Bread as Metaphor, Class as Destiny: A Postcolonial and Bourdieusian Reading of N. V. M. Gonzalez’s Bread of Salt

Abstract

This study analyzes the short fiction Bread of Salt written by N. V. M. Gonzalez (1958) as a literary representation of social class development and colonial cultural influence in the Philippines under American rule. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural and symbolic capital, the paper shows that the narrator’s unsuccessful courtship of Aida, a pianist from a wealthier family, provides a model of the limitations on the possibility of moving up the social ladder through personal ability and determination. To confirm this thesis, the research involves an in-depth reading of the narrative’s key symbols, such as bread and salt, music, cinema, and the house of Don Esteban. The analysis shows that, in the text, Gonzalez proves what sociologists call the myth of meritocracy, since the story ends by showing how this myth can be debunked. Thus, the paper provides a new reading of one of the major Philippine literary works and situates it within existing thought on class reproduction, colonial legacy, and the sociology of aspiration.