Modernization Creates Alienation

Many of Joaquin's characters experience feelings of alienation as a result of the more ambiguous and rapidly shifting modern era, which serves to illustrate a distinct existential shift between the traditional Spanish-influenced Philippines, and post-American colonization twentieth century Philippines. Several of the stories in "The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic" occur between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, a time when industrialization, globalization (particularly westernization), and modernity were drastically shifting the cultural, political, and economic climate in the Philippines. This historical shift disrupts the national social order and therefore forces characters to question or even reject what were once traditional ways of life. Though the prioritization of the individual, rationality, and even industrialization and secularization can lead to positive progressive social changes such as gender equality or more equitable economic opportunity, these forces also propel the nation into...