What Is The Theme Of Nick Joaquin's Story May Day Eve?

The main theme that is present in May Day Eve by Nick Joaquin is magic realism, sometimes known as magical realism. Other strong theme that is recurrent within the short story is the theme of true love.

• Magic realism

Magic realism is a genre of fiction that occurs when elements of the magical world start to blend or mix with the real world. In a story that incorporates magic realism, the magical elements are usually described or explained as real occurrences and are presented in a very straightforward way, almost as if their occurrence is entirely normal.

This theme of magic realism can also be seen in some of Joaquin's other works such as The Mass of St. Sylvester, Candido's Apocalypse and Doña Jeronima. May Day Eve, along with these other novels, utilized magic realism before it significantly grew in popularity amongst Latin American novels.

• May Day Eve

May Day Eve was first published in 1947 and was originally aimed at adults. However it is now viewed as Joaquin's signature story and has become a classic in Philippine literature in English. May Day Eve is also now a required and rather important piece of reading material for most Filipino students.

• Brief introduction to characters

There are several main characters that regularly occur during the story of May Day Eve. The main male and female characters are Badoy and Agueda, although other main characters include Anatacia, Agueda's daughter and Badoy's grandson Voltare.

Badoy and Agueda are thought to have opposite personalities. Agueda is described as being "ahead of her time" in the way that she is non-conformist in a time where men were dominate and women seen as subordinate to men. She is a very bold and liberated character. On the other hand, Badoy was once a very promiscuous young men who was out to prove his masculinity. However, he then realized that he was very much in love with Agueda.