'The Laughter of my Father': a survival kit

If the priests are con artists and their activities are exposed through ridicule, the "rings within rings" situation of "trickster defeats trickster" is created. Thematically, this is a neat counterpart to the more physical episodes, since it suggests that peasants must use their wits against others' cunning as well as others' brawn.

4. Of the twenty-four titles, only three lack the word "father," and two of those, "My Mother's Boarders" and "My Uncle Manuel's Homecoming," contain other familial references, leaving "The Soldiers Come Marching" as the one title with no such allusion.

5. "Yarn" not only because of the surface implausibility of the narration but also because of its background fairy tale components: three brothers and the "test of worth" - here wine drinking - to assure the mettle of the successful suitor.

6. It is predictable that the test of masculinity should be a drinking contest, if we press the similarity between the LF stories and the Cult of Dionysus, for it is literally textbook knowledge that

The god himself was identified with vital force in wine and in all reproduction, and his excess of vitality was linked with water, blood, and sperm. Dionysus' initiation ceremonies, which included the use of intoxicants, were known for their orgiastic dances, loud cries, and wild ecstasies. (Nielsen et al. 70)

Works Cited

Arguilla, Manuel E. and Lyd Arguilla. Stories of Juan Tamad. Manila: Florentino, 1965.

Bulosan, Carlos. [Untitled biographical sketch]. Poetry February 1936: 292-93.

-----. "I am Not a Laughing Man." The Writer May 1946: 143-146.

-----. The Laughter of My Father. New York: Harcourt, 1944.

-----. The Power of the People. Ed. Epifanio San Juan, Jr. Metro Manila: National Book Store, 1986.

-----. The Voice of Bataan. New York: Coward-McCann, 1943.

Casper, Leonard. New Writing from the Philippines: A Critique and Anthology. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1966.

Cornford, F. M. From Religion to Philosophy. 1912. New York: Harper, 1957.

Cruz, Emilio Aguilar. "Filipino Humor." Philippines Quarterly 2 (June 1952): 9-12.

Daroy, Petronilo Bn. "Carlos Bulosan: The Politics of Literature." Saint Louis Quarterly 6 (1968): 193-206.

Francisco, Juan R. "Some Philippine Tales Compared with Parallels in North Borneo." Sarawak Museum Journal 11 (1962): 511-23.

Gil, Avelina J. "Philippine Fiction in English as Social Protest." Solidarity 4.8 (1969): 56-64.

Guthrie, W. K. C. The Greeks and Their Gods. 1950. Boston: Beacon, 1955.

Harris, Julie Collier. The Life and Letters of Joel Chandler Harris. Boston: Houghton, 1998.

Hosillos, Lucila V. "Philippine Literature and Contemporary Events." Diliman Review 18 (1970): 299-386.

Menez, Hermininia. "The Performance of Folk Narrative in Filipino Communities in California." Western Folklore 36.1 (1977): 57-70.

Morantte, P. C. Remembering Carlos Bulosan. Quezon City: New Day, 1984.

Nielsen, Niels, et al., eds. Religions of the World. 3rd Ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1993.