A Multi Critical Analysis of Find Your Path O Banished Pampanga

By Arlan V. Payad

Arlan Veras Payad is a teacher of English and educational management whose

recent researches center on cross-cultural and Psycho-social aspects of learning among
such respondents as university students in Seoul, South Korea and high school Aeta
students in the mountains of Pampanga. In his rendezvous with the quill, Arlan intends
to trace the movements of Tao in peoples route to success and well-being.

On the other hand, Arlan Payads poem entitled Find Your Path O Banished
Pampanga is deemed to be a conveyance of his emotions or sympathy towards the
people of Pampanga wherein a massive destruction had occurred in the aforementioned
place many years ago leaving peoples properties and livelihood devastated.

The gist of the poem can be best dissected or understood by using two major
literary theories: the mimetic theory and affectivism theory. Memitic theory is based on
the observable tendency of human beings to subconsciously imitate others and the
extension of this mimesis to the realm of desire. On the other hand, affectivism theory
also known as readerresponse theory is a theory that focuses on the reader or
audience and their experience of a literary work in contrast to other schools and
theories that focus attention primarily on authors or the content and form of the work.

The first few lines of the poem saying Your olden days glory must have been
blown, By cruel storms and furious cyclone have captured my interest to continue
reading the poem. These lines made me think and wonder what really had happened
or what the history of Pampanga is, for the author had said something related to olden
days glory. This made me do some little research of what really had happened a long
time ago in Pampanga and what certain happenings that made the author write this
kind of poem. Then I found out, that a long time ago, Pampanga was a descendant of
what was known back then as the Kingdom of Tondo or the Luzon Empire. For decades,
it was a land of landed aristocrats, wealthy families whose main income derive from rice
and sugar plantations. Pampanga has been so rich that even careless farming has not
impaired its productiveness. So with these information, I kind of understand why the
author has written this line Your Olden Days Glory which relates to what Pampanga
has used to be and I kind of have an idea of what the poem is about.

After reading the poem, the descriptions used by the author greatly relates to
what had happened to Pampanga a long time ago. He has written something about of
what he had observed or had seen to Pampanga many years ago. Like for instance, the
eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the arrival of typhoon Diding which caused massive
destructions to properties and people which were greatly described by the said line
above. The poem was really written based on true life story events that transpired in
Pampanga and that is why, I chose the Mimetic theory to relate the thoughts of the
author, his reason in writing this poem and to summarize the overall idea of the poem
which is really based on the real events that happened in Pampanga.

In addition to this, I also chose affectivism theory to understand the idea of the
poem and the purpose of the author for writing this poem. As what I have understood,
the author tries to convey his message to those people who has read and those who
are going to read his poem especially those Kapangpangnan or those who have
experienced the same thing or any related events. The author wanted to say to those
people that amidst the struggles and tragedies in life, one has to stay strong and
continue living. Those trials are only tests, in order to become stronger and braver and
whatever events that may come in life, one has to be courageous enough to face and
solve it, like what happened to the people of Pampanga. The author also encourages
those people who are feeling down and who have lost hope in life, that like a highly-
spirited dove, one has to find its path way back to life by never giving up, for theres
always a rainbow after a storm. There is still life after the struggles and difficulties and
that life must go on no matter what had happened.
 After a thorough reading and analysis of the poem, I come to conclude that
ones experiences or conditions or those tragic events that one had observed, may
often trigger a brilliant mind to create and produce magnificent literary works especially
poems like Arlan V. Payad has done. He was inspired to write a poem about the disaster
brought about by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the arrival of the typhoon Diding
that caused a massive destruction to the surrounding areas of Mt. Pinatubo especially in
Pampanga. Through his poem, he was able to convey his feelings and message to
those people who have experienced somewhat related thing. He was able to give
encouragement to those people who have lost hope especially the people of Pampanga,
that life must continue and one must find its path way back home, as what the title of
the poem says. The message of his poem was to encouragement to the people of
Pampanga to rise once again and move forward despite of how broken, tired, and
hopeless they are due to the unfortunate events. Then, he somewhat encourage them
to become like a high spirited dove that will soar high and find its way back home.

In relation to the literary thing, literary theory is about the human mind and its
processes of communication. It is our ability to understand what people say, write and
mean. Frequently, literary works are inspired by ones true life events that give the
ability to communicate their feelings through writing or any other form of literary work
across different barriers of time and cultural difference. In relation to this, the author
had used some literary theories to greatly emphasize his idea and to convey his feelings
and message across the readers, like the mimetic theory, affectivism theory and many
others.
A Multi Critical Analysis of Find Your Path O Banished
Pampanga by Arlan V. Payad

Submitted by:

Christimbert P. Godinez

BSIT-2C