Joanne

CREDITS TO THE OWNER

Candido’s Apocalypse byNick Joaquin, National Artist for Literature, is about Bobby Heredia’s shift from his real personality to Candido, and underlyingly, his sudden unthinkable vision evolvement shall I say, wherein he began to see everyone without their clothes on(he was the only one who had that vision), and the rattling circumstances which occurred thereafter. In a general sense, that shift paved way to a larger shift on his personality: he finally had a larger understanding with what skin-deep is all about, not just downplaying it over and over, or pointing fingers and calling it “offkey” or “overacting” then thinking high of himself.

Candido’s Apocalypse is more of the think deeper than the surface kind of story: the happenings, or the elements which comprise the effectiveness of the plot are pure symbolic. At first read, it’s quite perplexing when it comes to the format of the plot and the characters’ connotations, especially the ending, when Joaquin finally revealed it to be something that is actually religion-deep. But upon reading it more, you’ll be able to establish a stronger connection with the elements, especially with Bobby.

The theme is, coming from my Philippine Literature class book report, “the youth forms up a society and defines it, often through bandwagon.” That being said, the book is very generation oriented. Happened way back 90s (according to an online source, since it wasn’t stipulated on the book, and I can’t remember context clues giving a hint that its actually 90s). It didn’t fail to show the dynamic side of the past, with all its fads and routine activities presented comically oftentimes.

The message conveyed was simply astounding: to love the society you’re in, no matter how filthy or disgusting or stinky that is. Because that is still the environment which you’ve been accustomed with. That is still the homeliest place you could ever be. That is home, love it.

Oh, and one portion which deserves to be...