Philippine History

1. GOOD MORNING   

2. THE SMALL KEY
PAZ M. LATORENA

3. BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR
Before the year ended, the Marinduque native won
the third prize in Jose Garcia Villa’s Roll of Honor
for the Best Stories of 1927 for her story, “The
Small Key.” For her final year of college in 1927,
Latorena transferred to UST to finish her

4. SETTING OF THE STORY
FARM – WHERE THE STORY MOSTLY TOOK PLACE. THIS IS WHERE PEDRO AND
SOLEDAD LIVE IN.
HOUSE – LOCATED IN THEIR FARM. IT IS SURROUNDED BY WILD BAMBOOS.

5. CHARACTERIZATION
• PEDRO BUHAY -husdand of soledad, also known as indo
who keep the smaal key of the trunck were his past wife clothes is there.
• SOLIDAD -wife of Pedro buhay, also known as Choleng
who wonder why Pedro keep the old cloth of his died wife.
• TIA MARIA- -housemaid of indo and choleng
• Dr. Santos -doctor of solidad

6. Theme:
The theme of the story is about trusting each other within a relationship.
In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the
person who will never release your hand rather than the person you love. A very nice adage that reminds
someone on the importance of trust in every relationship. love is indeed just a four letter word that is so
easy to say, so easy to spell but so hard to understand. In life people do something to satisfy themselves
even when they are fully aware of what the consequences of their actions will be.
Conflict:
When Soledad saw the small key, and opened an old trunk/torn garments of Pedro’s first
wife. Then Soledad felt angry and jealous because Pedro still treasure the things of first wife. And
because of that, Pedro and hearing his reason why he kept a thing that Soledad didn’t know.

7. Plot:
One morning Soledad find herself knowing that farm will produce plenty but that she still
had some inner feeling of discontent. She planned to mend some of her husband’s shirts. which were
in a locked trunk. Pedro took out from his pocket a string which held two keys, one large key and
shiny and one small and rusty. He gave Soledad the large key for his trunk and put the small key back
in his jacket pocket. Since it was hot that morning, he removed his coat before leaving to work in the
field. When he was gone, Soledad began to fold the jacket and the small key fell to the floor. It is
obvious that Pedro values the key while Soledad fears it. Soledad knows that small key is a key of the
different trunk. She wonders why it is that he keeps her old clothing and why he seems to have a
special feeling about them. she obviously fears that Pedro still loves his first wife even though she has
been dead for many years by now. She reveals that she hates the things in the small trunk and worries
that they will destroy the relationship between her and her husband. despite her attempts to not think
about the contents of the small trunk, Soledad opens it.

8. Plot:
At this point, Pedro return home to find Soledad in bed supposedly with fever. It turns out
she does not. The next morning Pedro discover a pile of ashes and half burnt clothing in the backyard.
he realizes what Soledad has done and rushes to look in the trunk to confirm it. Soledad has indeed,
burned his first wife’s clothing Pedro is angry and bitter that this has happened and he expect that
Soledad will explain things later. he thinks to himself that he will forgive her because he loves her but
that even if she did out of love for him, it will always remain a matter of some resentment toward her
for doing it.

9. 1. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SMALL KEY TO PEDRO AND
SOLIDAD?
The small rusty key has important to Pedro because that small key tried to hide his
memories of his dead wife it was the cloth, for Soledad the key is not important to her but Pedro
give a motive to Soledad to find out what is the value of that small key.
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10. 2. WHAT IS THE REACTION OF PEDRO TOWARD THE ILLNESS OF
HIS WIFE?
= at first, Pedro feel worry because of Tia Maria said that his wife have a
fever so Pedro hurry up to go in town to look Dr. Santos but after Dr. Santos
check what happened to Soledad. Pedro felt angry to his wife because he found
out that Soledad not have a sick but in the matter of Pedro, he was trying not to
be angry to his wife and he expect that Soledad will explain what happen.
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