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Essay / Animal images and destiny of Santiago Nasar in Chronicle of a Death Foretold
In his novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has the impressive ability to characterize and foreshadow the character of Santiago Nasar and his death possible. The murder of Santiago Nasar by Pedro and Pablo Vicario was caused by an accusation that Nasar had premarital relations with Angela Vicario. However, at that time, Angela Vicario was engaged to Bayardo San Roman. When San Roman learns the news that Angela was never a virgin before their engagement, San Roman is furious and decides he no longer wants to marry her. This caused Angela Vicario's brothers, Pedro and Pablo Vicario, to plan a murder for Nasar and throughout the novel, Garcia Marquez uses motifs such as birds and pigs as animal imagery to foreshadow and characterize the eventual death and the character of Santiago Nasar. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Garcia Marquez begins the novel on the morning of Nasar's death. On the morning of the day Santiago Nasar was murdered by Pablo and Pedro Vicario, Nasar had a strange dream. His dream involved birds. That morning, Santiago Nasar "dreamed that he was passing through a grove of trees where a light drizzle was falling, and for a moment he was happy in his dream, but when he awoke he felt completely splashed with bird droppings." (3). Because there are many parallels that can be drawn between Nasar's dream and Nasar's life, the essence of his dream obviously resembles Nasar's life story. Garcia Marquez uses symbolism and animal imagery to describe the turbulent dream. The timber trees symbolized the townspeople who knew of Pedro and Pablo Vicarios' plan, but did nothing to prevent it, his brief happiness indicates his unconscious nature and the bird droppings symbolize his eventual death . The purpose of these techniques is to foreshadow the eventual demise of Santiago Nasar. The events of his dream corresponded to the events that would occur in his life, which is why the animal imagery of birds foreshadows Nasar's fate. The bird imagery continues throughout the novel, as Garcia Marquez continues to describe Nasar after talking about Angela Vicario. and her accusation that she and Nasar had had premarital relations. He described Nasar as “a hawk.” He wandered alone, just like his father, biting the bud of any rebellious maiden that began to appear in these woods” (90). Nasar is known to have premarital relations with virgins. Garcia Marquez uses a metaphor comparing Nasar not only to his father, but he is also compared to a hawk. A hawk is a predatory bird that survives on helpless prey. He uses this metaphor to characterize Nasar as the ideal Colombian machismo. He has the ability to do whatever he wants with women because that is one of the roles of a macho man. Like a hawk, Nasar moves and survives on vulnerable prey. The prey are the women with whom Nasar had premarital relations. Additionally, Garcia Marquez continues the animal imagery through another motif in the novel. Garcia Marquez used the motif of pigs when talking about the murder of Nasar by the Vicario brothers. Garcia Marquez illustrates how the Vicario brothers bloodily murdered Santiago Nasar for having premarital relations with their sister, Angela Vicario. When Nasar is stabbed repeatedly, “to try to end it once and for all, Pedro Vicario was looking for his heart, but he was looking for it under the armpit, where it is among the pigs” (118). Imaging.