Solidarity in Imperialism Finding Identity in Dusk: A Novel

No great writer succeeds without a strong voice. Novels often draw readers in more by their unique voices than by the subject matter. Furthermore, we need to be able to follow the narrator from chapter to chapter as if we are there with them on their journey. In Dusk: A Novel, author F. Sionil Jose skilfully displays not only a strong voice but also one of immense honesty. Although it is a fiction novel, F. Sionil Jose based it on the very real history of imperialism afflicting the Philippines. At the heart of the story, the imperialism present in Dusk: A Novel is a catalyst for the diverse array of postcolonial identities that emerge. Due to the imperialist background of the plot, diverse identities are able to join together, shape their own futures, and embark on a journey to find themselves. 

With imperialism as the catalyst of the diverse identities in the novel, readers can work to identify the past with current news trends. This almost warped cause and the effect are what makes Jose’s voice so interesting to read. Set in the late 1880s, Dusk: A Novel describes the Catholic Spanish imperialism, before an inevitable turn toward the Americans taking their turn at colonizing the Filipino people. Because this is such a forgotten part of history, it is crucial for American readers to understand not only how the events took place, but also how this past shaped the diverse identities that came to follow. A reader put themselves in the characters’ shoes is what makes the past come alive.

Dusk: A Novel puts on display a society rich with culture, full of details and unique descriptions of what it means to be Filipino in the face of imperialism. It is especially important and revealing to describe with a close lens the people of the Philippines, and in particular one singular family as they embark on a journey to escape the bullying forces of domination. The novel’s deep roots in sociological and political ideas intermingle with its literary importance. It is both a historical novel and one of great relevance to society today. Colonization shapes the entire story, and without it, the characters, as well as real Filipinos, would not have the same strong bond of resistance that they do.

The cruelty Istak witnesses in the village take the focus from Istak’s direct family and redirect it toward the horrors of imperialism at large. In doing this, readers can see how the issue at hand is much larger than just one family, town, or religion. Spanish imperialism puts Istak in an uncomfortable position where he is forced to question his faith. Not only does his Catholicism, brought on by the Spaniards, put him at a crossroads in the farmland he once called home, but he also has to deal with the ramifications of his father Ba-ac killing the priest. The family is thus forced onto the road in search of safety. 

Since the whole town witnesses these horrific acts of imperialism, they are bonded as one. This is not to say that there could not have been another event that may have caused the citizens to bond, but that in Dusk: A Novel, it is the situation at hand. Spanish oppression forces the Filipino citizens to come together and unite, and even if that uniting did not play out in a physical manner, their psyches would forever be changed as members of a colonized people. Although their way of viewing themselves and who they are may have been altered, they are still one as people who are struggling under the brutality of Spanish imperialism. After his brother dies and his father murders the priest, Istak is in a position of tug of war between his identity as a Catholic Filipino and doing what is right by forging a new life and discovering himself. Right at the beginning of the story, chapter one introduces readers to the theme of solidarity. When speaking to his wife about their sons eating the most fulfilling pieces of chicken, Istak’s father Ba-ac digs deep into multiple meaningful layers of the text with just a couple lines of dialogue: "Let him eat the best. There is no use fattening chicken if we only give it away to the priest...How many did An-no bring to town? How many did we give for the salvation of our souls?" (Jose 2-3). Istak’s family is already having to give up the basic need for sufficient food for the priest. Giving up what you have for those in power becomes the thread that weaves its way through the entirety of Dusk: A Novel. 

From the Ilokos to the Central Plains, Istak leads his people to what he hopes is safety. The physical move here represents a continuous search for the self – something that all Filipino citizens shared after Spanish ruling, which then continued into American colonizing. Imperialism broke everything to pieces, including their language. The multicultural status of the Philippines is due to both rulings’ dominance and what they tried to spread as the new normal. Therefore, the assortment of people seen in the Philippines even in Dusk: A Novel is in part due to these harsh rulings that none of the citizens had a choice in. Both the Spanish and American imperialisms have affected the Filipino people’s religion, language, and culture. Scholar John McLaren expands on this concept, listing specifics in his piece “Between repression and revolution – F. Sionil Jose: The Rosales novels”: “Even its dominant religion comes from Europe… and more recently tainted by American styles of evangelism” (3). As the Catholic faith is important to Istak, it is not exactly easy for him to come to terms with the fact that the Spaniards enforced the religion. For hundreds of years, the Spanish ruled the Philippines until the Americans came along and skewed the country in favor of English, which is still the dominant language today. McLaren states “nearly three-quarters claim to speak English, which since the American occupation has been the language of education.” He claims that the Philippines are still an Asian country, but “living within the institutions of western culture” (McLaren 3). Here McLaren is saying that the structure of imperialism that the people of the Philippines have faced will always linger in their history and in certain aspects of their culture, such as language and religion. However, the country is still Spanish at heart, and as McLaren writes, “the evidence is clear that the origins and destinations of the Philippines, lie outside the trajectory of western progress” (4). Here we can see that despite the country’s history, there is a lingering sense of community there that cannot be erased, which is true in Dusk: A Novel. As a people, Filipinos both in the book and outside will fight for their country, their people, and their futures.

Most recounts of the Spanish imperialism of the Philippines do not mention how the subsequent American colonialism was not immediate. The citizens did not simply roll over and identify as Americans. In “Everybody’s Colony,” journalist Frank Gibney details how the change did not happen overnight: “America’s first stumble into colonialism resulted in four years of grinding warfare with the disappointed revolutionaries before Aguinaldo’s countrymen could be considered ‘subdued’” (5). He goes on to state that somewhere around 200,000 Philippine civilians died from hunger and injuries. These details from history coincide with author F. Sionil Jose’s vision for the novel. In the opening of the novel he writes, “there is nothing written about the common people, the foot soldiers who die in the hundreds so that their generals may live” (Gibney 5). Not only does this go to show that in times of hardship Filipinos support one another against all odds, but it also supports the idea that imperialism is the catalyst of this support. Without having experienced three centuries of Spanish imperialism, neither the Filipinos nor the characters in Jose’s book could have bonded quite the same. 

Imperialism in Dusk: A Novel is also the catalyst to the characters seeking out their own futures. Not only do they innately understand each other after witnessing and experiencing such horrible acts of cruelty as rape and murder, but they begin to move forward together as well. In this sense, Filipino culture persevered until they reach their goals. Imperialism inspired rebellion, which spawned an innate sense of fighting for what is right. Even if there is no specific goal in mind other than to find the meaning of life and their journeys, the Filipino people are linked by their common history of seeking out their own future. During imperialism, they were tricked, trapped, and trampled on. After Filipinos partner with the Americans to help end the Spanish regime, they soon realize the Americans simply used them for their own gain. But the Filipino people do not give up; they band together as always and they push us on to the next part of the novel. Anger inspires them to persevere, and also spawned a widespread nationalism (Jose 4). This nationalism is apparent in the novel in that the underlying narrative is the theme of an identity clash between being under Spanish rule and having pride in your country’s revolution. In Dusk: A Novel, The poet, or the Cripple, is the incentive Istak needs to continue fighting. Istak, while strong, needed the push of a member of his culture to continue seeking out his own future. In Istak’s case, a search for justice and finding his path remains a central and crucial goal. Despite living in a colonized state, those of Jose’s characters who survive find a place for themselves where they can either find or create meaning in life.

Achieving a sense of self within imperialism, especially having grown up with the Catholicism that the Spaniards enforced, is a topic worthy of the entire series of novels – the Rosales Saga – that Dusk: A Novel begins. In liberal spaces, we often say that we must unlearn the stereotypes we have consumed regarding race, gender, sexuality, and class. That is no easy task, especially when one has grown up internalizing those messages and believing them to be foolproof. Istak, knowing nothing but the violence of imperialism, struggles with figuring out who he really is. It’s not an easy feat for him, having been a commoner and a farm boy who must step up to become a rebel in battle after losing everything. It’s never simple for anyone to truly find themselves, but Istak must grapple with the unique crossroads of having to balance memories of his family with having come of age in an imperialist state. Although he is, of course, an “insurrectionist” as Frank Gibney called it, he still grew up in that environment and it is important that not only the characters but also the readers acknowledge that imperialism is, with a deep lack of consent, at the root of their families and identities (5). Every action the characters take in Dusk is in part a consequence of imperialism; however, that does not mean they can’t reject that identity, but that this rejection is in response to how their people have been treated, which is important to remember and respect, and attribute to their strength.

Imperialism drives the entirety of Dusk: A Novel: without it, Istak’s story wouldn’t exist. The nature of the novel is one of tremendous passion and honesty, and Istak is just one story out of thousands in the history of Spanish imperialism in the Philippines. By focusing on one small family and group, Jose reinforces the idea that imperialism was a problem every Filipino struggled through, together or apart. Their togetherness stems from tragedy, as seen in the novel when the poet Apolinario Mabini pushes Istak forward into the fight, and ultimately death. Jose gives life and undeniable meaning to a history that many of us have forgotten, or never knew about. Americans may see the Philippines and see their diversity in race, religion, gender, and class, and it is important to also recognize the force behind all of that: imperialism. It is a commanding force, one of complete and total control, but it is what lies behind the face of multiculturalism in the Philippines, whose people, as journalist Frank Gibney states, “have not received much notice” for their wide array of cultures (5). Their people’s diversity, at best, looks inspiring to some, but it doesn’t provoke much thought. The more we promote novels like Dusk, the more people will understand the history of the Philippines and the immense rebuilding of the self that its citizens must go through.

Like imperialism, identity is ever present in Dusk: A Novel. In particular, the fact that Istak’s father kills the Spanish priest is a direct source of Istak’s internal turmoil regarding his identity. In “Searching for an Authentic Filipino Voice: F. Sionil Jose’s Dusk,” Professor J. Arias writes, “Istak embodies the dual forces competing for ownership of a land and its people: the imperialist Catholic dogma of the Spanish and the emerging Filipino nationalist identity” (82). Here Arias expands on how Istak has to live with both forces inside him, as a balancing act that will become his people’s legacy. He is not just a castaway or an afterthought; he and all Filipinos claim identities that entirely belong to them. The way he views the world around him will never be completely free of the history of imperialism, but he persists, continuing both his physical and mental journey. He is a hero for his determination not despite his history of imperialism, but because of it. The power structures in place leave Istak and the people of the Philippines no choice but to fend for themselves, which in this context would simply be to continue existing. However, imperialism angers Istak enough for him to continue on his journey, which exudes a breathtaking display of heroism, even though Jose does focus on the common folk.

Just as the great American novel has an influence on the culture of the United States, Dusk: A Novel is iconic for people of the Philippines. It tells their story loud and clear, and it lifts up the voices of those oppressed people whose similar stories of mistreatment have gone unheard. In the typical great American novel, a narrator finds their true calling or subscribes to the American dream of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Novels can be more influential to culture than one might initially think. In “How the Novel Made the Modern World,” William Deresiewicz claims that novels affect a society’s collective consciousness. He writes, “More than any other form of art, the relationships we have with novels are apt to approach the kind we have with people” (94). Here Deresiewicz reinforces the idea that novels are extremely culturally significant. For Filipinos, having such an accurate, heartfelt portrayal of their history and its own journey is crucial and healing. 

There is not an abundance of popular novels that focus on the oppressed, especially from the time period of the Spanish imperialism of the Philippines. However, the only way we will collectively remember America’s history of colonialism is to educate ourselves and make a point to not gloss over it. As opposed to, for example, the grandeur of the great American novel The Great Gatsby, Jose’s novel focuses on common Philippines citizens. How these people internalize and move beyond their inevitable ties to mass cruelty and power hungry rulers should be just as celebrated as The Great Gatsby, a text that directly spotlights the rich and powerful. A great novel can mean many different things to many different peoples, and it is telling of the Philippines people that Dusk: A Novel is so popular and culturally important. By focusing on one family’s journey, Jose tells the story of a people who have long had no voice.

In publishing this novel, Jose released an extremely crucial piece of history from the point of view of those who most need to tell it. The novel’s political identity is inextricable from its text, and rightfully so: imperialism as an identity shaper is not something the citizens of the Philippines could have escaped, either. Finding oneself in the midst of colonialism is a political act in itself. The act of self-actualization is not a struggle Istak faces alone. In her classic feminist text “The Personal is Political,” Carol Hanisch describes attending group therapy as a woman. She asserts that because society is dismissive of issues that most impact women, such as child rearing and gender discrimination, we have been trained to believe that women and their problems are simply personal. Hanisch goes on to claim that the issues women deal with are just as real as any other problems, and women’s insistence to talk about them in public is a political act. About her experience in therapy, Hanisch writes, “I want to be a strong woman… and not admit I have any real problems… It is at this point a political action to tell it like it is, to say what I really believe about my life instead of what I’ve always been told to say” (4). In this statement, Hanisch describes how it is political to participate in self-healing practices and to discuss what she truly feels and believes. After all, it’s not too often that women were allowed to do that in the public sphere, especially not when Hanisch published her essay in 1969. 

This insistence on speaking her truth, and the solidarity with other women, relates to the events of F. Sionil Jose’s Dusk: A Novel. The same thread of one’s day-to-day life as a political statement is one that weaves throughout Istak’s story. Similar to Hanisch’s experience with discussing her life in public, Istak’s personal journey is political. Neither act has an immense impact on the world at large, but continuing to think and fight for one’s self is something the characters of Dusk: A Novel have in common with notions of self-preservation. Paying attention to the looming imperialism that shaped Istak’s country, his childhood, and entire generations of his family, readers can better appreciate not only his physical escape but also his introspective journey of fleeing both the harshness of imperialism and the only life he has ever known. In this sense, Filipino nationalism was a necessary act to combat deep-rooted imperialism.

Jose, both in and out of Dusk: A Novel, speaks to the effects of imperialism both in the past and looking toward the future. In “The Filipino intelligentsia,” F. Sionil Jose writes, “The American cultural influence goes very deep and may not be lanced within a generation” (81). Here Jose acknowledges that imperialism is to blame, and also to thank, for the ever-growing psyche of the Filipino people. It is because of Jose’s account of imperialism that readers can understand how Filipinos share a unique identity – even if it is an identity of identities. Jose goes on to write, “Our history is short in comparison with those of our neighbors to the east” (81). In the wake of imperialism, Filipinos have had no choice but to rebuild their culture, and texts like Dusk: A Novel are a reminder that they share a culturally rich history, although it was not one they had a choice in. To wrap up “The Filipino intelligentsia,” Jose states, “[The conflicts of the future] will continue to be between those who brutalize man and those who ennoble him, between those who want to proscribe freedom and those who want to enlarge it for everyone” (81). This sentiment is echoed in his novel in that Istak is so torn between who he is and who he should be. Not only does the conflict break people apart from each other, but also it tears at their insides and forces them to question everything. This is not a conflict that will end shortly or neatly. 

It is important for readers, especially those in Western culture, to keep in mind the imperialist themes in Dusk: A Novel so that we can grow as a people and educate others on the history of both the Spanish and American colonization of the Philippines. Colonizers looked down on the country and its citizens for being, in their opinion, less civilized. The cultural significance of F. Sionil Jose’s great Filipino novel is one that will persevere through centuries to come, just like his characters did. Colonialism is a threatening force, but the Filipino people still collectively reject the idea of being owned. Even when they couldn’t physically do much about it, imperialism was the spark that led to their revolution that created a new Filipino nationalism. As a result of imperialism, the characters in Dusk: A Novel is able to come together as one unit, to shape their own futures, and to pursue their journeys to find themselves.

Works Cited

Arias, J. “Searching for an Authentic Filipino Voice: F. Sionil Jose's Dusk.” The Radical Teacher, no. 82, 2008. www.jstor.org/stable/20710459

Deresiewicz, William. “How the Novel Made the Modern World.” The Atlantic, Jun. 2014. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.unhproxy01.newhaven.edu:2048/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=bab2cea5-7192-4e27-afcc-3f42ffb67e0f%40sessionmgr120 

Gibney, Frank. “Everybody’s Colony.” New York Times Book Review, 2 Aug. 1998. https://search-proquest-com.unh- 

Hanisch, Carol. “The Personal is Political: The Women’s Liberation Movement Classic with a New Explanatory Introduction.” CarolHanisch.org, 1 Jan. 2006. http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html

Jose, F. Sionil. Dusk: A Novel. Random House Publishing, 1984. 

Jose, F. Sionil. “The Filipino Intelligentsia.” Index on Censorship, vol. 17, no. 5, 1988 http://journals.sagepub.com.unhproxy01.newhaven.edu:2048/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064228808534438

McLaren, John. “Between repression and revolution – F. Sionil Jose: The Rosales novels.” Victoria University Research Repository. 15 Nov 2011. http://vuir.vu.edu.au/17348/2/MCLAREN-BOXF5-DOC8compressed.pdf