The theme that will be explored in this essay will be the dominant culture, the prevailing cultural attitudes and the environment/mental state. The two short stories that will be discussed in this essay are Siko and Silence by Marianne Villanueva. In both stories the protagonists show signs of failure due to physical but also mental stress. Marian Villanueva's stories Siko and Silance can relate in many ways. For example, the main characters in both stories appear to face relatively similar struggles, but in different contexts. In this essay, the main characters' struggle to understand the dominant culture around them, the prevailing cultural attitudes they encounter on a daily basis, and their mental state will be compared to gain a better understanding of the type of themes and characterization that author Marianne Villanueva aspires to base his stories. on.Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that members of society use to deal with their world and with each other, and which are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. (www.umanitoba. ca) The cultural environment that Marian Villanueva writes about in her short stories and novels is predominantly centered on Filipino culture and Americanized Filipino culture. These are two cultures with which the author is familiar through the experience of living and being part of the cultural environment she writes about. In her stories Siko and Silence the cultural environments the author writes about are different, because the stories take place in different environments. That said, the culture the author talks about in these stories is Filipino culture in different environments. In Siko you immediately feel the sense of culture at the beginning of the story when the author describes how the villagers felt about the disappearance of the protagonist Aling Saturnina and her daughter Ana. How the villagers avoided talking to the reporter or even avoided discussing the disappearance of a neighbor among themselves. In line 16 "The villagers don't like to talk about the events that led to the disappearance of Aling Saturnina" (Siko,Geri&Mei, Stories of us, P.483). This quote indicates to me that the culture this short betrays is a closed culture, meaning that people in that culture do not interfere with affairs other than their own. The culture also seems to me to indicate a culture of fear of authority. Although the protagonist Therese in the short story Silence is Filipino.