When I grow up, I want to be like my Tatay,
a contented and hard-working fisherman.
At dawn, he sets off towards the whispering sea,
Adrift, he journeys with his boat and fish net
farther from the shore.
This peaceful life in our community is incomparable
to the city’s loud whines and murmurs.
I don’t want those cars with screeching tires;
they are such noisy pollutants.
Nor the big house with aircon;
for I love more the cool fresh air I feed my lungs.
His fish buyers tell me that I can get real life in the city’s challenge.
But life should be lived with an easy mind, he says.
He whistles at problems and laughs at failures.
I dream of being happy like him than being stirred with worries.
I prefer the perfect life he has than his buyers’ real life.
Marxism
The social class depicted in the literary piece above is that of the lowest class. They are the fishermen who are already contented with their lives away from the ’stir of society’. As what I’ve learned the mindset of an individual depends on what class he is born in.
The mindset of the “I” persona in the poem is influenced by the culture he has grown in. His culture is the father’s satisfaction of life. Because he is not determined to move out from the life he lives, he will remain status quo. And status quo is what capitalists try to maintain — the one Marxism criticizes.
