Tuesday, January 27, 2015

I need help with an analysis of a particular passage in "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"?Note: Passage takes place on night of wedding, and Angela...

This passage from Chronicle of a Death Foretold
has the feel of a nasty police interrogation--the kind that isn't supposed to
exist. 


Angela is bruised and can think of nothing but
sleep, but isn't allowed to sleep.  The chief investigator, the forceful one, arrives
and picks her up by the waist and sets her on the table.  Trembling with rage, he orders
her to confess.  The accused says whatever will end the interrogation and allow her to
get some sleep. 


And in fact the results of this
interrogation are accepted much as the results of a police investigation--as accurate
and binding.  No further attempt at gathering evidence is performed.  Angela's words end
the investigation, and begin the sentencing and
execution.


The narrator interprets what he knows of her
confession and relates that interpretation by using a metaphor.  She looks for one name
that will work among many and speaks the first name she thinks of.  By doing so, she
pins Nasur to the wall like a collected butterfly.


The
metaphor presents the image of a butterfly pinned to the wall, wings spread, and
suggests, then, Nasur pinned to the wall with darts, arms spread--in the posture of the
crucified Christ.  Thus, the metaphor creates images that then create a
biblical allusion: that of the crucified savior, or in this case, the crucified
scapegoat.  As Christ suffered for the sins of humanity, Nasur will suffer for the sins
of Angela. 

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