PRELUDE GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1. What is a prelude? why is that the title of the story?

- Prelude is a starting piece to a larger or larger piece of literature or
music. The story is titled prelude because the story is introduced as
one story, but as the reader expands and gets more insight on the
story, the reader will find it exciting.

2. What does Nenita feel for her husband? Why do you think
she feels that way?
-Nenita appears to be a compassionate, comforting, and respectful
wife to her husband at first glance. Nenita's personality, on the other
hand, exposes far more than it reveals. She feels that way because her
husband dismisses and devalues her existence.

3.What does her herbalista friend feel about Nenita’s

husband?
-She believes Nenita's husband is a bastard. Above all else, the
poison she purchases gives her a feeling of protection, a sense that
she is doing something instead of being a passive victim of her
husband's devastating adultery.

4.Who was the man that died in the first paragraph?

-The man who died in the first paragraph is Nenita’s husband.

5.How do you think he died? What clues in the text

helped you to reach that conclusion?
 -The manner in which his husband died was not specified, and
it can only be assumed that he due to his illness. However,
after a few certain readings, it was assumed that Nenita
murdered her own husband. The line "She could have
prepared him then that other brew her herbalista friend had
suggested at the time, the one that would make his balls
shrink, give him hallucinations, make his blood boil until his
veins popped." This conclusion in the text gave me a clue, but
if you understand it more, She did not do it without a doubt
because she doesn't want the murder to be recognized. Even
though this could be considered her small way of showing her
frustration towards her husband, she expresses her displeasure
with her husband. Furthermore, she did not appear to be
worried about her husband when she heard him choke.

6.What is the importance of dried purple leaves? Do

you think that these were used in the story? How?
-The herbalista gave the dried purple leaves of a rare vine,
which was only found on Mt. Banahaw in the north. She had
known that she would not use it but still, she drew some sense
of safety in knowing that she had a packet stashed behind one
of the kitchen drawers, a really relaxing sensation of power.
Yes, it was the herb that was used to kill her husband.

7.Who killed the man? Explain your answer.

- As I see it, the herbalista friend of Nenita killed the man
because he thinks that Nenita’s husband is no good for her
 and gave Nenita a poisonous leaf which Nenita gave to her
husband.

8.The story ends with the feeling of heat. What are the
many meanings of heat in the story?
-I would say heat signifies love, frustration or rage, and the
utter worthlessness of life, which involves persistent
inspiration.

9.Why is it ironic that the widow was married to a

judge?
-judge means you are criticized by other people around you.
the judge here in the story, stands for the husband who cheated
and still cheating on his wife, it's ironic because he's married
to a widow who don't deserve all these kind of frustrating
actions.

10. Do you think, with what happened, that some

kind of justice was served? Why or why not?
- The man committed adultery and never really cared about the
relationship he has with his wife. For me, there was justice
served because after all of her wife have been through. The
man deserved it because of his reckless actions.