ASEAN Literature: Discovering Identity Amidst Diversity 135

Indonesia

FICTION 1

Objectives
Determine the meanings of unfamiliar words through picture clues.
Distinguish the components of attitude as through completing a
concept map.
Identify the attitude of the main character towards marriage.
Infer the feelings or emotions depicted in the dialogues of the main
character.

Pre-reading Activity
Examine the given pictures depicting unfamiliar terms listed in the first column and match
each word to its meaning from the choices found in the second column by connecting dots
between them.

Geron, C.D., Baxa, E.N., & Bañez, R.M. (2020). ASEAN literature: Discovering identity amidst diversity.
Batangas City, Philippines: Batangas State University.
 ASEAN Literature: Discovering Identity Amidst Diversity 136

Complete the concept map on the components of attitude by selecting statement from the
given choices that illustrates each component.

Figure. Components of attitude towards marriage

Statements revealing components of attitude

While-reading Activity
Read Mrs. Geni in December by Arswendo Atmowiloto and pay attention to the emotions
expressed by dialogues delivered by the main character. Complete the table by selecting an
emoticon that can best describe the emotion/feeling depicted in each dialogue lifted from the
story.

Emotion/feeling expressed by each

Dialogues
dialogue
“This child is already pregnant. Why are
you hiding it? Why are you embarrassed?”
“Can’t be like this. You have to be happy
first.”
“You all stress about working out an
auspicious date, what sort of matching
clothes to have, and it all has no connection
with the marriage itself.”
“Because something strange is thought of
as normal, the people who do not marry,
who are widows or widowers, are even
thought of as strange.”
“I’ve never thought about getting divorced.
Have I thought about killing him? Often.”

Geron, C.D., Baxa, E.N., & Bañez, R.M. (2020). ASEAN literature: Discovering identity amidst diversity.
Batangas City, Philippines: Batangas State University.
 ASEAN Literature: Discovering Identity Amidst Diversity 137

Emoticons expressing varied moods or feelings

Mrs. Geni in December

by Arswendo Atmowiloto

“For Mrs. Geni, every month is December. Last month, the present
month, or next month, they all mean December. So, if you have to deal with Mrs.
Geni, it is better not to rely on dates, but rather on the day. If you want to book
her, you have to say, “Two Fridays from this Friday.” If you say the seventeenth,
you could be in trouble because the seventeenth won’t necessarily be a Friday. If
you book her for the seventeenth, she might just not show up on the day.
The problem is a great many people deal with Mrs. Geni. For anyone
wanting to arrange the wedding of a child, there is only one choice. Mrs. Geni.
Bridal makeup artist. There are many other bridal makeup artists, but none can
match Mrs. Geni. Even after considering the many other beauty salons, people
stay with the choice of Mrs. Geni.
According to past clients, Mrs. Geni is no ordinary makeup artist. She
can transform a would-be bride and make her so beautiful she is truly stunning.
Unrecognizable. One of her specialities is to infuse cigarette smoke onto the face
of the would-be bride. According to tradition, she explains, this is bronzing,
applying a bronze, not gold, hue to the skin. Almost every bridal makeup artist
uses this technique, but none can match her skill. One time at a wedding the host
fainted because she thought the daughter she was marrying off had disappeared.
The mother of the bride-to-be fainted, the father became embarrassed, and all the
relatives started to search for the bride at friends’ houses. Even after she was
found, the mother of the bride-to-be could not accept it. “That is not my child.
That is not my child,” she exclaimed.
“Well, if it is not your child, that makes her my child. Let’s go home.”
Only later the mother of the bride-to-be realized, and said, “How is it
possible that my child could be as beautiful as this?”
Despite this, Mrs. Geni does not always please everyone. Her voice is
loud and the people who have to listen to her do become annoyed. “This child is
already pregnant. Why are you hiding it? Why are you embarrassed? To have
children, to be able to fall pregnant, this is a gift. This is not something to cover
up, to be squeeze down inside clothes. It is your own child, right.”
If I’m not wrong, the incident happened at the district head’s house. As a
result, the news spread and continued to reverberate long after the incident was
over. Another wedding ceremony was almost cancelled simply because Mrs.
Geni saw a sad face on the bride-to-be. Usually two or three days before a
ceremony, Mrs. Geni needs to meet the bride-to-be in person. Why not with the
bridegroom-to-be? “Well, his fate rests right here, right?”

Geron, C.D., Baxa, E.N., & Bañez, R.M. (2020). ASEAN literature: Discovering identity amidst diversity.
Batangas City, Philippines: Batangas State University.
 ASEAN Literature: Discovering Identity Amidst Diversity 138

When she met the soon-to-be-bride who she felt had the sad face, Mrs.
Geni said, “Can’t be like this. You have to be happy first.” No matter that the
invitations had already been sent out, the reception hall been paid for in advance,
and, more importantly, the food been prepared. The story wouldn’t have been
unusual if it had ended in cancellation. What was unusual was that two days
later, a bus crashed off a cliff into a gorge. As it turned out, if the wedding had
actually gone ahead and not been cancelled, there was a big chance the
bridegroom-to-be would have gone into the gorge because he had in fact planned
to travel on that very bus, at that very time.
Mrs. Geni’s story continues next with the time she was asked to do the
makeup of the daughter of a government minister – possibly a senior
coordinating minister – but she replied, “Just tell the daughter to come to my
house. A lot of people here are going to be put out if I leave them.”
Last seventeenth of August, the neighbors in her area waited to see
whether Mrs. Geni would put up the national red and white flag at her house,
because in Mrs. Geni’s estimation that was the same as 17 August. As it turned
out, Mrs. Geni did have a flag put up. “What’s wrong with flying the flag on the
seventeenth of December?” she asked.
The officials in the village were happy too, because if Mrs. Geni hadn’t
put out the flag on the anniversary of independence, there could have been a
problem. On the following thirty-first of December, Mrs. Geni did not object to
having a party at her house. But to her, the following day was not New Year’s
Day, but rather 1 December again.
Many people say that Mrs. Geni’s magic is to always look young. And
Mrs. Geni does indeed seem to have always looked the same, whether it’s doing
the makeup for a neighbor, or doing it for her own child. Her face and
appearance are the same. The photos taken at the time can prove this, along with
the photos taken over the following 20 years. Or maybe also the 20 years before
that.
“Marriage is the most illogical of ceremonies. It causes a lot of trouble.
You all stress about working out an auspicious date, what sort of matching
clothes to have, and it all has no connection with the marriage itself. Just look at
the people who make the speeches at a wedding, the people who delivery advice
to the newlyweds. That is the most boring part, the part that is listened to the
least. But it is always included. That’s weddings for you.” It is somewhat odd for
these words to come from Mrs. Geni, because she in fact makes her living from
weddings. “Yes, it is strange. Isn’t marriage a strange thing. Because something
strange is thought of as normal, the people who do not marry, who are widows or
widowers, are even thought of as strange.”
On a different occasion, Mrs. Geni said, “The strange expression ‘soul
mate’ hides the fear or questions that we do not have the courage to answer. ‘Oh,
such and such is my soul mate.’ We commonly speak like that. Or if it fails, ‘Oh,
such and such was not my soul mate.'” Mrs. Geni then laughs at length. “So, is
my soul mate actually Mr. Geni? Because I married Mr. Geni, he becomes my
soul mate. Not, because Mr. Geni was my soul mate therefore I married him. It
would have been different if before that I had not married Mr. Geni. Then he
would not have been my soul mate.”
Why marry Mr. Geni at the time?
“Yes, because it was time to get married, like everyone else.”
Does that then mean it wasn’t out of love that I married Mr. Geni?
“As with soul mates, as soon as you marry, well, that has to be accepted

Geron, C.D., Baxa, E.N., & Bañez, R.M. (2020). ASEAN literature: Discovering identity amidst diversity.
Batangas City, Philippines: Batangas State University.
 ASEAN Literature: Discovering Identity Amidst Diversity 139

as love. That is more important. Because if you rely on love beforehand it might
not last. What you have, that is what you love, whether there is love before or
not.”
The question arises because there is word that Mr. Geni is to marry
again. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. And I will do the makeup for the bride,” she
says easily, in a flat, almost emotionless, tone. “To try to forbid it would be hard,
and it would be useless anyway. Just let him do it.”
Maybe that is the reason Mrs. Geni is still happy to do the makeup for
the soon-to-be-brides who are to become second or third wives. “Let people feel
joy once in their lives.” For Mrs. Geni, marriage is joy, happiness. “If someone
does not even feel happy when they get married, they aren’t going to find any
other joy.”
According to Mrs. Geni, no marriage really fails because marriage itself
is not a success. “All you need is a little courage and a lot of foolishness. That is
what is needed for a marriage. In order to divorce on the other hand, you need to
have a lot of courage and a small amount of foolishness.”
Has Mrs. Geni ever thought about divorcing Mr. Geni?
“I’ve never thought about getting divorced. Have I thought about killing
him? Often.”
And so, Mrs. Geni, bridal makeup artist, has done the makeup for all the
women in her village. You could say, for everyone who has been married, and
for those who have not. The latter are done by Mrs. Geni as bodies when women
pass away having never married. Before burial, Mrs. Geni makes them up fully.
Many disapprove, for many it is regrettable, still others fear being made up.
“Frightened it will come true in the marriage. Frightened of being too happy, too
free, too enjoyable, so that’s why we commit ourselves to a marriage that
regulates responsibilities so much, regulates obligations, including the provision
of a living, and the raising of children. Only it’s strange, but basically, we are
afraid of our own happiness, and restrict it through the existence of God’s
power.”
Even though she says that humanity’s most restricting and frightening
discovery is marriage, Mrs. Geni continues to do peoples’ makeup, still uses the
infusion of cigarette smoke. For someone able to make time for herself – even
though it is still tied to December – Mrs. Geni is able to do the makeup for
people, bodies, bridal statues and trees as well as buffaloes. Mrs. Geni also
chants the bridal mantra, breathes the three breaths onto the bride’s crown, with
the same seriousness she uses to fast before making someone up. “Let the
buffaloes experience happiness, just as we have believed all this time that
marriage is happiness.”
Fortunately, all of this only happens in December.

Post Reading Activity

Theme
1. What belief does Mrs. Geni hold about marriage? How does this belief influence her
work as a makeup artist for bride-to-be?
2. Mrs. Geni considers marriage as “not a success,” how does this idea relate to her own
marriage and her reason for marrying her husband?

Geron, C.D., Baxa, E.N., & Bañez, R.M. (2020). ASEAN literature: Discovering identity amidst diversity.
Batangas City, Philippines: Batangas State University.
 ASEAN Literature: Discovering Identity Amidst Diversity 140

3. How does Mrs. Geni react on the upcoming marriage of his husband to his second bride?
What does she mean when she says that she will personally do the makeup for her
husband’s second bride?
4. Whenever Mrs. Geni does the makeup for the brides who are second and third wives, she
makes them feel the joy of wedding ceremony. What does this action reveal about her
attitude toward marriage?
5. What is the significance of this concluding statement from Mrs. Geni, “Let the buffaloes
experience happiness, just as we have believed all this time that marriage is happiness”?

Literary Approach: Formalism

1. Which situation is emphasized in the story? What do you think is the writer’s attitude
towards this situation? Explain.
2. What is the dominant mood expressed among the dialogues of the main character in the
story? How does this mood affect the readers?

Things to Remember:
A. Tone refers to the methods by which writers and speakers reveal attitude or
feelings – toward the material, toward their readers, and toward the general
situation that they are describing or analyzing.
B. The authors’ attitude or attitude toward the subject matter and toward the
readers may be deduced by reading the selection carefully.

Creating with Them

Accomplish any of the following tasks.
1. Create a meme on marriage and relationship.
2. Take a photo of any object available at home that can symbolize marriage and
relationship and compose a quotation to express this idea.
3. Film a short monologue on your attitude towards marriage and relationship.

On a Personal Note
Write a quatrain expressing your argument on the idea that marriage is the most illogical of
all ceremonies.

Geron, C.D., Baxa, E.N., & Bañez, R.M. (2020). ASEAN literature: Discovering identity amidst diversity.
Batangas City, Philippines: Batangas State University.