America
The country of America is more than just a nation and a destination; it is the embodiment of hope, freedom from oppression, and a brighter future--ideals that the author-narrator so dearly desires for himself and his family. America is the land where a person can become anything that he wants to be so long as he’s willing to work hard and sacrifice for it--at least that’s what he was told. Upon getting to America however he gets a taste of cold, bitter reality but rather than morph into a metaphor for disappointment for the author-narrator, it changes into a metaphor for a beautiful yet unfinished ideal of hope and betterment.
The Philippines
In contrast to America, the Philippines embodies hopelessness, a nation under the sway of a handful of people who care little about the majority who live in squalid conditions. The Philippines, more than being a metaphor for hopelessness may also be seen as a metaphor for failure. In many ways, the Philippines, at least as much as the author-narrator is concerned, is just that a failed attempt at nation building.
The Farm/Agricultural Life
Farms and farm life in general in the Philippines is equated by the author-narrator to poverty and stagnation; indeed the farm becomes the very symbol of that condition and one can hardly blame him for thinking that. Agricultural life means long hours under the hot sun, immersed knee-deep in stinking mud, farming land that does not belong to your family, for profit you can barely keep for yourself--all elements that will ensure that the farmer and his family will be kept poor and very likely, die poor.
Education as a Metaphor for Hope
The author-narrator sees education as a beacon of hope and a means of opening up opportunities that might not have been previously available to him. To him, it is the great equalizer and a weapon against the crushing poverty that he and his family are faced with on a daily basis.
Poverty
Poverty exists on many levels in the novel and it functions almost like an antagonist in the novel. Poverty is symbolic of many things but mostly, poverty is equated with powerlessness; when one is poor one is all but powerless to fight against hunger, disease, ignorance, and the predations of the more ruthless members of society or against exploitative systems. For the author-narrator to be poor is to be powerless, to be poor is to be mute, to be poor is to be invisible.
