Candido's Apocalypse

Johannes Charles Teng

GREATWK C39

“CANDIDO’S APOCALYPSE”

Candido’s Apocalypse revolved around one boy, Bobby Heredia. Bobby had turned into Candido, as he said it, because he felt that the Bobby Heredia had gone and Candido was there to stay. Candido saw everyone as naked, up to the extent that people were skeletons as to show that there are no pretentions with the people, which they cannot hide what their true self is through elegant clothes. At the end of the story, it was shown that Bobby had seen Candido as a separate entity, that Candido had separated from Bobby and that Candido had gone separate ways with Bobby.

With regards to the element of Gothic Fiction as discussed in class, there exists the element of the uncanny other with the existence of Candido, the “alter-ego” of Bobby. Candido, as the uncanny Other of Bobby, had controlled the mind of Bobby as he could see all the people having clothes, but soon were naked. This started when he saw his mother naked, as written in p.35 of the book. Everyone that he saw was naked, from his mother to his friends, to Father O’Brian to the politicians in Plaza Miranda. All but two people were clothed when this happened, Mr. and Mrs. Henson. Similarly to other stories written by Nick Joaquin, namely the stories in Tropical Gothic, there was a certain descent into dis-integration with the fact that Bobby, with the fear that he was being punished, was paranoid which resulted in him praying the Act of Contrition.

But through it all, one thing came into my mind when his “insanity” happened, from seeing people naked, melting of their skin and up to seeing them in bones. I thought of this moment as we should remove all these pretentious liking of other people in order to appreciate what is true, what is permitted. As Joaquin wrote it in page 72, “He thought of what he had been taught about the flesh being a rotting garment you had to shed before you could become capable of feeling a greater love.”. Bobby, with...