Chronicle of a Death Foretold free essay sample

Humor, Symbolism, and other Literary Devices in Chronicle of a Death Foretold In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, utilizes the motif of animals as symbols: pigs for ironic humor, rabbits as foreshadowing, and many other animals to aid in description, characterization, and establishment of theme. ?Marquez uses pigs as motifs the novel. He makes a big deal out of the knives that Pablo and Pedro use while describing the murder. The Vicario twins went to the bin in the pigsty where they kept their sacrificial tools and picked out the two best knives: one for quartering, ten inches long and two and a half inches wide, and the other for trimming, seven inches long and one and a half inches wide. They wrapped them in a rag and went to sharpen them at the meat market. † Marquez then goes into great detail about how they are pig knives used for killing pigs. There’s also Margot, who was a close friend of Santiago’s as well as the sister of the narrator of the story. Flora Miguel, Santiago’s fiance, played a large role in Santiago’s life for obvious reasons. Now, there’s Angelia Vicario, but I’ll get into more detail as to what role she played in his life in just a bit. Continuing, we’re introduced to Luisa Santiaga. Luisa Santiaga was Santiago’s godmother, Margot’s mother, and blood relative of Pura Vicario, Angela Vicario’s mother. Pura was also referred to as Purisima del Carmen in the novel. Last but not least, there was Maria Alejandrina Cervantes who was introduced later in the novel and even more notably as his mistress when he was 15 years old. As you can see, women had an extremely large presence in Santiago’s life throughout the novel. Throughout the story it’s obvious that most of these women knew of what was to come and had plenty of opportunities to intervene and possibly save Santiago’s life. As for as his mother, Placida Linero, she knew nothing of what was to happen to him. Unfortunately, when the time came it was the fact that she locked the door of the house to the square that sealed his fate. However, Placida was misled by her servant Divina Flor. When asked whether Santiago had made it home Divina replied stating that he had made it home. When Placida got word of what was to happen to her son it was pretty much about the time the murder was taking place. When she saw the Vicario brothers, who were going to murder Santiago, running towards her home she locked the door locking her son out of the house not knowing he was running toward the house. Because of what Divina had told her, she assumed her son was already in the house upstairs shouting out at the Vicario brothers. Its stating in the reading that both servants have a dislike for Santiago. Divina Flor had the opportunities to speak up and warn Santiago of what was going to happen to him. Instead, she kept it to herself out of her dislike for him. Despite this missed opportunity, the one women I feel had the most potential to save Santiago was Clotilde Armenta. This woman knew of the ordeal practically the entire time. She learned of the brothers intentions while they waited at her shop for Santiago to come out of his home. I feel no one took the matter serious but, this women allowed the boys to stay in her shop even with the weapons intended to murder Santiago. By letting the twins sleep and wait in her shop she basically helped them. She did reach out to others for help and just the same they didn’t take her seriously. Even when Santiago did leave his home to go see the bishop she could have warned him. Instead she spoke under her breath out of fear of what was about to happen and convinced the brothers to kill him after the bishops arrival. His fiance, Flora Miguel, chose a bad time to have an argument and to wish him ill. It was when all the confusion of everything else was weighing on him and she abandoned him. Now, Angela Vicario is the reason this all took place in the first place. These women had plenty of opportunity to save Santiago’s life. Lastly, there’s this total sense of control portrayed that Angela Vicario seemed to have held over this situation. To begin, she’s the reason her brothers Pedro and Pablo Vicario were out to kill Santiago in the first place. Angela was married to a man named Bayardo San Roman. When the two were married and finally made it home after all the festivities, the two were to consummate heir marriage. When it was discovered that Angela was not a virgin, Bayardo brought her home and no longer wanted the marriage. The brothers asked who it was who took her virginity and she claimed the perpetrator was Santiago Nasar. Now, as the story goes on, it’s questioned whether this was true or not. Through details of the story its quite clear to see that by everyone’s knowledge the two never had a relationship or any opportunity to h ave had any kind of relationship in that manner. Lots of questions arise. It’s even questioned whether she was protecting someone who loved her and she loved and said it was Santiago assuming her brother wouldn’t bother someone with money. Even till the end of the novel the narrator tries to find out and questions Angela. Even till the end it goes without saying that it’s one of those unanswered questions. If Angela was lying she could have come clean at any point and saved Santiago’s life. Angela was the women who held the most power in this novel.