An allegory is a technique of story layering in which the author projects an idea within a written narrative meant to stand for another. It is fundamentally symbolism, but more metaphoric in nature, and, in this case, less tangible. But in order to fully understand the content, one must go beyond what lies on the surface and delve into the deeper meaning. This is precisely what Gabriel Marcía Márquez does with Chronicle of a Death Foretold, using various literary techniques to refer to religious content within the text and demonstrate how they altogether create what is essentially a modern retelling of the Bible.
In writing a proper religious allegory, one must provide a careful yet distinct word choice with which the reader can draw their own conclusions. In Márquez’s novel, this is especially prevalent. At first
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However, if one were to look closely, they would realize that ‘Santiago’ is a derivative of ‘Saint James’, and, in fact, many of the characters have similar names to those in the Bible. Take, for example, Santiago’s friend Cristo, whose name sounds like ‘Christ’. But ironically, Santiago is the one who faces crucifixion, as seen when Father Amador performs the autopsy and the unnamed narrator remarks that the body “looks like a stigma of the crucified Christ” (Márquez 75). In choosing the word ‘stigma’, Márquez reveals the humiliation which Santiago must face, dishonoring his name even after he is dead. Although this is not true of Christ, whose followers continue to honor him to this day, the rest of the sentence affirms Santiago’s role within the story. Santiago, though he doesn’t share the same personality as the Lord, fits the archetype. Márquez does this in order to hint at their similarities, but he gives Santiago some distinguishing factors in order to set them apart and make it more challenging for