The Woman Who Had Two Navels Essay Questions

What is the significance of the two navels Connie claims to have in The Woman Who Had Two Navels?

Connie Escovar's self-diagnosed condition of having two navels is the multifaceted symbol shining at the center of the novel. Representing Connie's feeling that dual forces are operating within her, the two navels she claims to have can be interpreted in several ways. In one sense, Connie's two navels speak to the emotional distress she feels as a sensitive person torn between an allegiance to the wealthy but spiritually bankrupt high-society world of her parents and the humble, virtuous world she escapes to in the Chinese quarter when she is a teenager. Her inner turmoil is also present in her relationship with Macho, an upper-class man who lacks the cultural authenticity of Paco, a musician with whom Connie becomes obsessed. Connie's dual bellybuttons can also be interpreted as a physical manifestation of her Filipino identity. As a people colonized by Spain and America, Filipinos live with the severed umbilical cords of the two nations that have influenced the culture through colonial imposition. In this way, Connie's two navels represent not just her personal struggles with identity formation but those of anyone trying to define themselves in a culture that has been historically destabilized by foreign invaders.

Why does Joaquin repeatedly emphasize Connie's and Concha's clothing?

Throughout the novel, Joaquin draws the reader's attention to the fur coats, pearl necklaces, gold earrings, and silk dresses Connie and her mother wear. By emphasizing their clothing, Joaquin establishes that the women are of a privileged, wealthy class, far more affluent than Pepe, Paco, and their respective family members. The dazzling outfits—out of place in his cramped Hong Kong apartment—distract Pepe when he meets Connie and Concha, and his fiancée Rita Lopez is similarly taken with Concha's embroidered dragon dress. The luxury the women display denotes their affluence and the power that comes with having elevated social standing. The allure the women possess is inseparable from the lives of privilege they live. In contrast to Paco's tiny apartment full of drying clothes, Concha lives in a Manila mansion surrounded by adoring high-society types. Initially drawn in by a life so different from his own, Paco later comes to think of Connie and her mother as "evil" beings bent on watching men like him "twist." The women's supposed evilness is bound up in their wealth, which allows them to exercise power over people like Paco, who finds himself so helplessly enticed that he is willing to abandon the humble life he leads with Mary.

What is the significance of Pepe's father's childhood home in Binondo?

Pepe's father's childhood home in Manila is a symbolic representation of his ruined dream of returning to an enchanted past. Having chosen exile in Hong Kong after participating in the failed revolution in the Philippines, Doctor Monson raises his sons on stories of returning to the homeland once it gains independence from the U.S. He shares such glowing descriptions of his childhood home that Pepe comes to remember a house he has never seen more vividly than he can recall the places he has actually inhabited. When Doctor Monson visits the house in Binondo after the Philippines achieves independence in 1946, he finds only a foundation and a staircase extending to nowhere. The bleak image of his ruined home devastates Doctor Monson, and he returns to Hong Kong himself ruined. Having lost the hope that kept him going, he becomes dependent on opium and on his sons. Like his house, Doctor Monson becomes a ruin of his former self.

What is unique about Paco's musical background?

Although he is the bandleader of Tex's Tune Technicians, a band that specializes in Manila jazz, Paco learned the Philippines-influenced music style while growing up in Hong Kong. As the son of a Filipino piano player, Paco developed an interest in music at a young age. Through his childhood and adolescence, he listened to jazz performances broadcast over short-wave radio from Manila to Hong Kong. By listening to the Manila-style music, whose unique character results from the Philippines having been colonized by the United States (where jazz originated), Paco develops a sophisticated ear and becomes familiar with the local jazz clubs of Manila. Having educated himself in this way, Paco can travel on contract to Manila as an adult and play regularly at the same clubs he listened to broadcasts from as a child. Ultimately, Paco's peculiar ability to master a music style originating in a country he had never visited is emblematic of how cultural products are reinterpreted in different cultural contexts, particularly in colonized territories like the Philippines and Hong Kong, as they are transmitted across cultures.

What significant role does fatalism play in The Woman Who Had Two Navels?

As one of the novel's major themes, the concept of fatalism plays a fundamental role in The Woman Who Had Two Navels. The theme arises most explicitly in Joaquin's portrayals of Paco and Connie. For Connie, fatalism—a belief that events are inevitable because they have been predetermined—is bound up in her two navels. As a condition she conceives of herself as having had since childhood, the twin bellybuttons are a physical mark that dooms her to a life of being torn between conformity and rebellion, loyalty and betrayal. At the same time, Connie makes offerings to the idol with two navels in the temple, suggesting that there may be a more hopeful side to her belief that things are predetermined. Rather than resign herself to misery, Connie appears to pray that a higher power is watching over her and ensuring her safety—a "guardian angel," as Pepe suggests. Paco's more pessimistic fatalism emerges in his belief that his attraction to Connie is determined by evil forces beyond his control. Rather than think of himself as someone with enough will to resist his attraction to Connie, Paco tells Pepe that he is doomed to return to her when she calls, claiming that Connie and her mother have a stranglehold on him. Ultimately, both Paco and Connie think of themselves are being led toward lives that have been laid out for them; they merely have different attitudes toward accepting whatever is in store for them.