Santiago Nasar Sacrifice

Throughout the novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez the characterisation of Santiago Nasar as a religious sacrifice is used by Marquez to present the community’s attempt to redeem their lost honour. This is achieved through the use of religious allusions and imagery in order to on a deeper level convey to the reader the primitive nature of humanity.
In the beginning of the novella Nasar’s character is portrayed as pure and innocent and as eligible for sacrifice through the use of visual imagery, arguably perpetuating the idea that he may be a ‘Messiah’ for the community. This is evident as Marquez writes ‘Santiago Nasar put on a shirt and pants of white linen, both items unstarched’ pg3 . Firstly, the adjective

Marquez wrote ‘a deep stab in the right hand… looked like the stigma of the crucified Christ.’ Firstly, the adjective ‘deep’ is used to portray the idea that the ramifications of the damage done to Nasar’s body is great as a ‘deep stab’ indicates that the knives went through his entire hand, essentially disabling his hand from functioning and leaving him defenceless. Also, this wound can be linked to Christ as he had his arms pierced by ‘deep stabs’ when he was crucified, furthering the aforementioned allusions to a Messiah figure. In addition, the significance of the ‘right hand’ being stabbed is that the right hand maybe a symbolisation of Nasar’s authority being destroyed in the town, as traditionally the right hand is meant to signify the authority of a greater figure upon a lesser one. As Nasar’s ‘right hand’ is disabled, he has lost all power that he had gained through his birth due to his inherited wealth and now has no means to retaliate against the poorer Vicario brothers. Moreover, the expression ‘looked like… Christ’ may allude to Nasar not being the Messiah in the community’s eyes, as the verb ‘looked’ connotes a similarity to a Messiah yet not the actual incarnation of him as they see him as only looking divine rather than in reality actually not fitting their societal criteria . This is used by the community to excuse

This is apparent as Marquez writes ‘the knife kept coming out clean...at least three times and there wasn’t a drop of blood... moan of a calf...Mortally wounded three times’ . Foremost, the religious imagery of the ‘knife coming out clean’ signifies Nasar’s innocence to the entire community as Marquez is showing his innocence. Blood is the most important part of a sacrifice as the blood is meant to bless and restore the honour, yet as no blood is released. This suggests that the Vicario brothers in spiritual terms have killed an innocent man and it did not restore their family’s honour via the power of blood. In addition, the expression ‘at least three times and there wasn’t a drop of blood’ is metaphor which alludes to Christ, as Jesus was stabbed in the abdomen with a spear yet not ‘a drop of blood’ came out, signifying the divinity of Christ. Similarly, as not ‘a drop of blood’ came out it implies a divine nature as rather than a physical bleeding; a spiritual bleeding occurs which is unseen by humans, hence why it is considered a miracle. In contrast, this concept is then contrasted by the zoomorphism of ‘moan of a calf’ which contradicts Nasar’s divinity, imposing the animalistic tendencies and attributes of a calf upon a human sacrifice and lowering his standing. Yet a calf was also used for the highest sacrifice by ancient Hebrews, solidifying his position as the highest sacrifice as he is