Scribd
Upload
3K views2 pages

Ang Paghuhukom - Buod

Fak leaves the monkhood to care for his ill father, but finds that his father has remarried a mentally unstable younger woman named Somsong. When his father dies, Fak is left caring for his stepmother, which leads the villagers to accuse him of an inappropriate relationship with her. As the gossip and rejection by the villagers increases, Fak spirals into despair and turns to alcohol to cope with the burden of caring for his stepmother and the judgment of the villagers.

Uploaded by

Carlo Francis Palma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
3K views2 pages

Ang Paghuhukom - Buod

Fak leaves the monkhood to care for his ill father, but finds that his father has remarried a mentally unstable younger woman named Somsong. When his father dies, Fak is left caring for his stepmother, which leads the villagers to accuse him of an inappropriate relationship with her. As the gossip and rejection by the villagers increases, Fak spirals into despair and turns to alcohol to cope with the burden of caring for his stepmother and the judgment of the villagers.

Uploaded by

Carlo Francis Palma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Adapted from "Kham Phiphaksa" ("The Judgement"), a 1985 SeaWrite award-winning novel by Chat

Kobjitti, "Ai-Fak" is the story about Fak, a young Thai man who leaves the monkhood to care for his
ailing father. When he returns home, he finds his father has married a much younger woman. She is very
beautiful, but she is also mentally unbalanced. Then the father dies, leaving Fak to care for his insane
stepmother. Soon Fak's neighbors in this remote village are talking about him, saying he is sleeping with
his stepmother. This rejection by the villagers sends Fak into a spiral of despair.

—Wise Kwai

A young man, Fak, is a revered novice Buddhist monk, and the entire village has turned out to the local
temple to hear him preach a sermon. Fak's talk is interrupted a coughing fit by his widower father,
though, and Fak struggles to maintain his focus. Fak then decides he must put aside his aspirations for
monkhood to take care of his father. Then he is conscripted by lottery into the army. He hopes that
when he completes his national service, he will return to the village, be ordained as a monk and devote
his life to religion.

On his return home from the army, the bus to his village breaks down. During the stop, Fak steps over to
the side of the road, near a lotus pond, to urinate. There, among the lotus, he sees a beautiful woman
bathing, fully clothed (as is customary in Thailand). Fak zips up and eventually arrives at home, where he
finds his father in a very happy state. His father's reason for being so happy is that he has remarried.
Fak's stepmother then appears from behind a mosquito net: it's the woman from the lotus pond. Her
name is Somsong, and though she is sweet and devoted, there is something clearly wrong with her,
perhaps some type of mental illness.

Though there are happy times, with Fak joining his father at work as a janitor for the local school, his
reunion with his father is short-lived after his father becomes ill and dies. Because Fak made a promise
to his father that he would look after his stepmother, Fak's goal of returning to the monkhood must
again be put aside.

Though Fak is well liked in the village, the villagers do not like Somsong and have labeled her "crazy".
And after Fak's father's death, the villagers start to treat Fak differently: they believe he is having an
affair with his stepmother. Fak at first ignores the gossip, but it becomes harder and harder to deny
because of Somsong's behavior. On one occasion, during a likay performance at a village fair, Fak is
accosted by Somsong after she sees Fak talking with a young woman. Somsong is suffering from
delusions that she and Fak are married, and she is jealous. Somsong also has the unfortunate habit of
shedding her clothes and running naked in public, or simply lifting her dress and exposing herself. During
one of these episodes, some villagers happen upon Fak just as he's chased the nude Somsong down and
is attempting to cover her up. But what the villagers think they are witnessing is Fak having sex with his
stepmother. Fak has been judged.
Fak has taken his father's old job as school janitor. One day a dog that's thought to be rabid wanders
onto the school grounds. Fak is given the job of killing it. He grabs a hoe and uses it to strike the animal,
hitting it with a glancing blow that only injures it and makes it angrier. Fak eventually finishes the
snarling dog off, but it is a bloody task. For a brief moment, Fak is seen as a hero by the students and
faculty, and he feels a bit better about himself.

Fak must prepare for his father's cremation. He invites the school's headmaster, the village headman
and others. He orders 50 sandalwood blossoms for attendees to place on the burning casket. But no one
shows up for the ceremony, except for the monks he engaged to chant over his father, and the local
undertaker.

Fak makes friends with the undertaker, a lowly person who is not well liked by the superstitious villagers
because they believe he is unclean. Even Fak didn't particularly like the man, but after Fak tells him that
he has never had sexual relations with Somsong, the man believes him.

After the cremation rite, the undertaker offers Fak some rice whiskey. Fak at first doesn't like the taste
or the way it makes him feel. But he has a few more drinks and starts enjoy himself. Looking for relief
from the pressure of taking care of his mentally ill stepmother and the harsh judgment of the villagers,
Fak turns to the bottle and becomes an alcoholic. His downward spiral continues until he has angered
the villagers, and they turn on him and beat him, leaving him to be assisted home by Somsong.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy