Blessings of liberty in colonial and neo-colonial Philippines.

Abstract

F. Sionil Jose’s five interrelated Rosales Saga novels are interesting in that they provide insights into Filipinos’ struggles for social justice—beginning from nationalist sentiments and agrarian reforms in both Po-on and Tree, to the Hukbalahap uprising in the 1950s in My Brother, My Executioner, to neo-colonialism from 1950s to 1970s in both The Pretenders and Mass. The protagonists in the novels belong to different socioeconomic backgrounds and we see why each fails to achieve social justice until Pepito Samson appears in the final installment of the Rosales Saga series, in Mass. What better way to understand Filipinos’ struggles for social justice in colonial and neo-colonial Philippines than a close reading of the five Rosales Saga novels penned by F. Sionil José, the very person who believes that “we get to know a people better not through their history books but through their literature” (This I Believe 34)? My argument in this thesis is that the five Rosales Saga novels explore different aspects of social injustices during the Philippines’ colonial and neo-colonial periods, propose solutions for recourse, as well as tell us why certain solutions fail or succeed in bringing about social justice. There are recurrent social problems in the five novels, and the most important one of all is that the brightest in the Philippines do not side with the working class.