The literature assigned to me was the short story titled "The god stealer." It was made by Francisco Sionil Jose, a multi-awarded Filipino writer known for his works that often feature characters struggling from social injustice, poverty, and the legacy of colonialism. He is also the founder of the Philippine chapter of the international organization PEN. The story delves into the importance of one's customs, how they portray communities, and why we should respect them. The story began with an introduction of characters—Philip Latak, a civilized Ifugao native, and Sam Christie, an American citizen from Boston. Sam Christie wants a souvenir from the hometown of Philip Latak, his personal assistant. Philip, being hospitable, helped Sam get his souvenir as a token of appreciation for raising his salary. This event is evident in the Filipino culture, and we can refer to it as the concept of "utang na loob," where we are willing to do anything just to repay them. This notion can be detrimental, as sometimes we tend to negate our beliefs just to satisfy our guest. After their arrival, the natives were flabbergasted to see Sam Christie, as his appearance and language are different from theirs. The same thing applies to Sam; he was amazed seeing their lifestyle and routine. Later in the story, Sam was introduced to Philip's brother, Sadek Latak. He offered them a beverage, and to Sam's surprise, it was an unrefrigerated Coca-Cola, which tasted odd, but he still drank it anyways. The peculiar taste in the beverage symbolizes the culture shock we experience every day as we encounter and learn new things. Following the series of events, Philip introduces his grandfather to Sam. He is not proud to boast about his grandfather to him but still does it anyways, referring to him as the village doctor. Sam wants to buy the souvenir Philip's grandfather has, but the old man refused. They tried to look for a god to buy, but no one wants to sell their gods. The two had a conversation with the priest in the community, and he told them that those gods are very important to them and losing one is equivalent to losing their soul. We can relate this scene to our body; every organ in our body is important, and losing one of them will greatly affect us. Just like losing one eye might not kill us, but it will make things difficult, and losing our brain will surely kill us, losing a god is like losing a soul. In a desperate struggle, after seeing the ritual the old man performed in front of the god. Philip decided that on that night he was going to steal his grandfather's god and then give it to Sam. Sam told him to stop with his plan, but Philip persisted and said his grandfather can always make more. After the feast, Sam Christie was surprised to see the god brought by Philip and later planned to leave the community along with him. Later Sadek told Philip that their grandfather died, and the reason was the stolen god; he could not bear the loss of his beloved god, which led to his end. This made Philip realize what he had done was unacceptable and cannot be repaid. He decided to stay in the tribe and devote himself to the community. No matter how Sam Christie tried to convince Philip to leave with him, Philip's mind was already settled that his conversation with Sam was nonsense because of the sin he committed and that he would never ever be able to reciprocate.
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