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Flowers appear in many forms throughout the text, though their meaning remains somewhat ambiguous. Many of the characters have names that include the Spanish word for flower, “flor”: there’s Divina Flor, Flora Miguel, and Don Rogelio de la Flor. Angela Vicario occupies herself by making flowers out of paper and cloth, and Pablo and Pedro Vicario give their pigs flower names rather than human names, so as not to feel guilty when they have to slaughter them. Indeed, flowers are most often connected with death in the novel. The night of the wedding, Santiago Nasar makes the chilling observation that the floral decorations in the church “equal in cost to those of fourteen first-class funerals.” He goes on to say that the smell of closed-in flowers always brings death to mind.
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Flowers Symbol Timeline in Chronicle of a Death Foretold
The timeline below shows where the symbol Flowers appears in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...the daughters are taught to be good wives, trained to embroider, sew, and make paper flowers. Angela is the prettiest of the daughters, but she has a “poverty of spirit” that...
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Chapter 3
...one butcher counters by saying that the twins gave their pigs only the names of flowers.
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Chapter 5
...her son is in danger. Divina Flor is convinced that she saw Santiago Nasar, bearing flowers, come through the back door of the house and head up to his room, and...
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