From Endurance to Liberation: A Personal Reflection on Preludes by Daryll Delgado
In the silence of an enduring and forgiving slave comes an enraged and twisted outburst. Likewise, the story Preludes by Daryll Delgado, a piece of 21st-century literature, follows Nenita, an indulgent and placable woman, and how she reacted to her infidel husband and offensive in-laws. Reflecting on this story, I have come to understand the importance of speaking out to others and not hiding your burden to yourself. This became clear in moments such as when a very unpleasant and illogical argument with my mother, where a slip of her tongue made me burst into anger due to past endeavors that I endured, yet she doesn't even acknowledge it. In that moment, I realized what if I opened up and told her everything before that argument even happened. It's a story that will make you conceive of how cumbersome a glass of water could be if you hold it in a very long time—indeed, it is so heavy that no one can escape its weight or endure it without eventually giving up. In contrast, after all the burdensome weight that you've lifted, it gives you a sense of freedom and relief just like what Nenita end up having in the end of the story where her husband died in the hands of her perfect plot to kill him. The silent cycle of her pain-enduring acts to her husband and in-laws made me in awe of how patient she is.
In the story Preludes, the author used various literary devices, primarily foreshadowing, flashbacks, and symbols. At the beginning of the story, there's an essence of foreshadowing. It was shown through introducing a man who died singing. This creates suspense and thrill to read for the upcoming sequence. At the end of the story, it reveals Nenita's husband died singing his last song. Here, it shows direct foreshadowing, a kind of foreshadowing that occurs when a problem, event, or twist is explicitly hinted in the story. Direct foreshadowing is typically achieved by a prophecy, a prologue, the narrator's remarks, or even conversations between the characters (Masterclass, 2021). Furthermore, the story shows flashbacks through Nenita's reminiscing about her in-laws' offensive, yet indirect remarks about her significance to her husband, and her endurance of taking him back when he was with another woman, and nursing him when he was sick. In addition, a symbol of death was integrated using the relevance of the purple leaves in the story. For a better plot development, a writer must know how to put objects together and make them have a significance in the story. That's where Chekhov's gun theory comes into play. It simply refers to any seemingly unimportant element that becomes significant later on in the story. “Remove everything that has no relevance to the story,” Chekhov wrote. According to Chekhov, "get rid of everything that isn't related to the story." "It must unquestionably go off in the second or third chapter if you mention in the first that there is a rifle hanging on the wall. It shouldn't be hanging there if they aren't fired. In essence, Chekhov's Gun is a literary principle that says that if an aspect captures the audience's interest in great detail, it should somehow be essential to the plot because, in theory, it wouldn't have mattered if the author hadn't included it (Perelman, 2021). In the context of the story, Daryll Delgado prominently used this concept in Preludes where Purple leaves seems to have been refused to use by Nenita, which was gradually revealed when we come to realize that the death of her husband was not just merely because of his illnesses but because of the poisonous leaves that was mixed in his medicinal brew. Turning to a different aspect, the conclusion of the story shows Nenita's husband dying while she dances on his last song. It shows that Nenita was finally liberated through the hands of her infidel husband and her abusive in-laws. The unfair treatment, and emotional and psychological abuse she had to endure just to get the taste of freedom has a lot of effects on how gender roles can affect household management. Here, it directly tells us the main idea of the story—gender inequality. Also, passive endurance could lead to a worse outcome, and if Nenita just spoke out about the unfair treatment, it could possibly end up having a better outcome. On another note, through the use of reader-response lense, which focuses on the personal interpretation of the text, I was able to show my own comprehension and understanding of the story's plot and message without the limitations of other ideologies. In particular, the means of perseverance of unfair treatment just make me mesmerize Nenita and how she got through it is what made my jaw drop when I realized what she just did. Throughout the story, it gives me the idea of how a silent rebellion and loud yet unfazed reality could make up a broken society. In light of Nenita's life where she had undergone a lot of pain, yet she still managed to get revenge through planning a perfect crime, she got her revenge by eliminating her unfaithful husband.
All things considered, the short story Preludes, which follows the struggles and endurance of the girl Nenita through the hands of her in-laws' and husband, shows a plentiful observation of literary devices such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, and symbols. Furthermore, the main idea of gender inequality integrated into the acts of characters is one of a kind reality check for failed and conservative household management. Through the use of a reader-response approach, I could read and analyze the story with ease and without the need to consider several factors of ideologies. In the essence of the story, it greatly introduced in this century a catalyst for recognition of the significance of opening up your feelings and what you don't like about a person and not just hiding it forever because it might cause you more than what you're currently having. As a result of this reflection, I am now more aware of the danger of silent rebellion where it dictates a powerful reminder of the importance of speaking out against injustice before it leads to irreversible consequences.
References:
Masterclass(2021). Writing 101: Foreshadowing Definition, Examples of Foreshadowing, and How
to Use Foreshadowing in Your Writing. Retrieved from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-foreshadowing-foreshadowing-literary-device-tips-and-examples
Perelman, B.(2021). Everything You Need to Know About Chekhov’s Gun. Retrieved from
https://screencraft.org/blog/everything-you need-to-know-about-chekhovs-gun/
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