The Alligator River Story: A Marxist Approach

The Alligator Story talks about two childhood sweethearts namely Maria Fe
and Mario who are planning to get married as long as they get a loan from their
boss, Don Bruno. They want to get the blessing from Maria Fe’s parents but they
favor Arnulfo, a fledgling businessman and the boat owner who keeps bribing
Maria Fe’s parents to gain the advantage. Knowing the situation, Mario work
double time to get the loan faster. Soon, a typhoon struck the place and destroys
Don Bruno’s farm which is the reason why Mario cannot come home. After many
days of worrying, Maria Fe decided to ask for Arnulfo’s help to get across the
river, but Arnulfo wants Maria Fe to sleep with him for one night. Maria Fe was
hesitant at first but later agreed to Arnulfo’s condition. After crossing the river,
Maria Fe and Mario reunite again; with the fear of being discovered, Maria Fe
confessed about what happened between her and Arnulfo. Mario was furious;
breaks up with Maria Fe, vowing to never see her again. Maria Fe tries to reunite
with Mario but it was futile. After several weeks of being lonely, Maria Fe goes to
the beach and drowns herself.

Marxism, a socioeconomic theory based on the ideas of the revolutionary,

activist, and philosopher, Karl Marx stated that capitalist societies are grounded in
inequality between the upper-class elites and the lower-class masses. By
controlling the economy and maintaining the dominance of the capitalist agenda,
they maintain this inequality which Karl Marx calls it ‘hegemony’. Hegemony is
the dominating values, ideas, and interests of the upper class. Despite being
viewed as a tragic love story, Marxism can be applied in analyzing the text since
there are so many instances where the elite and the dominating class conflicted
with the minority and the lower class. The concept of patriarchy has been
adopted by Marxist feminists in an attempt to transform Marxist theory so that it
can more adequately account for the subordination of women as well as for the
forms of class exploitation (Beechey, 1979). In the story, we can see the
inequalities between men and women (patriarchy and gender); the rich and the
poor (socio-economic).

We can see in the story, that every character’s acts were affected in
accordance with their socioeconomic status: First, the family of Maria Fe; a family
who lives in a poor neighborhood in which Maria Fe’s parents are blinded by the
money being given to Arnulfo to get what he wants (which was to marry Maria
Fe). This clearly shows the hegemony between with ruling and the lower class,
where the ruling class gives an amount to the lower class to gain what they want.
A perfect example here is the election situation here in the Philippines wherein
the lower class, who is struggling for survival, are being easily swayed by the
temporary happiness given by the elites. Secondly, Mario, who is forced to work
far from his home to seek better opportunities. Because of the pressure given by
an elitist competitor and the poverty-stricken place he is currently in, he has no
choice but to work in other places with high-paying jobs just like the Overseas
Filipino Workers (OFW). Just like other OFWs abroad, things will not go easy as
planned; Mario worked under a tyrant named Don Bruno who is breaking the
labor code by making him work overtime just to compensate for the loan he was
desperately asking for. This clearly shows the injustices experienced by the
working class from the upper class.
Speaking of the upper class, one thing that is also sitting at the top of the
societies are men. The story subtly implies to us how women were being
manipulated and used for the comfort of men. It has been recorded since ancient
times, in the ancient and medieval world, the evidence of women’s oppression by
men in European, Middle Eastern, and African cultures. In the story, Maria Fe was
being used as a convenience by the characters: First was her parents, unlike other
countries, here in the Philippines, parents used their children as their key to
success; putting every burden on their child in which it’s the parent’s job in the
first place. Instead of working hard to give a sustainable life, Maria Fe’s parents
treat their child as the one-way ticket to becoming rich by convincing or forcing
Maria Fe to marry a man who can give their daughter (also them) a comfortable
life even though she doesn’t love that man. In the Philippine setting, if your child
is a man, usually the mother influences in choosing the bride; if it is a woman,
then it’s the father. Though not visibly stated, there is a subtle trace of patriarchy
in Maria Fe’s household in which the father has the authority. Then there is
Arnulfo, a wealthy man with a toxic machismo who was just obsessed with Maria
Fe’s beauty and was after her body. In courtship, men like to do “Love Bombing” a
controlling and manipulative tactic most often used by narcissists and abusive
people (Olsson, 2022). In the story, Arnulfo shows how manly he was by giving
Maria Fe’s parents some money; hoping that Maria Fe will fall in love with her,
but was ineffective. Then, after knowing the situation between Maria Fe and
Mario, he now has a chance to satisfy his sexual desire for the woman. By
manipulating Maria Fe, he finally achieved what every man wishes for; to taste
the finest women in the place (which was really mentioned in the story of how
Maria Fe was the prettiest), in short, having sex with Maria Fe. Helping Maria Fe
cross the river in exchange for her body is not even love, but a modern version of
prostitution. Because of the social construct, that was driven by men, women
were deprived of jobs which resulted in women, doing everything to survive, even
if it cost them their dignity. Now, in Mario’s case, despite knowing that he really
loves Maria Fe, his seemingly unbreakable love for Maria Fe was easily shattered
into pieces after knowing what she did with Arnulfo. This clearly shows the
culture of objectifying women, where according to objectification theory, females
are socialized to think that their bodies as objects (Herrmann, 2010). Mario was
influenced by the culture that virginity is very important when it comes to a
relationship. Virginity can be a stigma – a negatively valued social condition that
thinks its bearer loathsome in the eyes of others (David & Manalastas, 2018).
According to the study Valuation of Women’s Virginity in the Philippines (2018), it
shows that 60% of Filipinos said that it was very important “for a woman to be a
virgin until she gets married”, 28% considered it important, while 12% believed it
was not important. In the case of the story, Mario was objectifying Maria Fe and
left her like broken glass after knowing that she was not a virgin anymore.

Who would expect this simple and short story poses a wide array of
respective meaning? We can clearly see the oppression and injustices of the lower
class (Mario, Maria Fe, and her Parents) which were made by the upper-class elite
(Arnulfo and Don Bruno). The Elite’s decision affects the working class’s way of life
(Arnulfo to Maria Fe’s parents; Don Bruno to Mario ) and it ripples to everyone
(Mario to Maria Fe, to Arnulfo, and back to Mario) which comes in many forms.
Women’s oppression came into existence way before capitalism, where
patriarchy is simply the oppression and objectification of women by men, like how
they view women as a tool for success (Maria Fe’s Parents); women as a trophy
(Arnulfo); and/or women as an object which has less-to-no value when used
(Mario). Overall, this is good literature and should be taught at school and even in
wedding seminars.

Sources:

On Patriarchy

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1057/fr.1979.21?
journalCode=fera#:~:text=In%20fact%20the%20concept%20of,the%20forms
%20of%20class%20exploitation.&text=inter%2Drelationship%20between%20this
%20and,of%20the%20capitalist%20labour%20process.

How Patriarchy and Capitalism Combine to Aggravate the Oppression of Women

https://www.cadtm.org/How-Patriarchy-and-Capitalism-Combine-to-
Aggravate-the-Oppression-of-Women

The impact of culture on self-objectification and risky appearance management behaviors in

college females: A path analytic model

https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1411&context=master201019#:~:text=According%20to%20objectification
%2Dtheory%2C%20females,adult%20females%20view%20their%20bodies.

Valuation of Women’s Virginity in the Philippines*

http://e-asianwomen.org/xml/13304/13304.pdf