Francisco Sionil Jose was born on December 4, 1924 in Rosales, Pangasinan, Philippines. It was in public school that Jose was first introduced to literature and later at the University of Santo Tomas where he graduated from the College of Philosophy and Letters. While working as an editor and a writer for The United States Information Service and The Manila Times Magazine in Manila, Jose also engaged in writing short stories and eventually novels. In the late fifties Jose founded the Philippine chapter of PEN, an international organization of poets, playwrights, and novelists. In 1965 he started his own publishing house SOLIDARIDAD and a year later began publishing the Solidarity a journal on current affairs, ideas and the arts where he also is the editor. The sheer volume of his writings has placed F. Sionil Jose at the forefront of Philippine writing in English. It was in 1962 when his first novel, The Pretenders which is the first leg of his five-novel masterpiece was published. The Rosales saga, as the 5 novels were called, consisted of Tree, My Brother, My Executioner, Mass, and Po-on.
This was eventually followed by 5 more novels, five books of short stories and a book of verse. His works have been translated into 24 languages and have recently been published in North America by Random House Publishing. He has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards such as bestowed the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts in 1999; the Outstanding Fulbrighters Award for Literature in 1988 and most notable being the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative communication Arts, the most prestigious award of its kind in Asia. Hence, Francisco Sionil Jose has often been regarded as a Philippine national treasure. .
Summary.
"I have trod and searched and searched but found nothing." (Sionil, 192).
My Brother My Executioner follows the misfortunes of two brothers brought up in two different settings having the same desire to better the world they live in.
Valerian and his brother developed a ministry of giving proper to martyred Christians. ... Carlo Maderna represented her lying face down, just as she received the death blow of the executioners hand. ... He was also very loyal to her because he converted into a Christian, as did his brother, Tiburtius. ... Cecilia as my saint because she represents music. ... Cecilia to be my saint for Confirmation. ...
Thus, in defense of her honor, twin brothers Pedro and Pablo killed Santiago Nasar. ... My wonder is this, not once during the whole investigation did one openly question if Nasar really was the deflowering demon of Angela Vicario. ... (Oxford Companion, 606-607) In these contemporary times, all the technological innovations might mislead one into believing that our collective values and morals have progressed; that a woman's essence is not located between her thighs; that a man's role is to protect a woman's honor; that it is no longer excusable to be judge, jury and exe...
She spent much of her early childhood years living at Heever Castle in Kent, with her parents Thomas and Elisabeth Boleyn, and her brother George and Sister Mary. ... When Henry married his first wife Catherine he had to get a special papal dispensation to marry her because she was married to his late brother Arthur because Catholics believe that marrying the wife of one's brother was like incest. ... Ives " her executioner was so taken by Anne that he was shaken, and found it hard to proceed with the execution. In order to distract her, he shouted "Where is my sword?...
"You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, And, would it not so, you are my mother." ... "A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven." ... "O thou vile King, Give me my father." ... They are not near my conscience." ... Hamlet achieved his wish of becoming executioner instead of assassin. ...
The psychological trauma and the physical trauma which is being known as an executioner becomes cumbersome. ... After his father abandoned his family he became the sole breadwinner as his brother contributes nothing. ... So he was my enemy. ...
Orestes is successful in avenging the murderer of his father, by plotting the assassination of his father's executioners with his sister, Electra. ... Additionally, after the act of violence is committed by Orestes, the support from the chorus remains, and the belief in justice is shared by Orestes as he says, "But while I hold some grip still on my wits, I say publicly to my friends: I killed my mother not without some right." ... Specifically she says, "And I myself betrayed my father and my home, and came with you to Pelias" land of Iolcus. ... Additionally, the brother and sister pl...
During his stay in the Ministry of Love he is tortured many times so that they change his mentality about Big Brother. ... Much more important that the individual would welcome the executioner's bullet as a just retribution for the crimes that they had committed against the State, the Motherland and Koba (as Stalin was sometimes affectionately known)" (O'Mara 58). ... Throughout the book, Big Brother does not only want to kill his prisoner, but he wants to kill them in a way that the prisoner repents what he did and believes that he is at fault when he dies. ... This has a trem...
His words are: "The like natural inducement hath brought men to know that it is no less their duty to love others than themselves, for seeing those things which are equal, must needs all have one measure; if I cannot but wish to receive good, even as much at every man's hands, as any man can wish unto his own soul, how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied, unless myself be careful to satisfy the like desire, which is undoubtedly in other men weak, being of one and the same nature: to have anything offered them repugnant to this desire must needs, in all respects, ...
