Chasing the Jeepney: Marxist Reading in Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo’s PaghabolngDyip

Abstract

This paper critiques the poem Paghabol ng Dyip of Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo. It discusses the facets outside the feminist theme of the poem. It considers manifestations of socio-politico-economic dimensions through the reading using Marxism as the literary lens in the criticism and reinforced by the three factors in assessing through this approach. The study reveals the struggles of the robotic-like life of the workers in the service economy and the dehumanizing exploitation by the manipulative capitalists as portrayed by the suffering of the persona. The mechanized actions are brought by the goal of fulfilling the expectation of other people as they are transforming as commodities that are becoming eroticized objects. The forces of politics in the society, as seen in the poem, are motivated in the exhibition of freedom as the persona has agonized in his/ her enclosures – poverty and exploitation. Depiction of emotional exhaustion was also present. The dependence on the dominant pursuing capitalistic hegemony is added to the prevailing bourgeois values. Mabanglo uses particular metaphors for the capitalization of bigger forces in the community regardless of the gender using Bernardo Carpio – a local fictional character – to embody the workforce. The jeepney represents the persona’s chase in life.

Keywords

• poverty
• exploitation
• ideology