A WHOLE NEW WORLD
A Character Analysis to “In Her Country” by Noelle Q. De Jesus
Facing reality’s responsibilities and problems is always a difficult task. In dealing with this hard reality, people tend to forget about it and look for a way out in the hopes for a more satisfactory way of living, thinking that this would easily solve their problems. In the story “In Her Country” by Noelle Q. De Jesus, we see how Choot is a rash person who hides her true identity to give way for a more appealing one, Kristina, for the sake of the pleasure of being wanted again and the feeling of being young, which are things she doesn’t get to experience anymore in her own reality. While she struggles with her own feelings for a person she just met, her lack of judgment and ignorant decisions led her to a path with considerable consequences.
In the story, Choot meets a younger American man named Philip on a train to New York, and she was quickly drawn towards him. Choot understands, ‘She is nothing spectacular. She is medium height, medium figure, medium pretty’ (18). To her, she was just an average girl. Nothing special. So, instead of introducing herself as Choot, she uses Kristina, which only her Lola calls her back home in the Philippines in the hopes that it would make her more appealing than she thinks she is. Choot even changes her manner of speech to a more girlish one. Though married, she also uses her maiden name, Dimalanta. In her defense, she uses Dimalanta because it’s ‘easier to pronounce’ (10) and it’s ‘prettier’ (10). But in truth, she actually uses this name since she wants to forget about her reality as a married woman with kids. Philip was an “an enchanting distraction” (15). He was a distraction from her reality- a reality that’s filled with overflowing responsibilities and non-stopping problems that she has to worry about everyday. And she took Philip as the perfect opportunity to create herself another way, taking a break from the way of life she...