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)

Virgen de Guadalupe

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)