Group Members: Kendra Wise, Anderson White, Ayanna Thompson, Diego Ramos

Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Craft Post-Analysis

IB English HL 1

Craft: Characterization

Directions: Work with your team to analyze each name and research underlying nuances
that Marquez intentionally conveys to the reader. While doing so, consider the root words
of each name, or the materialistic objects that it may represent, or the social connotation
that it conveys. If you get stuck, these Quizlet Flashcards may help—though, you should
definitely have more notes than what is identified here!

1. Santiago: criticism of the church (because the “saint” is murdered”), patron saint of
Spain, protector, leader of faith, acts as a protector

2. Placida Linero: calm, untroubled, placid (brushes over Santiago’s dreams regarding
bird poop and trees)

3. Divina Flor: divine flower, innocence, and purity (virginity; Santiago fails to tame her),
young and innocent

4. Pura & Angela Vicario: pure, last name means a leader who carries out duties

5. Widower Xius: Xiu means beauty, grace, elegance; Zeus (house on hill = Olympus),
greek God yet dies from a broken heart (not so strong?), chinese name, outsider like
Santiago

6. Find another character, add their name here, and research it:

Bayardo San Román: saint name / dedicated to St. Román (second saint name, spiraled
downhill after Angela), expectation to carry out religious and cultural values, literally is
granite (very machismo because it is unmoving), rome=associated with gold, Bayardo
associated with gold
Craft: Imagery & Symbolism

Directions: Now that you have read the novel, review the Cultural PreSearch Padlet and
analyze the use and meaning of each symbol throughout the text. For each one, provide a
clear and concise THESIS statement that identifies WHAT it means and HOW it is being
used by the author; then support each statement with two or three paraphrased
examples from the text.

1. Dogs: lead to the underworld, barking when smelling corpse,

Using figurative language, Marquez depicts the dogs in relation to spiritual and imminent
death to portray the bestial features that underlie society’s deceptions.
- Howling/barking of the dogs outside Santiago’s autopsy and Divina Flor believes
they want to eat his corpse (Marquez 73)
- The dogs escaped from where they were locked up and managed to find their way
back to Santiago’s corpse (Marquez 74)
- Placida, the mother of Santiago, impulsively and cruelly ordered the killing of the
dogs (Marquez 74)

2. Cocks/Crowing:
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez utilizes the symbol of the cock/rooster to further show the
issues within the Catholic church.
- He does this through having the bishops favorite food be cockscomb soup, a food
dish that only uses a very specific part of the roost and is highly wasteful. However,
despite the village making loads of his favorite soup and attempting to donate
more roosters to the church, he refuses to even stop at the village too accept their
gifts.
- This represents the church poorly not only because cockscomb soup is highly
wasteful but also because the rooster is one of the animals most associated and
symbolizing the catholic church due it sometimes literally being seen as the sun.
3. Birds/Canaries : freedom, escapism, gaining of independence.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez utilizes the symbol of the birds alluding to the women’s
progressing assertiveness achieved to express the ironic control that women actually
have over men throughout the novel.
- This is especially shown through Maria Alejandra Cervantes in how she is
presented as a War like Crane which represents her free spirit that most women
didn’t have at the time. We see how these spirits actually dictate the decisions of
men in how Snatiago thought twice before getting into that because he was fully
knowing that her assertiveness would not allow for Santiago ro any other man to
shape her into their image of an ideal woman. This shows women progressively
finding themselves and asserting themselves over men.

- The use of falconry is used heavily through Angela Vicario. By the end of the novel
it is well known that Angela Vicario ironically ends up being the falconer in terms
of when compared to Bayardo because the reader sees that Angela’s virginity
dictated the entire life of Bayardo. This represents how ultimately women are the
ones controlling the men. This is shown in how after he finds the news of Angela’s
virginity he automatically reverts to alcoholism showing this control that Angela
has over the life of Bayardo making her the falconer and him the falcon.
4. Orange Blossoms: purity. Through the usage of the symbol Range Blossoms, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez displays how society expects this purity out of all women creating the
problematic lives of women fearing the traumatic effects of losing one’s purity to allude to
the unfair role of women during this society.
- This fear is shown through Angela Vicario and how she was very fearful of her
secret in losing her virginity getting exposed publicly. This led to her risking the
life of an “innocent” man in Santiago causing his death over her loss of virginity.
This represents how a woman's purity is a very important factor that all women
had to have had prior to marriage and it would be against any societal norms of
that time if they were otherwise.

- Another instance of this is shown through how Angela Vicario knew full well of the
honor killings her brother would commit regardless of who the man was. This
 shows how purity is very sacred in society because it was well known that
whoever took it away would be killed. This represents the virginity in how lives
are lost over it showing the severity and importance of it in the society during that
time.

5. Almond Trees: divine purity, virginity, hope, security

Through usage of Almond Trees Gabriel Marquez represents how the innocence of
women and purity plays an important role in society dictating who lives or dies over it
showing the severity of consequences over purity to represent the lack of freedom
women had during this time.

- The first instance of Almond Trees is used in the dream that Santiago Nasar had at
the beginning of the novel. In this dream he was seen flying through them in a
tinfoil plane. This may represent how he has become weak in how he is going to
die and the almond trees represent the virginity of Angela in how her loss of
virginity makes him weak because it leads to his death. This shows how the role of
virginity caused the death of Santiago Nasar showing how he shouldn't mess with
virginity because if he crashes in the tinfoil plane his life could crumble into pieces
as shown in the story through his death. The almond trees in the dream represent
how this loss of virginity could ruin his life so that’s why he avoids running into
them inside the dream.

- The second instance of Almond Trees being brought up is at the beginning of the
novel when DIvina looked into the square seeing a lot of almond trees. This
represents how in the town’s society it is filled with problematic issues regarding
virginity which shows how that plays a strict role all over the town. This was
introduced early in the novel to embed this idea that virginity will have a major
role on what happens in the town throughout the novel. The square being
surrounded with almond trees just shows how much the society charities this
purity before marriage.
Craft: Plot Structure

Directions: One element that we really haven’t discussed this unit is the intentionality of
plot design and structure. Therefore, discuss the following questions with your team,
considering Marquez’s primary intentions. There’s technically no “right” or “wrong”
answer to these, but your responses should be thorough, reflective, and well supported.
If you need some help, feel free to review this article: Death a Chronicle of Foretold.

1. How and why does the author manipulate time throughout the novel?
Marquez switches back and forth and manipulates time within the novel by framing the
events of the novel as a story of a series of events that happened 27 years ago. The author
manipulates time like this to show character growth as well as too demonstrate the
longer term effects of the bystanders of Santiago's death how it changed society as a
whole. Additionally, by manipulating time multiple times throughout the story, the author
is able to accurately illustrate every aspect of the journey that leads Santiago to his death

2. What was the purpose of disclosing the climactic murder on the very first page of the
novel? How does this type of narration create a compelling and engaging story?
- To make it seem like it was journalism
- shows how the story progresses as new information is introduced and allow the
reader to further inquire or suppose what will happen
- Guide the reader to identify why
- set the tone for the reader that this was a story of his death and not necessarily a
mourning
In disclosing the climactic murder on the very first page of the novel, Marquez removes
the mystery aspect frequent in other, much less complex novels and leaves the reader to
soon identify the motive and the conditions in which the event occurred. Furthermore,
the removal of a prototypical climax forces Marquez to present a sense of journalism
rather than pure storytelling, introducing additional aspects of bias from significantly
more perspectives of the events that occurred. This type of narration creates a compelling
and engaging story by differing greatly from the common structure of other novels and
guides the reader to identify and understand the external motives of brothers and the
townspeople.

3. Discuss the order of events presented within each chapter, as well as the absence of
chapter titles, and the effect these choices have on the reader:
- Experiences the journalist aspects as its being told
- Comes off as a journal/report
- provides a more realistic attitude as the story is demonstrated as more factual and
less up to interpretation
 Within the novel, the first chapter is mostly set up for the rest of the novel by giving a
scene and background but while also immediately revealing what is likely to be the
climax of the story as well as what the rest of the plot will include. Chapters 2, 3, and 4
further set up backstory and connotation for the events that will happen later. These
chapters focus on specifics from the day but also include interviews done in the present
day to show how people view the actions of the Vicario brothers in retrospect. Chapter 5
finally gives a detailed description of the events that transpired 27 years ago. This highly
specific order of events affects the reader by making them feel as if they are reading a
news story or journalistic article rather than a story or book. The absence of chapter
titles further cements the story as one that feels as if it is part of a journalism article.

Craft: Motif of Falconry

Directions: We’ve spent some time discussing the motif of falconry but I can tell that
some students are still a bit confused on the intended meaning...am I right? Yup--thought
so! Therefore, quickly review this Prezi (which is excellent!) and, if needed, also this
article (which is just asi asi). Then, utilize the space below to write a formal THESIS
statement that specifies how the author uses the motif in support of a primary theme.
Also, please bullet point at least four paraphrased examples from the novel in support of
your thesis (this should be quite easy, as there are numerous examples included in both
resources!).

Within Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez utilizes the motif of falconry to show his
disgust with the current relationship dynamic between men and women in Hispanic
countries, specifically in relation to how men believe they hold more power over women
when this is not the case in reality. The widely culturally accepted view that women
should be submissive to men and their desires is challenged by those women who seek
independence and gain control.

● Santiago threatens to tame Divina Flor and her newly “bloomed” adolescent self
(9) → Victoria avoids informing Santiago of the threats
● Santiago learns from his father the art of falconry and takes on the attitude of
attempting to overpower women as a result (7)
● epigraph introduces the complexity of falconry that exists in love, foreshadowing
the idea that the roles of dominance will be reversed
● The warning that the falcon, in this case, the man, will ultimately chase the
woman, the actual falconer, resulting in lifelong pain (65)