Bam 12A

Discuss animal imagery in Chronicle of a Death Foretold,

concentrating on Santiago in particular. Note his dream of birds,
the butterfly analogy in the discussion of Angelas accusation,
and other instances in which Santiago is compared, expressly or
obliquely, to an animal. Along these lines, what part do Santiago
Nasars dogs play in the novel?
Animal imagery in Chronicle of a Death foretold such as birds,
butterflies, pigs, rabbits and dogs are uses by Marquez as motifs and to
foreshadow, characterize, compare the characters in the novel to those
animals in particular Santiago Nasar.
Birds and butterflies are a motif Marquez uses in the novel. Marquez
uses birds to foreshadow what would happen to Santiago Nasar in his
dream in the first chapter one. After he wakes up, He was happy in his
dream, bv cut when he awoke he felt completely spattered with bird
shit this could foreshadow that something bad would happen to Nasar,
as he wakes up and felt like covering with bird droppings, which is
contrasts to his dreams that were happy. However, Santiagos mother,
Placida Linero that is a dream interpreter said that Any dream about
birds means good health, this is also ironic, because Nasar ended up
dying on the very same day. Moreover, Marquez uses birds to compares
it with Nasar, From his father, Santiago learned at a very early age the
manipulation of firearms, his love for horses, and the mastery of highflying birds of prey and how he treats Divina Flor, Santiago Nasar
grabbed her by the wrist, The time has come for you to be tamed, he
told her. This could emphasizes that Nasars trains Divina Flor to follow
his sexual desires, it shows his sexual approach towards women without
having a relationship. Similar to the normal birds, Marquez uses a hawk
to characterize Nasar, when Nasar grabbed Divina Flor, Marquez
describes his hand as the butcher hawk hand, and also how Nasar was
described He was a sparrow hawk. He went about alone, just like his
father, nipping the bud of any wayward virgin who began showing up in
those woods, this compared Nasar to a hawk, which is a predatory
animal and prey on helpless animals. Nasar is being described as a man
who is taking advantages of virgins, but never in a relationship. Marquez
also uses falcons, where the narrator warns Nasar that he should not
sleep with Maria Alejandro Cervantes, someone who slept with many
other men his age. He told Nasar, A falcon who chases a warlike crane
can only hope for a life of pain. This relates falcon to love, the falcon is
the one pursuing, if he choose to be with this women who sleeps with
many men, he can expect to be hurt as a result.

Bam 12A
The butterfly analogy in the discussion of Angelas accusation could be
seen as comparing Angela as a butterfly. When Angela blames Nasar of
taking her virginity, Marquez describes her as A butterfly with no will
whose sentence has always been written Butterflys will has been
written, as butterflies grow from caterpillars, acts as a pollinator of
flowers, and produce offsprings, then will die after its job is done, this is
similar to Angela, where her family sets the marriage for her as a honour
to the family which in Columbian culture, this is very important.
Butterflies are also very fragile, which is again, similar to Angela,
because she cannot tell the truth about her virginity.
Marquez also uses pigs as a motif and describes them as low, dirty and
filthy animals that are not worth to live and compares it to Nasar. This
can be seen when Marquez shows the significance to the knives that the
Vicario twins, Pedro and Pablo uses in the murder. The Vicario twins
went to the bin in their 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 a half inches wide. They rapped them in a rag and went to sharpen
them at the meat market which is an example of the authors ironic
humor. Marquez also uses this ironic humor while Nasar is being
slaughtered in the murder scene. Trying to finish it once and for all,
Pedro Vicario sought his heart, but he looked for it almost in the armpit,
where pigs have it. This suggests the Vicario brothers cruelty towards
killing Nasar with pig knives and also being killed like a pig as well.
Rabbits are also uses similarly to the pig, Santiago walks into the kitchen
for breakfast where Victoria Guzman had been quartering three rabbits
for lunch and Victoria Guzman couldnt avoid a wave of fright as she
remembered Santiago Nasars horror when she pulled out the insides of
a rabbit by the roots and threw the steaming guts to the dogs. Marquez
did not only foreshadow the killing of Nasar, but he also uses irony to
suggest his violence and cruelty.
Santiago Nasars dogs are also seen as another motif used by Marquez.
Before Victoria Guzman feeds the guts of the rabbits to the dogs, Nasar
told her about her actions Dont be a savage make believe it was a
human being this foreshadows Nasars death. Marquez also uses the
dogs in a similar way after the actual killing, The dogs, aroused by the
smell of death, increased the uneasiness. They hadnt stopped howling
since I went into the house, when Santiago Nasar was still in his death
throes in the kitchen and I found Divina Flor weeping in great howls and
holding them off with a stick. Help me, she shouted to me. What they
want is to eat his guts. Which shoes the irony Marquez tries to create.

Bam 12A
In conclusion, animals such as birds, pigs, rabbits and dogs are uses to
characterize and foreshadow Santiago Nasars character and death,
while the butterfly represents Angela Vicario. Marquez uses this to create
a deeper understanding of each characters comparing them to animal
imagery.