CRONICA DE UNA MUERTE ANUNCIADA
Religious Imagery as Satire: • The Annunciation
• Legend of Juan Diego (Virgen de Guadalupe)
•The Passion of Christ (Stations of the Cross)
Stations of the Cross
Parody
• Mock Greek Tragedy: fate, dramatic irony, tragic hero, hamartia, hubris, scapegoat, chorus
• Dionysian festivities: the three-day wedding/sacrificial rites
• Duality (saints/sinners)• Mock Investigative Reporting---“chronicle” of time and
weather and insignificant details (Memorable line: “…trying to put the broken mirror of memory back together from so many scattered shards.”)
• Tone: mock serious “tongue in cheek”• Humor (hyperbole/understatement) • Mock Romance (bathos)
Epigraph: “Love is like falconry.”
•Who are the falcons?•Who are the falconers?•“Honor is love”•“Love can be learned”•“Love is a disorder”
Setting: Colombia, South America (1920’s)
Cultural beliefs, values, and traditions
Gender roles
Machismo/Virginity
Family Honor/Duty
Catholic/Pagan/Superstitions
Names: Christian Saints/Arabic
Imagery-violence, religious, animals, trees, birds,
water, flowers, poop
Scapegoat/Collective Rite of Sacrifice
MAGICAL REALISM=saying something fantastic with a straight face; responding to something fantastic in a matter of fact way; often juxtaposes hyperbole and understatement.
• Santiago’s dreams
• (hyperbole) bullet shattering saint
• Placida Linero’s eternal headache
• The smell of Santiago permeates the village
• Santiago’s “crime” and death
• “There had never been a death more foretold.”
FIRST FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES
o Santiago Nasar (machismo) HIS NAME?
o Placida Linero (Santiago’s mother, interpreter of dreams—not!)
o Ibrahim Nasar (Santiago’s father) HIS NAME?
o Victoria Guzman (the cook)
o Divina Flor (cook’s daughter) HER NAME?
o Cristo Bedoya (Santiago’s best friend) NAME?
o Flora Miguel (Santiago’s fiancé) NAME?
• Maria Alejandrina Cervantes (IRONY?)
THE SECOND FAMILY: (HYPOCRISY)
• Pedro and Pablo Vicario (the macho twins)
•o Angela Vicario (their sister, the alleged virgin)
•o Purisima del Carmen (mother)
•o Poncio Vicario (blind father)
THE THIRD FAMILY: ties to the other two
(POSTMODERNISM)•The Narrator: “Gabriel?” Garcia-Marquez
•Luisa Santiaga (his real mother/Santiago’s godmother)
•Margot (Marquez’s real sister)
•Mercedes (Marquez’s real wife)
•Other family members (real names)
THE FOURTH FAMILY
Bayardo San Roman—whatever Bayardo wants, Bayardo gets: music box, Xius’s house (subtext?), Angela
•Silver and gold, “enchanting,” “a fairy,” superhuman, rich
•How does he win over the Vicario family and the other villagers? MONEY!
Cult of death: Angela dressed in black
Cult of virginity: artificial flowers?
Angela: “He’s too much of a man for me.”
Angela’s mother: “Love can be learned.”
Angela’s “stain of honor” (p. 37)
San Roman family vs. Vicario family (p. 39-40)
The wedding day/night
Santiago=no flowers at his funeral
Butterflies/wings/angels/holy spirit/birds
DOUBLE STANDARD•Pablo and Pedro: “We killed him openly, but we’re innocent.”
• Retracing their steps: “There had never been a death more foretold.” Trace the behavior of every villager.
•Duty and Honor/Macho Men and Virtuous Women
•Prudencia Cotes, Pablo’s fiancée: “I knew what they were up to, and I didn’t only agree, I never would have married him if he hadn’t done what a man should do.”
• Narrator to Santiago about Maria: “A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.”
• Serenading the newlyweds
PARODY: Autopsy and Romance• The autopsy: They massacre him all over again. The medal in Santiago’s intestines=“virgin del carmen” and “the stigma of the crucified Christ.”
• Maria eats! (Like a Babylonian whore.)
• Aftermath: The Vicario family
• Bayardo, the victim.
• Xius’ house (holy spirit or caged bird)?
• Angela’s testimony 23 years later (page 89-90).
•Her friends: “She told us about the miracle but not the saint.”
• Angela and Bayardo (Falcon/Falconer?)
SANTIAGO’S FINAL MOMENTS=SCAPEGOAT=DIES ON THE “ALTAR”=A PIECE OF MEAT OR DIVINE BEING?
• Twelve days after crime, investigator called for troop reinforcements to control the crowd pouring in to testify, each one eager to “show off his own important role in the drama.”
• Metafiction: Investigator never thought it legitimate that life would make use of so many coincidences forbidden literature.
•Investigator: no proof that Santiago deserved to die: “Give me a prejudice and I will move the world.”• Santiago’s very behavior during his last hours was proof of his innocence (page 101)