Symbolism In Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

A public spectacle occurs when the performance of the strange autopsy for Santiago Nasar is in the hands of the village priest, who is carless about Santiago’s body, in the novel “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”. In the story Santiago is killed by the Vicario brothers, Pedro and Pablo. Before Santiago was murdered he was being accused of sleeping with Angela, and taking her virginity. This created a lot of hell and embarrassment for Santiago throughout the town, and caused people to have zero respect for him.
Once Santiago was dead, and the autopsy took place, the town wanted to be a part of what was going on. It appeared that the people wanted to continue to embarrass Santiago by making his autopsy public, even though he was already dead. The autopsy that took place on Santiago’s body
“It smelled like him,” he told me. (5.73)
The Vicario brothers washed and scrubbed themselves with soap and rags, but no matter how much they did wash they “couldn’t get the smell out.”(78) Pedro Vicario informed the narrator of this and how they went three nights without sleep because when they started to drift away they would commit the crime all over again.
The narrator said the quote of how the entire town smelled of Santiago after Maria Alejandrina Cervantes denied him because he smelled of Santiago. She had a special connection to Santiago and could not go on with the normal routine in her life. This quote relates to the plot of the novel because it shows how the entire town is engulfed in this tragedy. “For years they [the town] couldn’t talk about anything else. Our daily conduct, dominated by so many linear habits, had suddenly begun to spin around a single common anxiety.” (96) This quote also shows how the scent could also symbolize the guilt and significance of the murder and how it hovers over everyone in the town. In chapter 5 it shows how all the people in the town were tragically affected by the