly without scratch, smooth corner of the car, headlights, till he
jacked open the belly of the car, slid under to look under it, with his legs/wide/open.”

A man from across the street is cleaning his car when he stares at him and he even knew the
slightest movement that man is doing, can’t stop his eyes from staring at the man’s body and
that makes him adore the man even more.

“The world was shining with what could not understand.”

He felt the happiest just by just seeing this man which made him a lot more confused.

“In grade school, one Valentine’s day, the boy who sat at the back of the class held in his
hands my heart and he didn’t know it. What pain when he slammed his hands on the desk!
And the teacher asked; You, you have a question?”

The first statement expresses how his heart starts to beat fast because of this boy whom he
has a crush on. The second statement is when he slammed his hand on the desk, it was loud
 Group #6, E12K

and hard. But he didn’t feel any physical pain at all, instead he felt the pain of being invisible
to this boy as he didn’t know how he felt for him. This eventually got the teachers attention.

“I had a question. I had a question to end all the questions. All of them.”

He continues to ask series of questions; this is because of all the confusion he has.

(V) “When the mouth had screamed its dark secret”

In the statement above he stated his secret that he is a man with a woman’s heart.

“From its dark center”

That he told his secret from the very beginning.

“And the eye held intently the gaze of the suffering world---“

After he spilled his secret, he opens his eyes and stare at his surroundings. There he saw how
it was filled with sufferings and loneliness.

“Whoever said it was going to be quiet after all?”

After his confession his world become loud and noisy because of the people around him.

“I was five and holding into the air a bowl of marbles catching the light of the day. When I
felt a strong wind blow above my head the leaves that had covered the window from the next
door. And I saw from where I stood what I was not:”

He starts to reminisce his earlier years as a young boy and realized that he has changed so
much, and he was never the same.

“Hand in the sleeve of a shirt. Hair in themed- way between what it covered.”

This pertains to how he was keeping his secret all these years.

“Someone wanting to kiss the thin bone Of a woman who did not.”

The statement above is about the lead male that is portraying a woman which is in the first
place is not him.

“The enterprise of shock at the level of description where what was hidden became violent
became beautiful.”
 Group #6, E12K

The lead male is shock about what had happen after he reveal his secret. He thought that it
would result to chaos, but little did he know, he would see the beauty in it instead.

“The day after, I did not want to be touched. Slow days long after. Long into the cruel
aesthetic of the slow years that were spent not moving.”

He remembered his years of trying to hide himself from the reality of world and how it made
the years go by slowly and days felt so much longer as if he wasn’t doing anything
worthwhile.

“Fixed into that place in the garden years ago where instead of the sympathy for them
aimed I was filled the wish to enter the picture of the window in any way. Anyway, it was not
my story. This was:”

Before his garden is full of sympathy and loneliness wanting him to enter the window which
means wanting him to express his true self and now it is fixed, he reveals his true self and it
was not the author’s story.

“O Adam, O lonely Adam Before you were split into Eve—”

This story is story of Adam pertaining to a man, a lonely man before he was split into being
Eve that pertains to a woman and with that, he free himself and let himself show the world
who he really is.

Application of the Literary Theory (Structuralism)

(I) “Why is the beginning of a story the discovery of a boy?

A dead one. In the garden.
Under a mound of flowers.
With his arms tied behind him, and his mouth shattered
And his eyes flayed into stars.
A hole in his chest the shape of a key.
Why is the beginning of a story telling of a story?”
 Group #6, E12K

The lead male character is facing hardships in life while he stays in a beautiful place which he
pertained to as a garden. The lead male was in the midst of being lost and not finding the real
happiness.
(II) “Let’s say there’s a boy who lives at the end of the street who likes flowers;
Grows them. Tends them in a pot that’s orange to match the table he puts it on,
which is brown.
Right under the east window to catch the sun at its brightest, its yellowest.”

The phrase above is about a boy that likes taking care of flowers and wanted those
flowers to be a décor that will compliment his room

“Orange pot, living flower, sun of all colors! In a hierarchy of hope.

And an otherwise happy picture;
What does he think of when he wipes the dust off the leaves?
Where does the water come from at night?
Only he doesn’t leave it.”
The phrase above is about the different colors that brings positivity to his vibes but makes also make
him lost in his own train of thoughts. The flowers symbolize happiness and hope while his tears
symbolize the water, which he used to water the flowers.

“What do you think of when I say: Beautiful garden of his world.

When he writes in his diary: beautiful garden of my room.”
The phrase above is all about what others thinks of him or what the world knows about him and
what he thinks of himself.

“Confession: when I came out to my mom, it was night. We were in the sala. And
there was no one else in the house. She had asked question, so all I had to do was
answer. The one who asks the question risks the bigger mistake. So, she was in tears
and I was thinking of my boyfriend. When she was asking the question, I was
thinking of what story I could tell to make her stop.”
In the phrase above it means that when he got out of his room and went to the sala to see his
mother. His mother started to ask him questions, which in returns he starts to get confused as well.
This is because while she is asking him a question, he was thinking of an alibi to make her stop
asking questions.
 Group #6, E12K

“Let us say the room of the boy is locked and no one can open it because the is
inside. In the belly of the boy. In its ten drilled lock. Having swallowed the key in a
fit of fear.”
He always keeps his room locked. Which means that his identity is hidden, and he chooses not to
admit or show it. This is because of the confusion he has.

“Let us say he reads a book in the morning after watering the plants
In the beginning was the Word
And he does not understand it because
The word was with God
And he was alone. And the word was God;
And he didn’t believe it because although
He was in the beginning with God
He was in the beginning by himself standing stiff
On the fulcrum of his heart.”
After watering the plants, he reads a book, but he seems to not understand and believe what’s
written in it. He felt that in his journey to self-discovery, God wasn’t present and all along, he was
alone.

“Let us say that this is a story that fixes the parts of this room to the natural
movement of the boy’s desires when he rises from his bed of petals to the world.
Let us say that we know his name”
In the statement above it shows that he gets to acknowledge the truth and that accepting it is the
only way of fixing it. The lead male accepts his own self and that he gave the readers a hint to what
he really is. Acceptance is the only key for him to free himself from being lost.

(III) “And we have called him it when he was out of hearing,

or at its edge, Murmured our snides to his back
while his arms a-flutter. And his fine hands hold
a tip of his glass for his lip to kiss. And this seemed enough evidence for us. For the
longest time. While his mother’s pregnant wish for a girl bloomed his aromatic
amniotic fluid.”
He starts to call out to God, but he couldn’t reach Him when he needs someone to listen and when
he needs God the most. When his mother got pregnant, he wished to have a baby sister but instead
 Group #6, E12K

it was a boy. This triggered his sexuality even more and evidence starts to blossom like how he held
a glass with his hand in a very womanly way.

(IV) “We believed the books of Science would herald the new age and all the old sins be
forgiven: all its ribbon. The pins for each part of the body and the long tedious
experiment of its reading. Knife of the eye on the eye, and one slit precisely the wide
grith of the hand and the belly, shin of the leg to the edge of the foot, till one reached
the ole of the mouth where slept the tongue with its many questions; presuming you
need this questions:
What is the longest vein of the body?
What lay posterior to the heart?
What is the pubis?”
As he was reading through the book of Science, he starts to be convinced that he wasn’t a sinner at
all. He was accepted in term of scientific means. He gets to discover new things that made him more
curious on things he didn’t know.
“A confession: Forgive me/father, my words for they have sinned, I have no control
over them. Especially at night. When I sleep with my mouth open, my legs open, my
hand--- Three times last week: and I couldn’t get enough of it. Not when the man
from across the street cleaned his car every morning without a shirt on and I could
see his glorious body glisten when the sun hit the water and he scrubbed wind-
shield, rearview mirror, edge of the bumber, roof of the car, rear of the car,
scrubbed/clean/rough, shin the edge of the left door, left tire, right, round hard
steering wheel, polished smoothly without scratch, smooth corner of the car,
headlights, till he jacked open the belly of the car, slid under to look under it, with
his legs/wide/open.

The world was shining with what could not understand”

He still felt sorry though, since he knew that he couldn’t stop, and he cannot help but do it more. As
he continues to do these things, he still didn’t feel the satisfaction he was longing for. Then one day,
he got attracted to a certain man. He would get distracted and gaze at him, watch his every single
move and he cannot let a single movement pass. Seeing him makes him wonder and fills him with
happiness.
 Group #6, E12K

“In grade school, one Valentine’s day, the boy who sat at the back of the class held in
his hands my heart and he didn’t know it. What pain when he slammed his hands on
the desk! And the teacher asked; You, you have a question?’
“I had a question. I had a question to end all the questions. All of them.”
During his grade school days, Valentine’s day came, a guy---whom he has a crush on---made him
wonder how he remain invisible to him because he never really knew how he felt for him. With his
thoughts running, he absentmindedly slammed the desk with his hands, hurting him. It caught his
teacher’s attention and he was asked if he had any questions. He stood up and started asking series
of questions.

(V) “When the mouth had screamed its dark secret

From its dark center
And the eye held intently the gaze of the suffering world---
Whoever said it was going to be quiet after all?
I was five and holding into the air a bowl of marbles catching the light of the day.
When I felt a strong wind blow above my head the leaves that had covered the
window from the next door. And I saw from where I stood what I was not:
Hand in the sleeve of a shirt.
Hair in themed- way between what it covered.
Someone wanting to kiss the thin bone
Of a woman who did not.
The enterprise of shock at the level of description where what was hidden became
violent became beautiful.
The day after, I did not want to be touched. Slow days long after. Long into the cruel
aesthetic of the slow years that were spent not moving. Fixed into that place in the
garden years ago where instead of the sympathy for them aimed I was filled the wish
to enter the picture of the window in any way.
Anyway, it was not my story. This was:
O Adam, O lonely Adam
Before you were split into Eve—”
 Group #6, E12K

Due to his blabbering, he accidentally told his secret to the public. And felt that his world crashed
down. It was the day he saw how the people around judged him. He reminisced the moments when
he was just a little kid, he used to play around in daylight, but now he wasn’t even close to that. He
changed, a lot. His hands pertain to the secret under his sleeves and his hair arrange in a way to
cover his secret and he portray a woman. Everyone felt the shock as he speaks the truth, but he was
even more shocked. As he was not expecting what feedback he would get, a lot of people accepted
him for what he is. That’s when he realized that the reason why he feels the loneliness inside him
was because he chose to hide and not be seen. And that suffering continues to slow down because
of it. The garden that is full of sympathy before but now full of happiness because of him accepting
his own self and being.

Works Cited
EnglishSummary, “Structuralism in Literature” https://englishsummary.com/structuralism-
in-literature/ Accessed 9 August 2019

YaleNUSCollege, “Lawrence Lacambra Ypil Humanities (Writing)” https://www.yale-

nus.edu.sg/about/faculty/lawrence-lacambra-ypil/ Accessed 10 August 2019

Oocities, “LAWRENCE LACAMBRA YPIL Five Fragments: A Confession”

http://www.oocities.org/phil_poetry/ypil_fragments Accessed 9 August 2019

Encyclopædia Britannica, “Formalism” (2016) https://www.britannica.com/art/Formalism-

literary-criticism Accessed 9 August 2019