Brief Synopsis of the Novel
Someone asked for more info about the novel. Here's a synopsis that I wrote for a grant application recently, which I'm afraid is long on plot but short on thematics. The plot points feel clumsy as written here, but hopefully they'll be more gracefully rendered in the actual work. Anyway....
Brief Synopsis of _To See_
Blind since infancy, Ninya Morales looks back on her life when she returns to Talaksan, the rural hamlet of the Philippines where she grew up, after more than a decade of living in America. She remembers her early childhood, when Nanay Cora, her grandmother, teaches her how to wink, picks fruit with her, and gives her the freedom to run. She is also close to her father, Roberto, who tells Ninya old Filipino tales to lull her to sleep. Then there is Tino, a mischievous next-door neighbor who teases Ninya about being blind. When Tino steals Ninya’s stash of mangoes, she tries to run after him and suffers a bad fall as a result. Ninya is also confronted with Marissa, her resentful city-born mother who was forced to marry Ninya’s father after she became pregnant, and as a result could not immigrate to America with her family.
After a decade-long wait for a visa, the Morales family eventually moves to a suburb in California, where Ninya’s Papa and Mama work in her grandfather’s nursing home business. Despite her blindness, Ninya exhibits great academic promise and does well in school. Ninya’s mother decides to divorce her father, and a work opportunity forces Roberto to move to New York just as Ninya is applying to colleges. Ninya wants to be closer to Roberto, but her mother expressly forbids her to apply to schools outside California. Ninya learns that her grandfather had once dreamed of going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and would force her mother to let Ninya go if she got accepted. In her application essay, Ninya explains that she would like to participate in research that would enable people such as herself to have their sight restored.
Ninya goes to MIT, where she ends up becoming an assistant in a laboratory that does research in retinal implant technology. She finds herself becoming enamored with Tom, a graduate student in the laboratory who reminds her of a voice from American television that she was quite fond of as a child. They eventually become a couple, and Tom asks Ninya to marry him shortly before she graduates. At the same time, Ninya also prepares to become one of the first patients to receive the retinal implants that she herself has helped develop. But two weeks before her scheduled operation, she receives word that Nanay Cora has died in the Philippines. She decides to return home.
Back in Talaksan, Ninya finds herself full of remorse over the death of her grandmother, who she hadn’t visited in the intervening years. She then rediscovers the old haunts of her childhood with the help of Tino, the neighborhood boy who had been cruel to her, and who himself is sorry about his old behavior and tries to make up. Ninya eventually realizes that she needs to stay in the Philippines, at least for a while, and writes Tom a letter informing him of her decision.
A little more than a week passes, and Ninya wakes from a nap one afternoon to the sound of Tom’s voice. He has come all the way from America to get her, to show her the depth of his love. Ninya asks Tom if he would still love her even if she didn’t have the eye operation, because she has come to believe that her life would be better if she remains as she is. Tom’s silence exposes the gulf between them, and he returns to America without her. It is late in the afternoon when Ninya’s story ends, as she waits for familiar steps coming from the back of the house, which signal the coming of her husband from the fields. Eventually, she feels a hand on her shoulder. It is Tino, the mischievous boy who has become the man she loves most of all.
Brief Synopsis of _To See_
Blind since infancy, Ninya Morales looks back on her life when she returns to Talaksan, the rural hamlet of the Philippines where she grew up, after more than a decade of living in America. She remembers her early childhood, when Nanay Cora, her grandmother, teaches her how to wink, picks fruit with her, and gives her the freedom to run. She is also close to her father, Roberto, who tells Ninya old Filipino tales to lull her to sleep. Then there is Tino, a mischievous next-door neighbor who teases Ninya about being blind. When Tino steals Ninya’s stash of mangoes, she tries to run after him and suffers a bad fall as a result. Ninya is also confronted with Marissa, her resentful city-born mother who was forced to marry Ninya’s father after she became pregnant, and as a result could not immigrate to America with her family.
After a decade-long wait for a visa, the Morales family eventually moves to a suburb in California, where Ninya’s Papa and Mama work in her grandfather’s nursing home business. Despite her blindness, Ninya exhibits great academic promise and does well in school. Ninya’s mother decides to divorce her father, and a work opportunity forces Roberto to move to New York just as Ninya is applying to colleges. Ninya wants to be closer to Roberto, but her mother expressly forbids her to apply to schools outside California. Ninya learns that her grandfather had once dreamed of going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and would force her mother to let Ninya go if she got accepted. In her application essay, Ninya explains that she would like to participate in research that would enable people such as herself to have their sight restored.
Ninya goes to MIT, where she ends up becoming an assistant in a laboratory that does research in retinal implant technology. She finds herself becoming enamored with Tom, a graduate student in the laboratory who reminds her of a voice from American television that she was quite fond of as a child. They eventually become a couple, and Tom asks Ninya to marry him shortly before she graduates. At the same time, Ninya also prepares to become one of the first patients to receive the retinal implants that she herself has helped develop. But two weeks before her scheduled operation, she receives word that Nanay Cora has died in the Philippines. She decides to return home.
Back in Talaksan, Ninya finds herself full of remorse over the death of her grandmother, who she hadn’t visited in the intervening years. She then rediscovers the old haunts of her childhood with the help of Tino, the neighborhood boy who had been cruel to her, and who himself is sorry about his old behavior and tries to make up. Ninya eventually realizes that she needs to stay in the Philippines, at least for a while, and writes Tom a letter informing him of her decision.
A little more than a week passes, and Ninya wakes from a nap one afternoon to the sound of Tom’s voice. He has come all the way from America to get her, to show her the depth of his love. Ninya asks Tom if he would still love her even if she didn’t have the eye operation, because she has come to believe that her life would be better if she remains as she is. Tom’s silence exposes the gulf between them, and he returns to America without her. It is late in the afternoon when Ninya’s story ends, as she waits for familiar steps coming from the back of the house, which signal the coming of her husband from the fields. Eventually, she feels a hand on her shoulder. It is Tino, the mischievous boy who has become the man she loves most of all.