Erika R.

Valeroso 2010-09375 MORAL Reaction Paper

July 20, 2010 Prof. Concepcion Eng 10

Moral is a movie showing the lives of Joey (Lorna Tolentino), Kathy (Gina Alajar), Sylvia (Sandy Andolong), and Maritess (Ana Marin), as graduating students in a university around the late 70s to the early 80s. The movie is about struggles of these women in finding and discovering their inner self as they interact with each other and with other people. Joey is a happy-go-lucky type of girl who is carefree and does not have any concrete plans with what she wants to do with her life. She has many vices like drinking alcohol, smoking, and doing drugs. She is quite promiscuous with men, wherein she was having several one-night-stands. She is aggressive when interacting with people. Despite sleeping with other men, she is in love with a guy named Gerry, who does not love her back. When she found out that she was pregnant, she immediately wanted to get abortion. She did not even think about the possibility of keeping the baby. I believe that Joey has this type of character and personality because she came from a broken family. Her parents were not able to guide her and instill important values in her while growing up. That is why her views and judgment on certain things is distorted. In the end, she tried to straighten out her life and even agreed to volunteer in an organization that help children. Kathy is a frustrated singer and has high ambitions in life. She wanted to be famous and well-known. Her thirst and hunger for fame drove her to stoop down her level. She started having sexual relationships with people whom she knew could give a boost in her career in singing. She is ready to be used, to give and sell herself for her career in singing. Her passion for singing made her realize that she did not deserve to be famous since she is not that good of a singer. Sylvia seems to be the oldest among the four based on her actions and the fact that she has a son. She is quite mature compared with the others because she is usually the person whom they get advice from. She is also the person they go to when they have personal problems. She often brings her son with her friends to bars and night outs. Her son often sees and does things that are not appropriate and right for his age. I also noticed that her son is not used to saying po and opo, to adults. She is a single mom since her husband left her for another man. They still remained civil towards each other for their son. She can be called as a martyr wife since she continues to love her husband even though she knew that he was a homosexual. Eventually Sylvia, her husband and his lover were in good terms and found a way to express their love for each other. Maritess is a typical housewife living in a patriarchal household. She often does everything that her husband, Dodo says. Dodo does not want her to work, stressing that he can provide for the family. With the influence of his mother, he believes that the only role of women in society is to bear children and take care of the household. They deem women as subservient to

men. Maritess opposes this view as she wants to do and pursue something on her own, without being told what to do. There was a time in the movie wherein she said, I feel used. I feel abused. She did not have time to do things that she wanted and dreamt of doing. After arguing and discussing with her husband, she was able to convince him to let her pursue her passion for writing and ambition of becoming a columnist. The way the movie presented the lives of graduating college students is quite heavy. These women are just young adults, but they are faced with big problems, challenges, obstacles, and struggles in their lives. I think that the title of the movie is apt for the storyline since it tackles the different issues that actually constitutes, affects or defines morality. Some of the issues presented were sex, homosexuality, abortion, broken families, patriarchy, love, and ambition. By presenting the different instances wherein the morality of a person is concerned, the movie gives the audience a chance to ask themselves, What true meaning of morality?, How can we say if a person is moral or not?, or What are moral or immoral acts?. As what I have learned from childhood, morality is when you live up to your values by doing the right thing and avoiding doing bad things. Personally, I believe that there are more factors involve with the concept of morality. Social and cultural factors are significant in determining the true meaning of the word morality. That is why morality is really doing what the society is expecting of us to do. Morality is determined by the actions that are dictated by society that are deemed to be acceptable or good. We live in an evolving world wherein our concept of morality changes through time. What is acceptable now might not be acceptable before and vice versa. We live in a society wherein we are considered immoral if we do not follow the conventional way of doing things. In a way, society's concept of morality confines us to only do what is expected of us and what society deems the right thing to do.