Analysis of Reunion by Herminio Beltran Jr.

The Green Tomato

The story is about a typical Family from possibly all over the world. This story is very common that we often don't recognize this as one big event of our life but actually it is and this is a very important thing in our life, we may not have known this but this is one factor that built a family closer together. 
The Character "I" talks about the characters in the story talks about the situation happening in their reunion. First Lola Susing lessons about how the generation now don't even know how to cut tomatoes. This is a really good question, why do our new generation teens lose their interest in the house chores? Is it because of the lost of interest with the things itself? But why do they don't like to do common house chores that we usually do before? Maybe the reason is in this generation there are many things that divert the attention and think less of the house chores. There come a stage in a family's life that a father maybe or a mother should be doing everything to start a family, meaning they will be working hard for the future and thinking about their children's life, after that stage of hardship and hard work people will eventually prosper and the money that they earn will be spend on the needs and wants of a child, it then I think gives an idea to the children that this is the new life, they ask and the parents would literally give what their child wants. Unlike before during the time of our parents when they don't have a lot they don't usually get what they want, they work for it.
Then the character talks the usual way of the elders when they meet with their relatives they always want to show off and tell stories of how they have started being the person that she was. Her grandmothers sing and show off her talent. In reality we never really get tired of the elders doing this kind of stuffs they are our own entertainment that makes us happy during family gatherings. 
But what is really with reunion? What does it really brings or gives to the family? Is it really important to us? Do we really have to celebrate our own family reunion? For me family reunion is a very important part of our family, because it gives us the time to know more about our other relatives that we don't usually see every day, we get to know their habits and what they do and what makes them laugh and continue living. We get closer to them more and more. I think it brings something special to everyone that we cannot get from outside our house or our family because this bond that we have with our family is something that we should not neglect and that we should not turn our back on. I would say reunion is one way of saying thanks to our elders for giving us a good life and shaping our personality, they are a big part of everyone's life so it is important to say thanks to them at least once or twice a year. But sometimes celebrating reunion is a little hard specially in a Filipino setting, because in most cases some families goes abroad permanently and it would very hard to go home because of financial stuffs, it gives a gap on the family when we allow this to happens.
In the story the character talks the different family members, which are all busy telling stories of their own. Childrens are left to run and play and others engaged in meaningful conversation that increases their knowledge of the family history. We have The Marciano family who has been with Lola Susing since Aunt Rening and Uncle Sebio married in 1958. They have five kids namely Rita, Hannah, Gina, Serenata and Viola. Uncle Gusting and Aunt Cely with only daughter Tricia who studies in Paris. The Rimorins, Aunt Lenny who loves Estrella D. Alfon, husband Uncle Ross who works as a clerk in Saudi Arabia and Uncle Manding the youngest of Milaños with wife Meding and their four children Robin, Rico, Reynald and Rupert. 
There is an important passage in the story that sum up the important things in a reunion or in the story.
".I must thank you all. And I must take this occasion to tell you, my apos, that it won't be long." and she shifts to the heroic tone again, ".when I pass away into God's paradise. At this hour on this day seventy-five years ago, I was born. Anyone who is born will one day pass away. But before I pass away, I want you to remember one thing. We, your grandfather and I, and your parents, worked hard to keep our family whole and united. We never forgot to pray through many years of hardships and trials.we even went through a horrible war.your grandfather died in that war. We went through many difficulties you never went through. We were poor but we worked hard. And we kept our dignity as human beings, we kept our dignity as a united Milaños family. We trusted God, we trusted ourselves. Now we are proud and happy because we are respectable. People respect us. We must remain respectable. That is very important. All will pass away. The Holy Bible says, 'As there is a time for birth, there is a time for dying.' If we are good in this life, we'll see each other in heaven. So there is only one thing I ask of you: Keep the family together, work hard, respect each other, keep the dignity of the Milaños clan. So let's go to church now to thank God." 

In conclusion we can say reunion is a big part of our family that we should do once or twice a year, it is important that we stay connected with our family that helps us in times of problems. There are so many important things in life that we should consider one of those is this there are so many things we can learn from our family itself, before conquering the big world we should learn to start on our own family. We, socializing with our family is not a bad thing after all, it is a healthy way of learning in life. Like the story teller in the story, we should also be as excited as he is in all the stories and "pasalubong we can get" because they are precious and cannot be taken away from us.