Metro Manila versus The Province: Who Are Malls for and the Rise of Fast Food Chains
A response paper on Alice Munro’s Family Furnishings by Sean Marie Prythyll A. Patnubay | May 4, 2022
I was born and raised in Aklan — a place that may be bigger than Singapore and lauded for the world-renowned paradise island, Boracay but boasts of no cities (as towns did not have enough land area, residents, etc.), no cinema theaters (the old one closed down because people would rather get pirated DVDs), and for the longest time, only had a Gaisano as the closest thing we had for a mall. It was only until the mid-2010s that a CityMall was built in Aklan. For movies, high-end shopping, and a city life pre-CityMall, we would have to travel for two hours to Roxas City’s Robinsons Place or five hours to get to the nearest SM Malls found in Iloilo City. So, when I studied in Manila for college, I felt the “danger of seeing my life through other eyes other than my own ‘’.
Family Furnishings by Alice Munro limns upon four central themes: setting, social conventions, gender, and non-linear telling. The opening statement and metaphor in the passage “It was the danger of seeing my life through other eyes other than my own. Seeing it as an ever-increasing roll of words like barbed wire, intricate, bewildering, uncomforting — set against the rich productions, the food, flowers, and knitted garments, of other women’s domesticity. It became harder to say that it was worth all the trouble” reveals the plot and structures the story.
First and foremost, it shows us how we begin to see ourselves differently, probably in the way people see us given the change of geography or setting. Second, from the passage alone, we know that in this story, we are transported to a time different from ours based on the differences in social conventions from the mention of rich productions, knitted garments, and of other women’s domesticity. In line with the aforementioned, there is also the issue of gender. Because we are products of our upbringing, mannerisms, and social norms, we see a distinction in the gender norms from where she grew up to where she became a writer which
we will see later on from the metaphor “an ever-increasing roll of words like barbed wire”. This is motivated by a non-linear telling through plot flashbacks that allow us to appreciate how these lives turn out.
As Munro’s Family Furnishings revolves around an unnamed female first-person narrator whose childhood is spent in a small town, I felt seen. I had Alfridas in my life who allowed me to see myself as capable of being different. They were people I admired for being more modern, sophisticated, and I kid you not, living in the city. It was common to have an inferiority complex and to always think that the grass on the other side was greener. So when I began to receive my college education, like the narrator, I began to experience the life of people in the city or to be more accurate, in the Metro.
When I was in Aklan, we found ourselves in fallacies like hasty generalizations by calling any place in Luzon as Manila. For example, when I would go to Pangasinan for a camp, I’d find myself explaining to people that “I’m going to Manila” even if I was not. It was easier that way. Now, when I changed setting, I carried this over like the other probinsiyanas and probinsiyanos there. In our introductions, we would always say, “I’m from The Province” as if all the other provinces outside Manila was lumped up into one big group with no distinction in geography whatsoever called The Province. In Family Furnishings, there was emphasis on perception, that was defective similar to Daisy Miller by Henry James, as the narrator is, after all, a fiction writer. Maybe, like the narrator, we were writing up this fiction story in our heads that in the Philippines, there is only Manila and The Province.
Social conventions were also different. People in Manila would hang out in malls and restaurants that broke the wallet but hardly broke the zipper (quantity and taste were medium-sized and too flavorful to be enjoyed, respectively). So, remember how we hardly had any malls in Aklan? Well, I felt this more when I entered Greenbelt 4 by accident. My friends and I were supposed to meet up in Greenbelt but they were running late so I began
walking around in shorts, a t-shirt, and slippers. “Against the rich productions, the food, flowers, and knitted garments, of other women’s domesticity”, I saw it as the metaphor put: an ever-increasing roll of words like barbed wire, intricate, bewildering, uncomforting. But wait, there’s more! The price tags were horrible to look at so “[i]t became harder to say that it was worth all the trouble.” People from The Province would always want to flock to Manila to earn a living as the minimum wage and salaries are higher but at the expense of what? A higher cost of living, a life of chronic uncertainty, and unaffordable goods with price tags reaching 4-digits. It begs the question of who these malls are for. They take up so much space only to service the power elite. How relevant are these structures in our fight for the eradication of poverty? Does this further the divide in social conventions between the rich and the poor? Where do the urban poor find themselves frequenting when a single purchase in these malls go over and beyond their entire weekly household budget? Are they simply doomed to contribute to the rise of fast food chains as the only affordable celebratory meal for theirs and loved ones’ achievements? After all, while fast food restaurants claim to be inexpensive, it remains inaccessible on a daily basis to the marginalized sector. Heck, it even serves as the grounds where they find themselves begging for alms or selling Sampaguita garlands.
On a personal level, I did not feel much distinction in terms of gender but I have interacted with more members from the LGBTQIA+ community. I remember being mildly shocked that they were using the girls’ bathroom. People were more open about their SOGIE. However, I felt more of the feminist in an unorthodox way type of narrative that was seen in the rivalry of the narrator and Alfrida more in The Province than in the Metro. This could be because of the difference of the environment in high school and college and not Manila versus The Province or maybe, I steered clear from the competitive circles this time around after almost being burnt out in high school.
Since I would use an epistolary to tell the story of my life, its form would be similar to the narration of Family Furnishings that utilized a non-linear telling. I would mention backstories and use flashbacks to appreciate how my life has turned out like how I will mention only now some parallels in my life and this unnamed narrator like how our family does not seem to have a regular social life, how we are not that fond of table talk but relax when there are guests present and therefore, begin an animated conversation.
By reading Family Furnishings, I begin to see myself through other eyes other than my own in how our stories are so similar yet so different. Once I noticed that the narrator had flaws in her perception like how she did not notice that one does not give nicknames to one’s cousin, I began to reflect on the things that I might be failing to notice as well. Did I turn a blind eye to a family member’s suffering unintentionally because I was not as observant? Did my friend stop talking to me because I stopped talking to them or vice versa? Did I commit a faux pas unknowingly? As the questions become an ever-increasing roll of words like barbed wire, I begin to feel bewildered and uncomforted by this intricate maze in the furnishings of my life.
