It is a story where a student introduces her Literature teacher as “Mabuti”, for her habitual use of that word whenever they are in class. “Ang Kwento ni Mabuti” is a short story which won the first prize for the Palanca Award for Literature in 1950. It was a work of fine and buoyant use of prose, realistic style, and magnificent writing ability. Just as any other of her work, “Mga Bathalang Putik” was one of the genre “popular literature”. In this novel, the different faces of love was presented, together with the difficulties in marriage and the struggles in making the right decision which will shape the future. The work “Mga Bathalang Putik” by Liwayway Arceo is a romantic novel about the iniquitous love of Esmeralda and Senen, who are both married when they had met each other. It is a work of fiction that will surely live through time.
Indeed, “Ang Mag-anak na Cruz” is a novel which illustrates values and reality. Also, every chapter was of complete thought, like the book was a collection of short stories about one set of characters. But as the plot progressed, I have grasped events that commonly happen in real life including family difficulties and bonding, activism in the 60th decade, teenage gangs, and others. When I have read the book when I was in high school, at first I thought it was dull and boring. Like any other work of Liwayway Arceo, the novel is characterized by smooth narration, light emotional expression, and artistic use of language. Tinoy and Remy was the main characters of the story. The novel “Ang Mag-anak na Cruz” was about the life of a middle class family living in the contemporary. The plot was in perfect narrative, taking all the pieces together until it had ended in a pleasant cessation. When I have read the book, I have noticed that the characters were already introduced at the first chapters, together with how fate had made them intertwined. That part of the land of Canal dela Reina was really owned by the family of Caridad, who later thought of getting it back to erase the tragedy of the past and start up new. It is about the greedy Nyora Tentay who claims a property she didn’t own and how she reigned and stepped onto the powerless around her.
“Canal dela Reina” is a creation that exposes the society’s hunger of power and money, and the oppression of unfortunate beneath it. No wonder “Uhaw ang Tigang na Lupa” has left a mark to the history of Philippine literature that no other can ever wipe away. The emotions and sentiments were sincere and the language used was smooth. It is a novel, laid out with carefully and artistically concocted lines and dialogues that don’t only build up the plot as a narrative but unfold with the harmony of music. A masterpiece that illustrates a child’s longing for the warmth of her parents, and a wife’s yearning of her husband’s love like a thirsty dry land wishing for water or dew. The novel “Uhaw ang Tigang na Lupa” was Arceo’s first blockbuster in the world of prose. “Kung gabi ay hinahanap ko ang kaaliwang idinudulot ng isang amang nagsasalaysay ukol sa mga kapre at nuno at ukol sa magagandang ada at prinsesa, ng isang nagmamasid at nakangiting ina, ng isang pulutong ng nakikinig na magaganda at masasayang bata.” As to the influence, number and quality of her works, I think no female writer exceeds her genius. “Titser” is just one of the works of Arceo that had really shown her brilliance in writing. The reality the novel expresses was just what makes it extremely admirable. She wasn’t the a usual central persona with idealistic traits, but she’s just like any other existing being with strengths and weaknesses, making me conceive that I am just reading a journal or anecdote of someone. But what struck me the most was the main character Amelita. I personally have read the book the plot was not that dynamic and sentiments weren’t that extreme. Even they are discriminated, especially by Amelita’s mother in the end they had proven the value of their chosen profession. Liwayway Arceo’s “TITSER” is a Palanca awarded novel about the struggles of the couple Amelita and Mauro as they chose the course of being low-paid teachers despite of practicality.