Great Books
Prelim Examination
Explain why Mr. & Mrs. Henson were not naked when Bobby first arrived in their home
but eventually became naked in his eyes.
● The reason for it is because Bobby looked up to the Hensons, specifically Mr.
Henson because he thought he was the most interesting among his father’s
barkada. At first, Bobby thought that the Hensons were good people because
“they have nothing to hide”, especially when he saw Pete’s parents fully clothed
when they went to the latter’s apartment after the party, but everything changed
the morning after when Bobby heard Pete and Mr. Henson arguing. It was then
that Pete admitted that he wished Mr. Henson was normal like Bobby’s father,
and that he wished they lived in a house like them. Because of these exchange,
Bobby started seeing a crack in the perfect image the Henson’s created,
specifically by Mr. Henson. He learned about Pete’s relationship with his father
and recognized that they might be living in an apartment and live in a nicer
neighborhood but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re broken. Mr. Henson’s
frustrations and failure in life made him put up an act that he was better than
other people, better than the Heredias, but the truth is that he was ashamed and
desperate to be “above the crowd”—something he told Pete while they were
arguing before—despite not having the means to. He was caught up with his own
problems that he can’t help but drag his family down as well and Bobby realized
this, especially during their ride back to his home, that the Hensons are not the
unflawed people he thought they were before.
Which of the characters other than the main character do find interesting? Why?
● For me, I find Pompoy Morel interesting. Before the conflict between him and
Bobby, they were already friends and Bobby knew of his ways that was why he
immediately recognized the kind of look Pompoy was giving to his mother. I find it
interesting because other than that and the fight behind the church, we were
never really told who Pompoy Morel was. All we know is what he did, that Bobby
was disgusted with Pompoy and that he would kill him if given the chance, but
other than that we know nothing about him. He was not given the chance to
apologize properly to Bobby because the latter already punched him before he
could even get a word out. Even though Bobby claimed that Pompoy will stab his
back after apologizing, and even though Bobby may know more about Pompoy
than us readers, he was already blinded by rage and was also lost due to his
issue about seeing everyone naked, making him a bit of an unreliable narrator for
me. I wanted to see whether or not he would actually apologize during the
encounter behind the church and if he would explain what exactly was going
through his mind when he looked at Bobby’s mother that way.
Identify the feeling/s that Bobby had for Pompoy Morel. Are these feelings justifiable?
● For me, yes. The feelings Bobby had for Pompoy Morel were justifiable. His
reaction and the fight may be too much and would have been settled by
communicating with each other, but given the situation, Bobby was only being a
human and reacted the same way we would have reacted if we were the one
who encountered it. Even though it was also around the time Bobby first
discovered he can see through everyone’s clothes, making them look naked to
him, it does not change the fact that Pompoy looked at her mother in an
inappropriate way, nevermind that he can see her clothes. It was disrespectful,
not only to Bobby’s mother, but to any person he does it to. And if Pompoy had
the audacity to do it in their own home with Bobby and his family around, then it’s
no surprise if he’s able to do more in the future.