Portrait of a Great Man

Title: Portrait of a Great Man

Author: Manuel A. Viray

Background of Author: Manuel A. Viray (1917-1995?) has compiled poetry anthologies, essays on Philippine literature, and was editor-in-chief of Archipelago Quarterly. He worked in the foreign service corp of the Philippine government until his retirement. 

Vocabulary: 

• Capricious - given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior.

• Protégée - a person who is guided and supported by an older and more experienced or influential person.

• Frigidaire - is the US consumer and commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of European parent company Electrolux.

• Discrepancy - an illogical or surprising lack of compatibility or similarity between two or more facts.

Characters: 

• Dr. Rufino T. Ventanilla – Deputy Commissioner of a Bureau
• Serafin - Dr. Ventanilla's Chauffeur
• Zabala – Ventilla’s Sternotypist
• Juan Tuviera y Sibulsibul - Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Assembly
• Dr. Adriano Perez - was appointed Deputy Commissioner to succeed Dr. Ventanilla
• Marcos Montablo II – Depduty Commisioner’s Special Assistant
• Edrosa - Law partner of Ozamis, Graduate of Harvard
• Lita - Dr. Ventanilla's employee
• Del Mundo and Estabillo - the assistants on mechanization  

Setting: Philippines, Dr. Ventanilla's office building

Exposition: Dr. Rufino T. Ventanilla, a very grumpy and easily annoyed character, and his chauffeur, Serafin, speeded along the street along Mabini Avenue, to which the main building of the setting is.

RA: As Dr. Ventanilla entered the building to punch in his time in the Bundy clock he himself ordered installed according to civil service requirements he saw employees hurry and grumble because of the Bundy clock.

Climax: Dr.Ventanilla received a message from his superior, the Commissioner, firing him and being transferred to another department, we can see there that he wasn't that happy because he went outside his office to absorb the bad news that he recieved.

Falling Action: It would be when her previous employees, Perez and Marcos, make small talk about how she didn't really manage the place that well and about how she should've also distributed the work evenly among her employees so that she won't have a mountain of papers to work on first thing early in the morning.

Ending: "AFTER two weeks, Perez was appointed Deputy Commissioner to succeed Dr. Ventanilla. Now he was relaxing luxuriously in the car as Serafin drove slowly towards Mabini Avenue."

Symbolism:

• Sun - intruder of sleep and stolen love

Theme: The Working Life

Lesson: I think that even if you were this awesome guy who could do everything, you'd still need the help of people to make the stress of work spread and not only focus on you.

Bibliography:

Story: http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/stories/great_man.htm

BG of author: http://www.sushidog.com/bpss/authors.htm#viray
Vocabs: https://www.google.com.sa/