Literary Theory: New Historicism
SONG OF A TEAR-GASSED MAN
by Cirilo Bautista
This is the piece that I have chosen for my Literary Theory Analysis. I have chosen New Historicism as the type to analyze this text. For I, the piece Is greatly influenced from the era where the piece was written, specifically during the Martial Law Era.
I love it! I love it!
This tear gas sanctifies my corrupted soul.
Oh! The divine odor of it, the excitement
better than demos or rock and roll.
The stanza above shows how the main character still fights for freedom during this era despite the fact that he has been tear-gassed. This stanza may refer to the fight that happened during the Edsa Revolution where the crowd are dispersed with tear gas.
Get a load of it, brother, while it's free,
You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.
We may not have money in the bank,
no food on the table, no seat on the Love bus,
but we have secret marshals and policemen
and most of all, we have a lot if tear gas.
The speaker of the poem is revealed to be one of those who lives a lowly life or the poor who in spite of having nothing wishes for freedom. A lot of Filipinos during that era are born from poverty, and freedom without.
Get a load of it, brother, while it's free
You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.
The speaker is inviting everyone to join him in rally to go against the Marcos Era during the revolution.
We may not have houses and running water.
the taxmen may be running after us,
but we have floods, garbage, Amendment 6
and most of all, we have a lot of tear gas.
This shows the repetition in other stanza where he describes how living in that era with poverty is devastating. But this also shows that even with all the hindrance they stood up to fight the law even with tear gas.
Get a load of it, brother, while it's free
You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.
Don't save your tears, brother, they are meant
to be shed, you cannot turn them into cash,
but if you join me in this martial festival
you'll get a taste of refreshing tear gas.
The speaker is speaking to the reader that they should fight together to end the dictator, and to bring back the freedom that they have before.
Get a load of it, brother, while it's free
You may never get another chance;
this is the right stuff, the real Mccoy,
pure, imported chemicals from France.
During the era in which the text was written, being tear-gassed is used as a symbolism for continuing to fight. The poem is much meaningful when it comes to the usage of symbolism on how they fought against the dictator. From the poem, the speaker intends to write about how they fight for their freedom during that time withstanding the tear gas that the officers give. This piece was influenced during that era because during that time the fight isn’t really over with poverty growing in size, and martial law prevails there’s nothing to do but to fight. In this piece, the era is about to end but the speaker still continues to invite the readers to fight to end the reign of the dictator.