The Wedding Dance of Amador Daguio happens to be one of the most painful stories in
the world. Philippine Literature is set up in the tribe of Cordillera Highlands, a region known for
its culture and the obedience and conformity of tradition of its people. The unwritten law also
referred to as the Law of the Father, is here the foundation of their day-to-day life, and is,
therefore, the one that controls the entire tribe. This story is about a husband and wife named
Awiyao and Lumnay, who had been married for seven harvests but still could not bear a child of
their own. As for Awiyao, to verify virility and establish his place among his tribesmen, he had
to seem for an additional woman named Malidumay despite his love for Lumnay. This story
shows the conflict between personal love and the love of the tribe and of culture, in some cases,
culture prevails. This shows how culture prevents Awiyao and Lumnay from freeing themselves
to love each other's lives. If we look deeper into the situation, we can see that both Awiyao and
Lumnay gave up their love not only for what culture dictates but also to save each other from the
judgments of society. If we tend to link this story to the real situation of life, we can say that
people before and today are truly bound by the laws that must be followed for our welfare, but
sometimes we can also see those laws that control our freedom, happiness, and even our desires.
Sometimes we just wanted to talk our thoughts out, fight for what we think is right, and try to
question the law, but then we just feel that there's always something that pulls us back a bit like
Lumnay.
There are different Literary Principles used in this story that make it very interesting to analyze.
The author mainly used dialogs and actions to reveal the true nature of the character and, as far
as the setting is concerned, well presented the structure of the society in which Lumnay and
Awiyao lived, bound up with cultural and social laws that established a certain definition of a
true family that has a father and a mother and a child or children, which is a clear indication of
the presence of structuralism. This law happens to be the one that Awiyao and Lumnay did not
follow, but despite that, they knew deep in their hearts that they had done everything they could
to have a child. To remain part of it, they should be able to accept the reality that, as members of
that society, they are obliged to follow the law that is somehow related to Freud's "The Law of
the Father." In the story, Lumnay's character was directly suspected of being infertile, and the
belief that she was unable to bear a child caused her to lose her husband. At this point, we can
observe that Lumnay's character was effectively used by the writer to reveal how love can be
defeated by culture. However, as a woman, Lumnay has her strength within herself. Despite
being a victim of the superiority of culture, she did not act or think passively about this situation.
As a woman, she also found her strength in herself, she could not easily give in to their culture,
but instead wanted to fight back and challenge unwritten law.
Lumnay's strength as a woman has been used by the author to demonstrate his attack on
the sovereignty of culture, reflecting the inequalities of rights and freedom. However, when she
came to the ceremony, Lumnay could not have had the courage to speak her mind and end up
living in the mountains away from the ceremony and heard the sound of gongs that appeared to
thank her for her sacrifice. She finally submitted herself to the Law of the Father, but deep within
her, she knows that she is not unfavorable to it. On the other hand, Awiyao, the husband is a
clash between love and culture. The sadness of Awiyao is the same as that of Lumanay at his
marriage to another woman. It portrayed their defeated love of cultural superiority in the story.
Laws are supposed to be those that protect all of our rights, and in this case, I have
observed that the law is unfair and unfair in putting Lumnay and Awiyao in that kind of
situation, because a child is not just a symbol of masculinity, but rather something beyond it. A
child is a gift, and it will be given at the right time. A child is meant to be the product of true
love, not the culture that dictates itself. We ought to learn to stand up for what is right and what
we have. It is a good thing that today, people are more aware of their right to choose someone
they truly love, the right to choose whether or not to have a child, and the right to speak our
thoughts, and all we have to do is to use them in the right way.
