The White Turtle By Lola Bsyese Analysis

For the most part of the story of the White Turtle, the audience reveres and admires the breathtaking spectacle of the images Lola Basyang’s chant produced. However, as time elapsed, and the curiosity of these Westernized people slowly transformed into the urge to legitimize what was transpiring in front of them, they started viewing such a serene art form as something negative just because it is, to them, incomprehensible and illogical. Because of the difference in culture and beliefs between Lola Basyang and everyone else inside the writers' festival, the art and beauty of her display was never fully appreciated and understood. This barrier between them also reveals the modern western orientation regarding those unknown, and the indifference and apathy westerners display to matters not regarding them. This stems from the …show more content…
The reader who sported a cowboy hat and snakeskin boots "had a way of running his fingers over the crisp pages of his book, almost lovingly" (6), which signifies us of how caught up he is in his own work and his negligence of anything other novelists had to offer. The other bespectacled and middle-aged writer also had a sense of arrogance, considering Lola Basyang's story "a multicultural or indigenous arts event, definitely not for a writers' festival" (26). The last reader, or Oriole as Lola Basyang refers to her, has a different perspective on the chanter's story. Unlike the two other readers, she disregards all forms of self-centeredness and shows appreciation for Lola Basyang's work by being "engulfed by the chant, lulled into it" (23). Aside from the possible patriarchal reference, it is important to note that Oriole was one of the very few who did not shun Lola's masterpiece, and this gave her the benefit of being one with the chanter, and much more able to understand her craft as a true art form and not as a belittled irrational