Death Foretold Allegory

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez sets the story of a murder in a small town in Bolivia. The novel takes place in the 1950s, with parallels of political characters such as Santiago to the Cuban regime under Batista and the Vicario bothers to Fidel Castro, Marquez creates an allegory for the rise and fall of left wing Latino governments. Left wing governments, in this context, aim to create equality through regulations while right wing governments govern with the ideology of every man for himself and less regulated business. Marquez’s employment of this allegory creates a satirical work.

The murder of Santiago occurs especially brutally as the Vicario brothers “both kept on knifing him against the door with alternate …show more content…
He helped the rise of this left-wing government that he now so vehemently critiques. Marquez expresses his own assistance to the rise of Castro’s empire through the townspeople. “Not everybody loved Santiago Nasar so much” (Marquez 101) and Marquez uses the dislike some townspeople possess towards Santiago as a mirror for his dislike of right-wing governments and his lack of support for Batista. As Santiago serves as an allegory for the old regime under Batista, his death would mean the rise of a left-wing Latino government. However, since clearly Marquez does not approve of the people’s apathy and allowance of Santiago’s murder, he critiques himself as well. While he previously supported Castro, Marquez reflects and allegorically presents his changed opinion while chronicling the rise and fall of a left-wing Latino government. Before, Marquez’s friendship with Castro expressed his staunch support, but he now holds contempt for Castro and his extreme left wing government policies. Marquez purposefully compares Santiago to Batista and the Vicario brothers for a number of reasons. For example, Marquez and Castro held a strong friendship with each other but Marquez began to disagree with Castro’s treatment of Cubans and the amount of people he killed. He also disagrees with the actions of the Vicario brothers. As Santiago’s murder occurs, …show more content…
Numerous other chances allow Santiago to realize what eventually transpires, very similar to Batista’s situation. They both could have attempted to avoid their downfall and prevent the rise of their opponents, in Batista’s case, a left-wing government under Castro. In college Castro developed very left wing ideals which later led to him participating in revolts against right wing governments in other Latino countries. In 1947 Castro tried to help overthrow the dictator of the Dominican Republic, a very close friend of Batista’s (biograpghy.com), and one of the first major signs of the resistance and dissent Castro held against Batista. Similarly, in the novel, Bayardo San Roman threatens the Vicario brothers through his actions against their sister and Bayardo possesses similar attributes as Santiago, such as wealth. Since Santiago’s story parallels Batista’s, it stands to reason that the dictator of the Dominican Republic parallels Bayardo and the Vicario brothers exemplify Castro in the novel. As followers of the town’s communal code and values, everyone knows what they must do and knows their plan with transparency. While sharpening knives Pablo says “’We’re going to kill Santiago Nasar’” (Marquez 52), leaving no room for doubt as to what the brothers’ plan entailed. Thus, Castro’s ideology and previous actions