This Power Point is a story from the American Period in the Philippine Literature.

1. SWABE GROUP
PRESENTS

2. WILL OFTHE RIVER
ALFREDO GONZALES JR.

3. BRIEF BACKGROUND OFTHE AUTHOR
Alfredo Q. Gonzales is an educator,
essayist, and civic leader in the Central
and Western Visayas. He has published
two books of essays: "the Call of the
heights" (1937) and "the Bamboo
Flower" "by my wife's ancestral home
flows a river. Almost every year I make
an effort to trace its course back to its
source," He says.

4. FULL BREAKDOWN
OFTHE STORY

5. SUMMARY OFTHE STORY
The essay "TheWill of a River" by Alfredo Q.
Gonzales, talks about a man with a friend and
his son walking the course of a river. He notices
as they walk that at one point the river can't be
seen...it has gone underground or something,
because no matter where he looks at that point,
it is undetectable. In other places, the river
seemed small or weak, but he knew that farther
down, closer to the ocean it was strong and
flowing.

6. He likens the river to our lives,
comparing the river's dedication to get to
the ocean to our dedication as we
encounter obstacles in our lives. Like
rivers, our goals should be to continue
and live for the rest of creation. A river's
strength and determination would be less
if their source were not the high and lofty
mountains, and we would be less if our
source and power did not also come
from on high (read: God).
SUMMARY OFTHE STORY

7. CHARACTERS OFTHE STORY
- Bacong- the river
-The Author
- Student Friend
- Author’s elder son

8. SETTINGS OFTHE STORY
- Ancestral House
The River -

9. CONFLICT OFTHE STORY
MAN AGAINST HIMSELF
- Internal conflicts involve the character
experiencing opposing needs, desires or
values. Sometimes, these battles
represent conflict between a character's
mind or subjective knowledge and their
heart or feelings.

10. THEME OFTHE STORY
Alfredo Gonzales Jr. explores
themes of nature, resilience,
and human connection to the
environment, using the river
as a powerful symbol of life's
ebbs and flows.

11. SYMBOLISM OFTHE STORY
The significance of this essay is that it
gives wonderful symbolisms about life.
The mountains symbolize the Divine
source, the river as one’s goal in life and
the stones as the obstacles that hinder us
in our earnest attempts to success.

12. MORAL LESSON OFTHE STORY
Our life should be like that of the river in the essay which
flowed in continuity no matter how many the stones there
are. There are only two ways to face challenges in life and that
is to either overcome them or undercome them. To overcome
means to surpass the trials while to undercome means to just
allow some things to pass and just stay calm amidst all the
hardships. The most important thing to remember is to enjoy
this road of life by appreciating all the moments of the trip
along the way.
“If you cannot overcome an obstacle, you can
undercome it.”

13. AMERICAN PERIOD INFLUENCES
ONTHE STORY:
• Architectural structure in houses
• The influence of famous people like Galileo,
Beethoven, Stevenson, Cecil Rhodes
• The existence of Ministry in the Philippines
• The use of English language in the story