When the geologists warn the villagers and government about the impending volcanic eruption, their advice goes unheeded and is denounced as fantastical. What can this circumstance tell us about the nature of the relationship between the public and its experts? Can experts truly ever have the full trust of the public, or are the impressions these two groups have of the world somewhat irreconcilable?

Allende does not start the story off with lurid descriptions of the eruption and ensuing mudslide themselves, but with Azucena. Why is that? What is the significance of this structuring within the context of the narrative?

The narrator says that Rolf, before the days he spent with Azucena, used the physical presence of his camera to distance himself from the most harrowing journalistic cases he encountered, transporting himself to a different “time.” What can Rolf’s relationship with his camera and the general presence of cameras in the story tell us about the connection between time and individual perception of pain? Does one affect the other, and if so, how?