Novel Chronicle Of A Death Foretold English Literature Essay

The plot of Chronicle of a Death Foretold revolves around Santiago Nasars death and events leading up to his gruesome murder. The author seems to use both animate and inanimate objects to express symbolism that could convey significant themes. This essay will identify and analyze certain scenes where objects have specific symbolism .The story is by South American author named Gabriel Garcia Marquez who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. Marquez was born in the tropical town of Aracataca in northern Colombia in 1928. He grew up with his maternal grandparents who were significant in his development. His grandfather in particular, shaped Marquez’s political and ideological perspectives. A key factor perhaps relating to this novel is the grandfather’s occasional words to Marquez that “you cannot imagine how much a dead man weighs”. Marquez attended college to study law but later he worked as a journalist in New York, Paris, and Barcelona.

In the first part of the novel, there is an abundance of foreshadowing and symbolism. The first scene is Santiago Nasar’s dreams. The protagonist’s mother, Placida Linero, states in the very first page that he was “always dreaming about trees”. Trees are usually interpreted differently by individuals but it seems to be a representation of a person. For example, a healthy green tree would symbolize a person who is achieving success or a person’s physical and mental strength. The narrator states in page seven that “he also learned the good art of valor and prudence”, the protagonist’s firm strength of mind and his ability to discipline himself could suggest evidence that he had dreamt big green trees. The trees could also portray the father, as he was a significant other in Santiago Nasar’s life before he died, suggesting that Santiago misses his father or has fond memories of him.

The week before his death, Santiago had another dream about trees, his mother informs the narrator that Santiago had told her “he was alone in a tinfoil airplane and was flying through almond trees without bumping into anything” (p4). Perhaps the almond tree in Santiago’s dream could symbolize people of Colombia and the setting of the story, which is a small coastal town in Colombia. Maybe the author chose almond trees to represent his South American origin and culture. Almonds usually have a brownish color and it seems to resemble the skin color of South Americans. The tinfoil airplane could represent ignorance, as he was unaware of what inevitable misery awaited him. He was also flying alone and strangely not bumping into the almond trees. This could further suggest that the people in his town had known about the plot to murder him but Santiago was unaware of this danger because ironically, his murder plot was a main gossip amongst the townspeople yet Santiago was alone not being informed of the danger. The strong presence of ignorance probably shows itself in this first dream.

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Santiago Nasar’s mother recalls the details of his dream the night before he was murdered. She states that he dreamt he was going through a tree where a gentle drizzle was falling, she further states that he was happy in his dream but woke up “splattered with bird shit”. Considering that this novel was translated from Spanish to English, the word “shit” could be used differently in the two languages. Maybe in Spanish it could be a less terrible word and could simply mean the droppings of feces. In English, the word “shit” has a very strong and vulgar meaning commonly used in general society as a very bad word even though it still refers to the same definition as the Spanish meaning. The author could have used similar terms to substitute the word “shit” but he might have used a stronger more vulgar word to convey to the reader how much trouble Santiago Nasar was in. Trees used for producing timber are usually associated with prosperous life of an individual or peaceful surrounding. Perhaps it could symbolize success, the narrator’s sister explains how he was rich and handsome but there was no strong evidence to show these characteristics of Santiago. The protagonist was happy but suddenly found himself covered in bird droppings, the bird droppings were not in his dream but hold symbolism too. Bird droppings usually mean that there is failure of an individual who is almost reaching success but falls short. The bird dropping could represent his murder, he fails to be aware of the danger and avoid being killed.

The second scene bearing symbolic significance is the bishop’s visit to the town. Perhaps this scene holds a lot of symbols of religion, especially Christianity. In page 21, it states that “people were too excited with the bishop’s visit to worry about any other news”, suggesting another symbol of ignorance, people were willing to find the bishop’s visit more important so they did not bother to realize another man’s life was in danger. Disappointingly the bishop did not get off the boat as everyone turned up excited to meet him; some came to be healed while other people brought well-fattened roosters and firewood as a way of worshipping a holy figure in the Catholic religion. The bringing of fertile animals and plants to worship a holy figure was used in the Christian Old Testament, a way of worship. Today, Christians usually worship God directly by praying. The fertile offering brought to the bishop suggests that early Catholic’s still practiced worshipping by offering sacrifices to holy figures hoping that blessing would be bestowed upon them. It could further symbolize the South American culture of the 1900’s and also symbolize religion.

It could be identified from the two scenes that the objects have a very significant role in symbolizing certain themes or ideas .Maybe these symbols are being used in an attempt by the author to convey the themes and ideas to the readers. There are certain major themes that seem to appear from both scenes. A very obvious theme is ignorance; this is displayed by the protagonist himself who was unaware of the ominous augury of his dreams and his failure to learn from others that his life was in danger. His mother, in a way, could have shown ignorance by not trying to understand the son’s dreams. The mother had a well-earned reputation of interpreting dreams provided the dreams were told to her before she eats. This could suggest that the mother has been doing this for a certain period of time and she should have also gained experience of interpreting dreams. Unfortunately, she was not able to interpret the son’s dream. Perhaps the mother did not have a strong mother-son relationship with Santiago or she could not have been bothered to attempt and discover the representation of her son’s dreams. The townspeople also displayed ignorance when they made a decision that the bishop’s visit was deemed as more important than trying to save another man’s life. They had knowledge of what horrendous event awaited Santiago but none of the town’s people warned Santiago himself.

Another major theme that appears in both scenes is religion. The novel was written during a time when most South American countries were Catholic, the author might have shown details of how the Catholics behaved in society and how they worshipped God or the key figures in the religion. For example, Catholics believed that the virginity of women should be preserved until marriage and this was shown with Angela Vicario in the novel. Angela Vicario was the female in the story who had lost her virginity before marriage and was rejected by Bayardo San Roman. She then accused Santiago Nasar of making her impure and this lead to Angela’s brothers, Pablo and Pedro, plotting to murder Santiago.

The structure and the plot of the novel seem to be fragmented. Information is given to the readers about the character but not enough to completely analyze each one of them. The story is very mysterious and journalistic in a way that there are no definite answers to the events occurring in the novel. This could reflect the author himself as he had previously worked as a journalist in many countries. This journalistic style of writing could have been adapted to his novels, this gives the novel a more entertaining perspective to the reader. The reader will have to fit the story together and decide on their own conclusion. I enjoyed reading this book because of its abundance of themes and how it was like a detective story. The author also seems to symbolize his culture using the objects in the text.

Word Count: 1,431