IB HL 2018 Name​ Emma Stanard ​ Per_1_

Chronicle of a Death Foretold​ Chapter 4 (autopsy scene)

SOAPSTone Analysis

PASSAGE: Highlight key words, images, motifs, and the use of magical realism in the passage. Annotate
the margins or place post its to track your analysis.

Read pages 74-through the top of page 77.

Begin with​ “The order was carried out immediately and the house was silent again” (74).
And read to​ “Just the opposite happened, and we had to bury him hurriedly at dawn because he was in such
bad shape that it was already unbearable in the house” (77).

S​ubject: (a brief summary of the two passages as you understand them)

They did an autopsy on the body of Santiago Nasar, but it was done by the priest because the doctor was away.
The priest didn’t really know what he was doing, so the autopsy didn’t go well.
O​ccasion: (what events led to this autopsy scene taking place in a school?)
Santiago Nasar was murdered, and even though everyone knew it was going to happen they were unprepared
for the autopsy. The doctor was away so the priest had to do it in the school.
A​udience: (Who specifically is the target audience for this passage?)
All the people who are reading the book.
P​urpose: (to inform, persuade, enlighten, or entertain)
The purpose of the passage is to entertain the readers with dark humour and irony while also enlightening the
readers about the violent death Santiago Nasar suffered due to societal expectations and prejudices. Events like
the priest being unsure of what to do with the “sliced-up intestines” and giving them “an angry blessing and
[throwing] them in the garbage pail” are humorous and ironic to the reader, while also drawing attention to
the messiness of Nasar’s death. Nasar was killed because the Vicario brothers were expected to uphold their
sister’s honor, and nobody stopped the murder because Nasar was already an outcast due to his wealth and
race (he was mixed race). Nasar’s body is described as looking like the “stigma of a crucified Christ” implying
that Nasar was innocent and was killed because he was a misfit in the society.

S​peaker: (what do we learn from the narrator in this passage? How does his ambiguous identity impact this
scene? Characterize the authoritarian figures in this scene)
The narrator informs the reader about the autopsy and the gore and mess involved. The narrator’s ambiguous
identity impact the scene because it is implied that he was there during this event but the reader is unsure of the
IB HL 2018 Name​ Emma Stanard ​ Per_1_

details of his involvement in the scene. The priest is an authority figure in this scene. He has taken charge of the
autopsy in the doctor’s absence and seems unsure of what exactly to do. The priest provides a justification for
Nasar’s death saying that he had a problem with his liver and “only had a few years of life left to him in any
case” (76). So while it doesn’t seem as though the priest is entirely convinced of Nasar’s guilt, he compares
him to a crucified Christ on page 75, he still provides a justification and excuse for Nasar’s death.

T​one(s) (provide adjectives that describe the tone of the passage. Note any significant tone shifts).
The passage has a disturbing and gruesome tone. The narrator describes a purple blotch on the face that
spread out “like the shadow of a cloud on water” and the now hostile expression on the face of Nasar’s dead
body (74). The autopsy is also described as a massacre (74). On page 76 the narrator says that the got “back a
completely different body.”
S​ymbols: (What symbols are used by Marquez in this passage?)
Marquez makes a comparison to “a crucified Christ” (75) which is a symbol of innocence. Marquez also uses
the symbol of the face in this passage. He states how Nasar’s face “which had always been easy-going, took on
a hostile expression” (74) and that when the autopsy was done “the lady-killer face that death had preserved
ended up having lost its identity” (76). The face represents Nasar’s personality and the contrast between how
his face had been when he was alive to how it looked in death is meant to highlight the violence of his death.
Personal Response:​ How does the ​selection of detail​ used in the autopsy scene characterize Santiago Nasar?
Explain in a well-constructed paragraph using textual support to prove your assertions.
The details in the autopsy scene characterize Nasar as someone who is innocent and a respectable
person. The narrator describes his face as having always been easy-going (74), implying that he also had an
easy-going personality. Including this detail shows that Nasar may not have been a terrible person, as earlier
events in the book suggest, but that he was laid back and even-tempered person. Additionally, the priest
compares Nasar’s wounds to “the stigma of a crucified Christ” (75). This implies innocence because Christ is
known as the perfectly blameless sacrificial lamb and comparing Santiago Nasar to Christ implies that he was
innocent and he died because Angela Vicario was protecting someone else by using his name. It was suggested
earlier in the novel, before he died, that Nasar may not have been guilty and the inclusion of this detail furthers
that point. These details suggest that Santiago Nasar may not have been guilty of what he was killed for.
IB HL 2018 Name​ Emma Stanard ​ Per_1_