Electra and Oedipus

In Oedipus complex, a boy is fixated on his mother and competes with his father for maternal attention. The opposite, the attraction of a girl to her father and rivalry with her mother, is sometimes called the Electra complex. (Changing Minds.org)

"You could not be like her!" Siloy screamed to his girlfriend who tried to impress him with a local recipe called "ginisang kangkong" after she asked him if the food tasted fine. The girl was taken aback and started to look pale. Then, when shock subsided and anger surged, she held the plate and spilled the contents on his lap.

She stormed outside the house and cried like a baby,

Siloy then cleaned himself and went home. He went straight to where her mother who was stooped in the kitchen cooking her "sinigang na baboy". He kissed her and she smiled while saying: How lucky I am to have a son like you, after your father died... She fixed her attention to the potato she was peeling, filled with emotions...

Inside, Siloy smiled as he remembered how his father fell down the stairs with the toy cart he placed on the third step. He could hear the skull crunch as his father's head banged on concrete. He sat there watching as his father convulsed, his life ebbing... Mama's 100% attention would be mine, he smiled as his father stopped his contortions. He was only 10...

When she arrived at their house after her confrontation with Siloy, Trisha stormed to her room. Her mother asked her what was wrong and she just hissed. She banged the door and dumped herself on her humongous bed. She cried and dialed her father's number.

"Trisha? why are you calling? It's 11 pm here in Italy..."

"I want you to come home, I could not stand Mom... She's a bitch!"

"Trish, remember the reason why I went abroad? It's for your future!"

"Yeah, right, but what about my NOW?"

A shrill caterwauling sliced the stillness of the night. A cat delivered its litter a block away. Hidden by a trash bin, a hungry dog started to salivate... It started moving towards the squirming kittens. Dinner would be served.

(Artwork: beinart.org)