Teacher Guide to "The Wedding Dance" by Amador Daguio By Rebecca Ray "The Wedding Dance" is a power house of raw emotion contained in such a short story. As the reader is drawn into the story of love versus cultural reality with Awiyao leaving Lumnay for another woman to "give him a child", it jars with our contemporary view of the world. Use this teacher guide to get the most out of the story and explore the deep symbolism and themes contained within.
A Quick Plot Spoiler of "The Wedding Dance" “The Wedding Dance” by Amador Daguio is a short story about a husband and wife, Awiyao and Lumnay, who had been married for seven years. In spite of being in love with his wife, Lumnay, Awiyao feels the need to marry another in order to have a son. At his second marriage celebration Awiyao went to check on Lumnay knowing she was upset. Awiyao thought the answer to Lumnay's sorrow would be to have her join the other women during the wedding dance. Lumnay was in fact at his wedding, but left because she could not stand the idea of her husband marrying another woman because she could not give him children. Part of the story’s theme is Awiyao’s lack of regard for Lumnay’s feelings and his willingness to abandon her.
Essential Questions for “The Wedding Dance” : 1. What is your legacy? 2. How important is having children to you? How important is it in your family? What about in your culture? 3. When is love not enough to conquer all?
Activities for "The Wedding Dance" Create a Plot diagram for The Wedding Dance! A common used case for students is to create a plot diagram of the events from a story. Not only is this a great way to teach the parts of plot, but to reinforce major events and help students develop greater understanding for literary structures. Students can create and show a storyboard that captures the concept of the narrative arc in a story by creating a six cell storyboard that contains the major parts of the plot diagram. For each cell, have students create a scene that follows the story in sequence using; Exposition, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.
Plot Diagram Example "The Wedding Dance":
Exposition The setting is in a mountain village of the Philippines where Awiyao has just been remarried.
Conflict Awiyao has left his wife Lumnay, who he loved very much. However, she couldn’t give him a child. He has now married Madulimay in hopes to have a son, who will continue on his legacy. This is something Awiyao expresses as important in his culture. However, Lumnay is upset because she loves Awiyao and doesn’t want this separation.
Rising Action Outside of their house the women of the village are dancing in celebration of the wedding. Awiyao leaves to try and comfort Lumnay. He offers her the house, fields, and his mothers beads, all of which are items of the life that they built together. This however, is not what Lumnay wants. Despite her repeated attempts to sway him, Awiyao stands steadfast that they cannot be together because he needs a child.
Climax Awiyao finally leaves to re-join the wedding and Lumnay runs to the hills.
Falling Action
Lumnay sits on the side of the mountain overlooking the blazing fire and dancing women, thinking about how her life has changed. She has a sense of desperation, isolation, and worthlessness.
Resolution The reader is left not knowing what will become of Lumnay.
reate a Character Map to Track Important Traits! While students are reading it is often helpful to use a storyboard that creates a character reference log. A character map allows students to recall important information about the characters. When reading a story it is often little attributes that later return and become an important detail in the plot. Through the use of character mapping students will not miss this information and will be able to better follow along and catch subtle fine points which makes reading more enjoyable.
Major Characters
Lumnay Awiyao’s former wife who is still in love with him despite the fact he married another.
Awiyao The lead male in the story who loves Lumnay, but left her because she didn’t produce children for him. The story takes place the night of his new wedding to Madulimay.
Madulimay Awiyao’s new wife, who is younger and he hopes to have children with
Show Your Understanding of Symbolism with this Storyboard! A valuable aspect of any work of literature is the concept of symbolism. Part of the common core ELA strands is to introduce and explain this complex concept. Much like themes these ideas are abstract and are often difficult to get students grasp on their own. This is why using a storyboard is so helpful. They allow students to visually demonstrate their understanding of a concept likesymbolism.
An example of this in the classroom could be to track the six symbols that this story uses to send a strong lesson to its readers.
6 Elements of Symbolism
Gangsas The gangsas are significant because they are culturally important to the story. The sound of the gangsas represents the man in the wedding ceremony. Like the gangsas, they are strong and provide beat to the dance, or ‘beat’ to life.
Dancing Culturally the dancing is a celebration of happiness. However, it is a show of sexuality for women. Because Lumnay has not produced a child she feels ashamed to dance and show herself to the other men as she believes no one will look at her.
The Fire The fire or flames signify the burning intensity of both love and hate that Lumnay has for the situation.
The beads The beads in the story symbolize the promise that Awiyao made to Lumnay. They are also very precious and are worth 20 fields. The fact that Awiyao gives them to Lumnay signifies that he cherishes her and that he still believes she has worth.
The Floor A number of times the narrator draws the reader’s attention to the rattan floor as Lumnay pulls it apart. This is symbolic of their marriage unweaving.
The Night The setting is at night which aids symbolically to the darkness and isolation that Lumnay feels as she runs away from the village.
Talk About The Theme of Letting Love Go! Valuable aspects of any work of literature is the concept of theme. Part of the common core ELA strands is to introduce and explain this complex concept. However, abstract
ideas are often difficult to get students to anatomize without much assistance. Howbeit, using a storyboard students can visually demonstrate their understanding of a concepts like theme. An example of this in the classroom could be to track the theme of this story uses to send a strong lesson to its readers.
Theme for Discussion
If you truly love a person, you must let them be happy: Have you ever heard the saying “if you love someone let them go”? Well, the story of Lumnay and Awiyao is very similar to this. Despite how upsetting it is to Lumnay, she must let Awiyao go. Not only because it is a cultural issue, but it is also because he has made it clear to her that he will not be happy without a child.
For this assignment you can have students come up with times that they had to let something they love go. This is a great discussion starter for this theme! Plot of the story wedding dance by Amador Daguio?
The character's goal in the story was to have a child because in their tribe they need to have a child . the main problem was lumnay and awiyao can't have a child so awiyao needs to marry another woman , madulimay. If I were confronted with the same problem , I would get really hurt if my husband were to marry another woman because we cannot have a child and it will hurt because I know that he loves me but yet he needs to find another for he's own good and for his responsibilities. The type of conflict was man vs. man or man vs. itself because in man vs. man the people in his tribe is telling him to marry another in man vs. itself he loves lumnay but he needs to marry another so he is making a hard decision. They solved the problem by thinking it over. They talked to each other. The best part of the story was the ending because I think when lumnay went to the wedding dance and its like she wanted to go there but she couldn't its like she already moved on even though it hurts. No , because I thought that it will be lumnay and awiyao because they love each other but yet awiyao married another. If I could end the story I would end it by lumnay and awiyao would be together even though they cannot have a child because if they love each other
they should be together because I believe that if you love someone you should fight for him/her and no matter how much people criticize you for that.
The wedding dance by amador daguio?
Leovin Colibao Answered Last
The Wedding Dance by Amador T. Daguio is about Awiyao and Lumnay, a long married couple from the Mountain tribes. Awiyao is going to marry another woman, Madulimay, because Lumnay was not able to give him a child. Awiyao went back home to see Lumnay because he didn't find her among the dancers at his wedding. He wanted Lumnay to dance at his wedding for the last time but she cannot. On their moment, there are many flashbacks about how Lumnay did her best to have a child, through offering to the god, Kabunyan; and how Awiyao and Lumnay's love was as strong as the river; but "it is just that a man must have a child", and he had to leave her. He promised her that if he fails to have a child, he will come back to her. She wanted to protest against the written rule that a man can marry another woman, so Lumnay went to the wedding dance. But while seeing her husband married to another woman, she could not take it anymore and just went to the mountain to clear away the beans she had thought about. And so Lumnay, waiting for Awiyao a long time, thought of Awiyao's promise as she cleared away the growing bean plants.
