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What are the various interpretations of 'heat' in Daryll Delgado's "Preludes"?
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In Daryll Delgado's "Preludes," heat stands for passion, anger, and the oppressiveness of life, which requires continual escapism. The story begins and ends with heat, and Delgado illustrates how heat presents itself both physically and emotionally.
Daryll Delgado's "Preludes" both begins and ends with heat. In the Municipal Hall, at the death anniversary being celebrated in the first paragraph,
the sun was high. Heat seeped into people's bones. Tuba warned their blood even more.
Here, heat stands for passionate celebration. By the end of the story, however, the heat is intolerable in its intensity, strong enough "to boil an old man's blood." The heat continues constantly through the story, as something from which Nenita has to escape. In this sense, heat symbolizes the hard, oppressive nature of life, the fury of nature against humanity, which requires continual escapism to be bearable.
Nenita opens windows and points a fan at herself as she attempts to escape into her dreams, but when she wakes up, her heart is beating wildly and she is soaked in sweat. This is because the oppressiveness of life comes not only from external...
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circumstances but from her own passions, making pain impossible to avoid. This combination of external and internal pressure affects not just Nenita but her husband, who fell ill "when the sugar and alcohol in his blood burned the sides of his heart."
As well as standing for passion in general (the passion in the music at the Municipal Hall or in the television shows Nenita watches) the heat stands for anger in particular. Nenita thinks of poisoning her husband, to make his blood boil literally as hers does figuratively. However, the oppressive physical heat in which they are both enveloped seems, at the end of the story, likely to kill her husband without her having to lift a finger. The anger of nature against all humanity saves Nenita the trouble of committing murder on her own account.
"Preludes" by Daryll Delgado is set in the Philippines. Therefore, the first layer of heat to consider is the real, physical heat present in the country. With the sun high in the sky, the author describes how this heat "seeped into people's bones." It almost makes you sweat just thinking about it.
Another layer is the emotional heat surrounding the death anniversary party. People are excited; they want to see what good foods are prepared and who will arrive. Delgado describes how "the tuba warmed their blood even more." Music has a tendency to make one's blood race and rise to the occasion.
Finally, we can think of heat in Nenita's personal feelings toward her husband. Although it is unclear whether she loves him in a traditional way, surely she must feel angry at his many infidelities. Anger is often associated with burning and heat. She does not go through with the plan to poison him, but nevertheless her emotions must have run high.