Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

You can't trust these characters. The things that come out of their mouths could be truth or lies, but you have no idea. But what you can trust are their actions. There's a reason we have that saying, "Actions speak louder than words."

For example, one action is the most illuminating thing that we have about Bayardo San Román. You basically can't trust anything he says, because all of his words have a double meaning. But this one scene says it all:

Bayardo San Roman was unconscious on the bed, still the way Pura Vicario had seen him early Tuesday morning, wearing his dress pants and silk shirt, but with his shoes off. There were empty bottles on the floor and many more unopened beside the bed, but not a trace of food. "He was in the last stages of ethylic intoxication," I was told by Dr. Dionisio Iguarán, who had given him emergency treatment. But he recovered in a few hours, and as soon as his mind had cleared, he threw them out of the house with the best manners he was capable of. "Nobody f***s with me," he said. "Not even my father with his war veteran's balls." (4.17)

The guy who they found in an alcohol induced haze is a very different guy than the one Bayardo normally projects to people. This guy isn't a gentleman. He's a drunkard, and a rude one at that.

Actions also help you to see past the narrator's biases. Of course, he would imagine the best about his own sister, but her actions tell another story:

"She insisted that they go together right away because breakfast was already made. "It was a strange insistence," Cristo Bedoya told me. "So much so that sometimes I've thought that Margot already knew that they were going to kill him and wanted to hide him in your house." (1.35)

The narrator believes his sister's innocence, but we are on the side of Cristo Bedoya. If she didn't know, why did she act that way? She can say what she wants, and the narrator can believe her, but we know that talk is cheap.

Names

There are a lot of names to keep track of in Chronicle of a Death Foretold—a whole town's worth. But you shouldn't just let your eyes glaze over when you come across them.

Okay, we're not saying that you're going to miss some giant plot point if you ignore the names, but you might miss some subtle nuances. For example, isn't it ironic that Angela is not exactly an angel? Or what about her mom Purisima? Beating your daughter for two hours straight is not exactly a pure thing to do, despite how meek and innocent she makes herself seem.

You could also probably have a field day with all the floral names in the book and the jokes that Marquez makes with them. For example:

Divina Flor, her daughter, who was just coming into bloom, served Santiago Nasar a mug of mountain coffee with a shot of cane liquor, as on every Monday, to help him bear the burden of the night before. (1.11)

Get it? Her name means flower, and she's coming into bloom. Or what about Flora Miguel? Her 'flower' is certainly no longer in bloom and more like a dried and preserved specimen. If you pay attention, the names in this book will tell you more about the characters than they probably want you to know.