ROSA
ALBINA
Virgilio
S. Almario
©
2011
Adarna
House
SPECIAL
TREATMENT
By: Arisa B.
Sobue
Arisa
B. Sobue is a BS Psychology student of Miriam College.
Virgilio
S. Almario is the National Artist for Literature. He is also a foremost poet
and critic in Filipino aside from being an outstanding translator, editor,
teacher, and cultural manager. His recent work, Rosa Albina, is another
child-friendly book that teaches the readers a moral lesson which is necessary
in our everyday lives.
Rosa
Albina is a book with two languages (English and Filipino). It is about “Rosa
Albina”, a beautiful but arrogant carabao, who thinks that she’s better than
the rest. She has no friends and never mingled with the other carabaos because
she is saying that she doesn’t like dark-skinned carabao. She always sees
herself as highly but there’s an accident that made her change.
Rosa Albina, the main character, symbolizes people who
cannot admit their own weaknesses. There is another character who is named as Mang
Teban, the owner of Rosa Albina. He symbolizes those people who are supportive
and spoiler to those people who are like Rosa Albina. And the last important
character in the story is Karbon Kareta, the love interest of Rosa Albina. He
symbolizes those people who are persevering and never give up. I also see the
author’s symbolism in terms of racial discrimination. In Rosa Albina’s case,
she didn’t like dark skinned carabaos and see them as a low class creature. The
author is really good in using symbolism and this can help children a lot in
learning the value of humility.
The
title of the book “Rosa Albina” is not a catchy title. It is very obvious that
the title is named after its main character and the readers will not be able to
activate their schemas if this is the case. The author should have used
something that will make the readers think why he used such title. But in the
other hand, this title is also relevant as a whole because the main character
is a female albino and it can help the readers who know what albinos are to
determine that Rosa is an albino by merely reading the title. The texts are
readable because they are located in the white portion of the page. The story
has rhyming words in the end of each line and seems like a poem. The
illustrations used are good and colorful but it can be improved by using
simpler and brighter colors. The author used animal characters in the story such
as carabaos. In my opinion, this is a good example of a fable and the children
will surely be attracted to it. The moral lesson in the story is simple but
usually forgotten by many. This book will help a lot in teaching and
remembering the real value of humility.
It
is also a good idea that the book has a board game portion but it is better if they
include a dice with it since the readers, who generally are children, might get
disappointed when they can’t play the board game in an instance. The book has a
part with facts about albinos. It is very good that the author explained what
the albinos are since the readers might not be knowledgeable about it but in my
opinion, it should not be in the book in the first place because the author
hasn’t mentioned something about albinos in the story. He just portrayed the
albinism in the character of Rosa Albina through Rosa’s color but nothing more.
Overall, the author wanted us to be humble enough in our
own simple ways. He used the story to indirectly teach us how important the
value of humility is. He used Rosa Albina to show that there is no good in
being arrogant, instead it will just bring you harm. I would like to recommend
this book to children especially to those who are 9 years old and above. In our
modern era, the value of humility is slowly deteriorating. This value should be
inculcated in children and this is the best way of starting it.
http://www.panitikan.com.ph/nationalartists/vsalmario.htm
http://anakbooks.ca/2012/01/12/rosa-albina/
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