SORTING QUIZ # 2 : SMALL KEY

Identification
 Write the answer on your paper
for each item.

1.Who is the author of the story?

2.What is Pedro Buhay’s job?
3.What is Pedro’s nickname?
4.What is the name of Pedro’s 2nd wife?
5.How many keys does Pedro bring
along with him everyday?
6. What does the small key open?
7. What is found in the object opened by the
small key?
8.When did the second wife have a fever?
9. How did Pedro prove that there was burning
of items?
10.True of False: The story had a resolution.
ANSWERS
Write the answer on your paper
for each item.

1. Who is the author of the story? (Paz

Latorena)
2. What is Pedro Buhay’s job? (farmer)
3. What is Pedro’s nickname? (Indo)
4. What is the name of Pedro’s 2nd wife?
(Soledad)
5. How many keys does Pedro bring along with
him everyday? (2)
6. What does the small key open? (a chest)
7. What is found in the object opened by the
small key? (clothes of first wife)
8. When did the second wife have a fever? (after
burning the clothes)
9. How did Pedro prove that there was
burning of items? (a burnt panuelo)
10.True of False: The story had a
resolution. (FALSE)
ANALYZING The Small Key
The four primary POV types in
fiction

1. First person point of view - when “I” am

telling the story. The character is in the
story, relating his or her experiences
directly.
2. Second person point of view. The story is
told to “you.” This POV is not common in
fiction, but it’s still good to know
(it is common in nonfiction).
The four primary POV types in
fiction

3. Third person point of view, limited. The

story is about “he” or “she.” This is the most
common point of view in commercial fiction.
The narrator is outside of the story and
relating the experiences of a character.
4. Third person point of view, omniscient.
The story is still about “he” or “she,” but the
narrator has full access to the thoughts and
experiences of all characters in the story.
What is the theme of the story?
Literary Devices found in The
Small Key

• Tension
• Ambiguity
• Irony
SITUATIONAL/ DRAMATIC IRONY

55 How quiet and peaceful the day

was! A cow that had strayed by
looked over her shoulder with a
round vague inquiry and went on
chewing her cud, blissfully unaware
of such things as a gnawing fear in
the heart of a woman and a still
smoldering resentment in a man’s.
AMBIGUITY

11 With deliberate care, he untied the knot

and, detaching the big key, dropped the small
one back into his pocket. She watched him
fixedly as he did this. as she too The smile left
her face and a strange look came into her eyes
the big key from him without a word. Together
they left the dining room.
19 Soledad nodded. Her eyes
followed her husband down the
road, noting the fine set of his head
and shoulders, the case of his
stride. A strange ache rose in her
throat.
30 “My God,” she cried with a sob, “make me
forget Indo’s face as he put the small key
back into his pocket.”

34 But the expression on her husband’s face as

he put the small key back into his pocket kept
torturing her like a nightmare, goading beyond
endurance.
QUESTIONS to PONDER ON:

• DOES PEDRO • IS LOVE ENOUGH

REALLY LOVE TO JUSTIFY
SOLEDAD? SOLEDAD’S
JEALOUSY?
Do Pedro and Soledad deserve a second chance?
Synthesis Activity: Write a letter to Pedro or Soledad. You can be Pedro/
Soledad/ a third person, even the first wife…