a tale of two chances

Introduction
A tale of to chances deals with the story of a family who suffered and given a second chance to live and take care   each other.

The article “A Tale of Two Chances” was written on one Friday, February 4, 2011 at 10:22am when he, Paulo Bedonia Masangcay was abroad, working as an OFW. In his article, he narrated and described the pains his father experienced when he suffered from dementia and rushed to the hospital because of coughing terribly. He told and shared to the readers how he felt when he received the news of what happened to his old father that was suffering from illness and he was not there to take good care of. He also mentioned in the article that after God had given his father a chance to live, it is also a chance for him to show his love for his father like what he showed for his mother and he promised to take good care of him when he returns home on summer of this year.

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

For syntax:

The author/writer made use of two different tenses: past tense and future tense. For the first part of the article, he made used of the past tense of the verbs that shows that he wrote the details from the past maybe not really that old but it shows that it happened in the past. Examples of these are the following sentences and paragraph.

Examples: The news that my father was rushed to the hospital I learned via the most widely-used social networking site in the world – friendster! Kidding. Of course, facebook! It was my brother in Kazakhstan who posted it on my wall; but instead of pounding my keyboard to ask him for the details, I grabbed my cell phone and in a span of one minute, I was able to send my inquiries to the rest of my family. Seconds of waiting for their replies seemed a lifetime. I was restless. I guess it’s typical of my discretion to have some gloomy thoughts, taken into consideration my father’s old age and his present health condition (he is suffering from dementia). Simultaneously, I was painfully thinking of the possibility of losing him and praying to God to prolong his life, while my eyes were glued to the cell phone lying about 1-foot away from me. For the very first time in my life as an OFW, I felt alienated from my phone. It wasn’t like before when I would always be excited to read messages from the Philippines – those sort of texts ranging from my mother’s news about domestic stuff (like having newly hatched, wiggling chicks in the backyard, or how my favorite dog, Fulgoso, scared the hell out of our neighbors’ dogs after he snapped his chain and stormed into the open) to my siblings’ proud recollection of my nephews’ and nieces’ outstanding academic performance during the previous week. That Sunday was totally different. An utter apprehension was written all over my face as I anticipated hearing my cp’s text alert tone. And the messages came in one after another. The first one made me even more fretful because the sender (my eldest sister) was telling me to ask our nurse sister about what really happened. After reading all my folks’ replies, I had a clear picture of what actually transpired that day back home.

Underlined verbs in the given paragraph example showed that the writer shared an event in him and his family’s live that almost caused his father’s death.

While at the latter part of the article, the writer made use of future tense of the verb that shows that he is looking forward of the day he will come back to The Philippines and take good care of his father and show his love for him that he never did before and he promised it to himself after realizing the worth of the chance God had given to him and his family.

Example: For now, let me enjoy my gift until the day I go back home come summer of this year. Let me wash my guilt as I promise to pick those young pomelo leaves and have their aroma mixed with the lukewarm water I will personally prepare for my old man’s morning bath. Let me be there and make the most of my being there for him. Let me play my part in this amazing chance I shouldn’t miss.

Underlined words and phrases showed the he is looking forward to the day when he can show the love and use the chance that God had given.

As I read the article for many times, I also noticed that the writer made used of adjectives that added to the long second/minute of time he waited for the replies of his siblings that used to be there beside their father when he was rushed into the hospital. It shows that he impatiently waited for the news and the details he asked for using technology like cell phone.

Example: Seconds of waiting for their replies seemed a lifetime. I was restless. I guess it’s typical of my discretion to have some gloomy thoughts, taken into consideration my father’s old age and his present health condition (he is suffering from dementia). Simultaneously, I was painfully thinking of the possibility of losing him and praying to God to prolong his life, while my eyes were glued to the cell phone lying about 1-foot away from me. For the very first time in my life as an OFW, I felt alienated from my phone. It wasn’t like before when I would always be excited to read messages from the Philippines.

Less than thirty minutes of painful travel elapsed, and soon they made it to the hospital.

          The adjectives or words used added to the intensity of impatience of the author in waiting. And the effect these was that he was able to think of the negative things that might happen to his father and it just made him worry more because he cannot do anything but to wait for every update from his siblings.

For semantics:

The author used words familiar to him that emphasized the message of the article and the message of the article stronger.

Example: God is amazing.  This description of the Almighty has been said and used a million times, and somehow, it has lost its meaning (talk about “used-upness” of something). descriptive word – amazing. Yes, He is amazing that sometimes I feel undeserving of His continuous favors. He is amazing that even though I’ve got a number of shortcomings, still, He is unselfishly ever ready to give a second, third, fourth – or perhaps even an infinite number of chances!

Out of despair, my nurse sister was literally jumping like a lunatic (her own description), for the flimsy hope of survival seemed to waver even more.

Conclusion

          As I finish my analysis for the article, syntactic features and semantic features made a big impact in delivering the message the writer is trying to communicate. It made the story stronger and more believable. It added the sympathy the readers felt after reading the article. The author also made use of simple words that help the readers understand easily the story and the message the writer wanted to share. And probably, this article will be very inspiring for those who experienced the same thing that happened to Paulo Bedonia Masangcay and do the same thing after given a new CHANCE.