Three Dirges Analysis

The three Dirges incorporates a lot of foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery. It is based on the Guatemalan civil war. It lasted six years and was fought between the government and several Guatemalan groups. The government forces were very much condemned for committing genocide against the Mayan population of Guatemala. It began with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency commanded by Colonel Carlos Castillo against Jacobo Arbenz. “Three Dirges” gives you a sense of fearfulness. “Don Lazaro begins with a flashback of the Colonel himself, he said, Don Lazaro, you’ve got five boys in Comitan teaching the campesinos how to read. That’s subversive. That communist. So tonight, you have to kill them’… Now, what can I say? You tell me! What can a man
This gives the reader a sense of foreshadowing that Lazaro was ordered to kill the five boys. The commander looked at Lazaro ordering him to sit down while rolling a sharply yellow pencil between his fingers without moving his eyes. The dark sky foreshadows the misery when the deaths of the boys occur. The words “dark,” “black,” and “gray,” set the tone of what happens. The “blanket of fog” symbolizes hopefulness. The “ruby lining” of the sky symbolizes the blood. When the five boys were about to approach death everyone wept and lamented what was about to occur. One of the Indians who was with Lazaro already feared what was about to happen his heart was filled with terror. Colonel Guzman then again said to Lazaro “ You have five boys catechists working for the American priest in Comitan. They’re teaching the campesinos how to read. Right? Pressed the colonel. Maybe even you, eh?” Don Lazaro was quite shocked to the colonel’s words and was not able to face the commander. The colonel was demanding in telling Lazaro what had to be done that night. "I think you understand me plainly enough," said the colonel. "Well, you continue to listen to me! They're communist subversives, these boys," said Colonel Guzmán. "So tonight, Don Lázaro, tonight you have to kill them. Every one of them . . . all five!" ( ) Each man was being escorted by an older man and
If he failed to do what he was asked his troops would kill every living thing in the town. He did not know how to explain to the boy’s parents what the colonel himself said. He was astonished and could not find the right words to say to explain a horrific crime. The families of the boys were extremely terrified and angry to know that they would not be able to do anything. Also, mentioning the tragic events where the military killed many people in Cuarto Pueblo, the massacre in Puento Alto, and all the things that the military has done to many boys. The only things that the family and boys wanted was hope and an answer to why all of this was happening. The five boys foreshadowed their death about to happen “Perhaps even now, the soldiers are here, up there in the hills already, watching and waiting to see what we will do!”(