Stylistic Analysis of “A Tale Of Two Chances”by Paulo Bedonia Masangcay

The short essay is composed of six paragraphs. The narrative essay tells us about the life of an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker) whose Father had a recent health condition. Looking at the title, we cannot infer right away that this is an essay. Readers may categorize this as a short story, but looking at the way it is written, It is considered as an essay.

The reason I categorized the text as an essay is simple. Notice that the essay is communicated through the use of the first person perspective. The implied second person in the story is the Reader. This is one of the most obvious characteristics of an essay. Though the author meant to tell a story, he did not use dialogues or lines that shows that the characters are talking to each other, but he himself told the story, like he is the only character and narrator talking to a particular audience (which is the reader/s). and instead of using a short story format where there are lines that come from the characters in the story he was telling, e.g. his sister, who may tell him an example line like “Dad is OK so stop worrying you’ll just stress yourself out.” The author used the usual way of telling the story to other people, through the use of the first person perspective, whilst talking/communicating to another person (2^nd Person).

Notice that the essay contains “stress points” where particular words are stressed out signifying how important they are in the essay. These words also stressed so that the meaning is very well established especially for Filipino readers. The words and their corresponding meaning in the Filipino contexts are identified in Figure 1. below

Amazing	Emphasized to establish how Powerful and Mighty God is with the readers, and how God has proven to him his might. Basically stressed out as a Testimony.
used-upness	In the Filipino context, Used-up is overrated. Or “gasgas na”. It shows how he Transcended from this idea to –“Amazingness”
Best	Basically stressing the word is very Redundant, because the word is the superlative degree, but again, it is to show how he was awed by his experience.
Almost	Really close, or in Filipino, “Muntik na Talaga” was stressed out how close to death the author’s father was and how he worried so much for him.
I’ve got my reasons	This was stressed out to tell the readers that he has the same reason for loving his mother more than his father with some of the readers. Also this was somehow saying that they he need not to explain why he loves his mother more.
Birthday	The emphasis on his birthday, as his father walked out of the hospital somehow says that it was miraculous because his father walked out of the hospital on the day he was born.