Gabriel Garcia Marquez incorporates and emphasizes different symbols such as the hawk, the linen, and the boat to help foreshadow and characterize the character's murder principal, Santiago Nasar, in the short story “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”. Even though readers know that Santiago Nasar will be murdered from the first sentence of the book, they are still searching and believing that something will prevent his death from happening. The author uses symbols present in Latin American culture to create tension and suspense in the novel, reaffirming that his death was destined and that nothing and no one could have prevented it, thus destroying the hope of the readers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first symbol readers encounter is an animal, the falcon, which appears in the epigraph. The falcon in Christian tradition is a symbol that represents evil. The wild hawk is a predator that attacks other birds. Garcia Marquez uses lines from a poem by the 16th-century poet Gil Vicente as the novel's epigraph: "The hunt for love / is haughty falconry." These verses are a summary of the entire novel and foreshadow the death of Santiago Nasar, because his supposed love affair with Ángela Vicario provokes his assassination by his brothers to defend the honor of the family. While the falcon which saw the prey pursues it relentlessly, the Vicario brothers, once they know the name of the man who deflowered her, order them to commit suicide. By analyzing the diction, we can see that three words "hunting", "haughty" and "falconry" characterize the dynamic part of the book while only one word, "love", gives us the motive. Furthermore, the imagery of these verses highlighted by the use of the words “hunting” and “falconry” appeals to the readers’ senses by creating the image of a hunted animal. Additionally, these two words are associated with the animal kingdom, leading readers to characterize Santiago Nasar's death with animal qualities such as inhumane and brutal violence, grotesqueness, and irrationality. This will result in this being the case as his death was inhumane, symbolized by the use of crude pork knives to kill him. Brutal because he was stabbed several times, almost shot, grotesque because at the last moment of his life he was holding his intestine. Irrational because even though everyone knows he will be killed, no one will act to stop it from happening. This epigraph creates tension in readers because they know that the book will be about the search and murder of a man characterized by brutal violence and inhumane qualities. The novel takes place in a small village in South America that has very strong Christian religious roots. ; therefore, the second symbol representing death is linen, as it was the cloth used to wrap Jesus Christ when he died. Santiago Nasar is repeatedly described with characteristics and symbols resembling Jesus Christ. “Santiago Nasar put on a white linen shirt and pants, both unstarched, like those he had put on the day before for the wedding” (page 3). The fact that Santiago Nasar wears white linen clothing recalls Jesus Christ and foreshadows his death. In Jewish tradition, in preparation for burial, the body is carefully cleaned and wrapped in a simple plain linen shroud. Jesus too was wrapped in a shroud and buried. The author dresses Santiago Nasar in white linen as if he were already dead, telling through symbolism that his destiny is already written. Additionally, this quote shows that white linen clothing was his dress code for special occasions and that hewas unconsciously going to a special occasion, much more special than the arrival of the bishop, his own death. This is emphasized by the use of the word "unstarched", because the bands with which the corpses were wrapped were not starched as they had to be flexible, while clothing, notably ceremonial clothing in South America South, are always starched so that clothes appear ironed and retain their shape. This suggests that Santiago Nasar's death was predicted. The Vicario brothers had predicted to kill him since they were told that he was the one who took their sister's virginity and they announced it to the whole village. The death of Jesus Christ was also predicted as mentioned by the prophets of the Old Testament, and later predetermined by Christ himself at the Last Supper increasing the similarity with the novel. Additionally, the color white in the Christian religion is associated with purity and innocence: this foreshadows the fact that Santiago Nasar, like Jesus Christ, was once again killed for sins he had not committed. never committed, but rather for the traditional values ​​and sins of their country. respective companies. Santiago Nasar was unjustly blamed based on Angela Vicario's simple words and from that moment on he was destined to die to uphold the traditional code of honor, as the Vicario family would only regain their honor with death of Nasar. On the other hand, Jesus Christ was killed to maintain the tradition of the Jewish religion as he challenged and outraged the rabbis by claiming that he was God. The use of the symbol linen makes the murder of Santiago Nasar similar to that of Jesus Christ; it was the lamb that was to be sacrificed for the collective sins of the city and its death was written in destiny. On the first page of the book we are introduced to another symbol representing death, the boat. “The day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five thirty in the morning to wait for the boat on which the bishop was arriving.” The author immediately announces to readers that Santiago Nasar will be killed and at the same time he introduces the symbol of the boat, a boat that should arrive in the village that day. The importance that Santiago Nasar attaches to the arrival of the boat is so great that it seems to readers that the boat is coming especially for him. The boat has always symbolized the means of transport between the world of the living and that of the dead. The Egyptians, like the Greeks, imagined that the soul of the deceased was transported on a boat between the world of the living and that of the dead: the Underworld was separated from the world of the living by a river. The boat is really coming towards him and instead of running away, he waits for him, his death. The sentence structure is typical of journalism, simple and linear; this contrasts with the narrative content, full of references to classical tradition and Latin American literature. The boat is described again at the time of departure on page 15: "It appeared at the bend of the river, snorting like a dragon, then the band of musicians began to play the bishop's hymn, and the roosters began to crowing in their baskets and waking up all the other roosters in town. The boat parallels the visual imagery of a dragon. The dragon is considered the strongest and most feared animal because it breathes burning fire which can further allude to hell. The departure of the boat is followed by the roosters' crows. The rooster has more than one meaning as a symbol: on the one hand, it represents virility and also lust, which is why Santiago Nasar will be killed, but on the other hand, there is also the warning cock of Saint-Pierre. which reminds us that Peter denied the Lord and let him go to his fate, which is also what the villagers will do by allowing a murder to be.