History Literature / WithoutSeeingTheDawn

* ShoutOut: Javellana had something of a hard-on for Philippine national hero Jose Rizal. The title alludes to Rizal's 1887 novel ''Literature/NoliMeTangere'', written in the context of the then-current Spanish colonial rule:

* ShoutOut: The title quotes Philippine national hero Jose Rizal's 1887 novel ''Literature/NoliMeTangere'', written in the context of the then-current Spanish colonial rule:

--->-- Charles Derbyshire translation, 1912

* ShoutOut: The title quotes Philippine national hero Jose Rizal's novel ''Literature/NoliMeTangere'':
->I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land! You, who have it to see, welcome it – and forget not those who have fallen during the night!
-->--Charles Derbyshire translation

-->I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land! You, who have it to see, welcome it – and forget not those who have fallen during the night!

* ShoutOut: The title quotes Philippine national hero Jose Rizal's ''Literature/NoliMeTangere'':

-->Charles Derbyshire translation

* LaResistance: In Part 2, Carding joins the guerrilla units taking down the Japanese and their local collaborators.

* DeathOfAChild: Not once, but ''twice''—[[spoiler:two chapters are devoted to Lucing's two stillborn sons. Plus, that's not even to count, technically, the adolescent Poncing, whom the Japanese brutally murder (and whom they also tortured beforehand!).]]

* SickEpisode: The chapter "The Rice Fields", set after Carding and Lucing have arrived in Calinog town. Carding becomes so determined to plow all his fields that he overworks himself and catches a nasty fever after a sudden downpour. This being a very rural setting without modern medicine, Lucing sends for a witch doctor, who diagnoses that the cause was Carding plowing through an anthill inhabited by powerful—and vengeful—nature spirits. Offerings are made to appease the spirits but it's a slow recovery until Carding manages to sweat out the fever, with Lucing double-wrapping him in blankets and embracing him for warmth at night.

Contrast ''Theatre/APortraitOfTheArtistAsFilipino'', set in almost exactly the same era (around 1941 as well, just before the war and the Japanese invasion), but which is set in Manila, and focuses on the other end of the social spectrum—the high-class, oligarchic elites that lived in the Walled City of Intramuros at the time prior to its wholesale destruction.

* TheBeautifulElite: The Spanish mestizo Luis Castro. Especially from Lucing's point of view, he looks every bit like a prince (she explicitly compares him to TheHero of the ''Ibong Adarna'' play), what with his light skin, relatively fair hair, [[CarpetOfVirility hairy limbs]], and pencil moustache.

* DashingHispanic / LatinLover / TheBeautifulElite: The Spanish mestizo Luis Castro. Especially from Lucing's point of view, he looks every bit like a prince (she explicitly compares him to TheHero of the ''Ibong Adarna'' play), what with his light skin, relatively fair hair, [[CarpetOfVirility hairy limbs]], and pencil moustache.

* DownOnTheFarm: The Filipino version; in this case, it covers the lives of poor ''hacienda'' farmers (think a LighterAndSofter version of black plantation slaves in TheDeepSouth, since here the farmers aren't technically enslaved—though they are paid very minimally and often endure abuses by their landlords anyway).

* NotSoSafeHarbour: On Carding's very first day of work in the port town of Iloilo City, he gets assaulted by a union stevedore named Nestong, all because Carding undercharged a disembarking passenger—specifically, half the union rates for carrying luggage. The union leadership later effectively threaten him that things will be hard for him if he doesn't sign up. Carding does sign up, for a while anyway, and quickly gets used to the union's sometimes underhanded methods of hustling fees out of everyone who passes through port needing the porters' assistance.

* TheGhost: Don Diego Castro, an absentee landlord in the purest sense of the term, never shows up in the novel directly, but he obviously wields outsized influence over the farming communities of Manhayang. The only contact the tenants have with him is when his son Luis visits Manhayang (and gets involved with Lucing, for which Carding beats up his ass), and when—implicitly in retaliation—his administrator Señor Dorado carries out his orders to divest Tatay Juan of his land, and to have Carding relocate his house because it's standing on fertile land.

* SickEpisode: The chapter "The Rice Fields", set after Carding and Lucing have arrived in Calinog town. Carding becomes so determined to plow all his fields that he overworks himself and catches a nasty fever after a sudden downpour. This being a very rural setting without modern medicine, Lucing sends for a witch doctor, who diagnoses that the cause was Carding plowing through an anthill inhabited by a powerful—and vengeful—nature spirit. Offerings are made to appease the spirits but it's a slow recovery until Carding manages to sweat out the fever, with Lucing double-wrapping him in blankets and embracing him for warmth at night.

* IronicName: Carding's family name is Suerte—i.e., the Spanish for "lucky". The whole novel is about his various ''misfortunes''—a more MeaningfulName would be ''Malasuerte'' ("bad luck"). (There are moments when he does get lucky, i.e., when he's called to the town of Calinog, where the harvest is bigger and better, but even that doesn't last long.)

A 1947 novel by Filipino author Stevan Javellana focusing mainly on the lives of a farming community in rural Iloilo province, working on a rice plantation owned by a powerful absentee landlord, in the late U.S. colonial era and just before the outbreak of WorldWarII. The novel crosses over into wartime and depicts every grisly detail of the sudden Japanese occupation, and how ruthlessly it distorts and destroys the lives of all those involved.

More specifically, the bulk of the plot focuses on a young, simple, rural, quickly married couple—Carding, the huge, strong, if illiterate rice farmer, and small but responsible village beauty Lucing, who runs their small household when they move out of their respective parents' homes. The novel follows them from the tiny rural village of Sta. Barbara, where they're surrounded by family and friends they've known their whole lives, thence to Iloilo City when Carding's father's land is taken from him, further to another Ilonggo village where the harvest is better, and eventually into the depths of the war.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: A rare, heroic version in Carding. After Lucing leaves him in the city and returns to Sta. Barbara (a conflict started over her suspicions of him cheating—as it turns out, well-founded, given his dalliance with Rosing), and when the Iloilo port strike ends, Carding decides he's had enough of stevedoring and unions, and decides to return to the farm as well—even with the union boss Tio Sergio enticing him to stay on, become his bodyguard for extra pay, and hopefully rise up in the union ranks.

* DownOnTheFarm: The Filipino version; in this case, it covers the lives of poor ''hacienda'' farmers (think a LighterAndSofter version of plantation slaves in Jim Crow America, since here the farmers aren't technically enslaved—though they are paid very minimally and often endure abuses by their landlords anyway).

* CityOfAdventure: TheCity of Iloilo, where Carding and Lucing move midway through Part 1, after Don Diego expropriates Carding's family of their land. There they room with Lucing's cousin Badong, who suggested the idea, and Carding finds work as a port labourer.
* CorruptBureaucrat: Señor Marcial Dorado, the overseer (administrator) of Don Diego Castro's ''haciendas''. He calls out Tatay Juan and essentially takes his family's land away from him, giving it to one of their neighbours. Señor Dorado also orders the transfer of Carding's new ''bahay kubo'' because it's planted on arable land, and will incur a crushing rent if it's not moved.

* EagleLand: Decidedly Type 1—rather embarrassingly, in fact, for a country that was a U.S. ''colonial possession'' for the half-century prior to the novel's publication. The simple families on the farm have this unwavering faith that America will deliver them safely from war and potential Japanese invasion, which is why many of the village's young men (including, of course, Carding) eagerly sign up with the colonial Army at the close of Part 1.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: A rare "heroic" version in Carding. After Lucing leaves him in the city and returns to Sta. Barbara (a conflict started over her suspicions of him cheating—as it turns out, well-founded, given his dalliance with Rosing), and when the Iloilo port strike ends, Carding decides he's had enough of stevedoring and unions, and decides to return to the farm as well—even with the union boss Tio Sergio enticing him to stay on, become his bodyguard for extra pay, and hopefully rise up in the union ranks.

* EagleLand: Decidedly Type 1 (rather embarrassingly for a country that was a U.S. ''colonial possession'' for the half-century prior to the novel's publication). The simple families on the farm have this unwavering faith that America will deliver them safely from war and potential Japanese invasion, which is why many of the village's young men (including, of course, Carding) eagerly sign up with the colonial Army at the close of Part 1.

* NotSoSafeHarbour: On Carding's very first day of work in the port town of Iloilo City, he gets assaulted by a union stevedore named Nestong, all because Carding undercharged a disembarking passenger—specifically, half the union rate for carrying luggage. The union leadership later effectively threaten him that things will be hard for him if he doesn't sign up. Carding does sign up, for a while anyway, and quickly gets used to the union's sometimes underhanded methods of hustling fees out of everyone who passes through the port needing the porters' assistance.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: A rare "heroic" version in Carding. After Lucing leaves him in the city and returns to Sta. Barbara (a conflict started over her—as it turns out, well-founded—suspicions of him cheating), and when the Iloilo port strike ends, Carding decides he's had enough of stevedoring, and decides to return to the farm as well—even with the union boss Tio Sergio enticing him to stay on, become his bodyguard for extra pay, and hopefully rise up in the union ranks.

* EagleLand: Decidedly Type 1 (rather embarrassingly for a country that was a U.S. ''colonial possession'' for the fifty years prior to the novel's publication). The simple families on the farm have this unwavering faith that America will deliver them safely from war and potential Japanese invasion, which is why many of the village's young men (including, of course, Carding) eagerly sign up with the colonial Army at the close of Part 1.

* NotSoSafeHarbour: On Carding's very first day of work in the port town of Iloilo City, he gets assaulted by a union stevedore named Nestong, all because Carding undercharged a disembarking passenger—half the union rate. The union leadership later effectively threaten him that things will be hard for him if he doesn't sign up. Carding does sign up, for a while anyway, and quickly gets used to the union's sometimes underhanded methods of hustling fees out of everyone who passes through the port needing the porters' assistance.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Señor Marcial Dorado, the overseer (administrator) of Don Diego Castro's ''haciendas''. He calls out Tatay Juan and essentially takes his family's land away from him, giving it to one of their neighbours. Señor Dorado also orders the transfer of Carding's new ''bahay kubo'' because it's planted on arable land, and will incur a crushing rent if it's not moved.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: When Carding beats up Luis Castro for getting handsy with Lucing, his father Tatay Juan frets about possibly getting Carding a lawyer. Tatay Marcelo quickly disabuses him that it's next to useless: Don Diego, Luis' father ''and'' the landlord who owns the land the entire village is tilling, is wealthy enough to hire the best attorneys in the land, and whatever legal defence Carding can get will easily be shot down.

* YourCheatingHeart: While in the "big" city of Iloilo, Carding quickly falls for a taxi-dancer named Rosing, and expectedly they do it a few times. Lucing begins to suspect this when she notices Carding has been dressing up in his fanciest clothes when ostensibly he claims to simply be attending union meetings.