Vocabulary in Chronicle of a Death Foretold

A very light, fine rain that falls gently. Here it appears in a dream as a soft, pleasant sensation that briefly makes Santiago feel at peace before he wakes.

Covered with small drops or splashes of something unpleasant. In this context it describes the disgusting, ominous feeling Santiago wakes up with, as if soiled by bird droppings from his dream.

Trees grown or valued for their wood, typically large and densely planted. The grove in Santiago's dream is made up of these tall, working-forest trees rather than ornamental ones.

A clever trick or device, here used without negative judgment. The text uses it to describe the mind's natural mechanism of softening painful memories so that people can bear the weight of their past.

To bear or put up with something difficult or painful over a long period of time without giving in or breaking down.

Makes something seem larger or more important than it really is. The text says memory does this to good experiences, inflating them while quietly erasing the bad ones.

Mysterious and difficult to understand or explain. The word describes Bayardo San Román as a man whose true motives and character the townspeople cannot quite read or pin down.

Fixed or fastened something firmly and decisively in place. Used figuratively here to mean Ángela chose and fixed upon Santiago's name with absolute, final certainty, as if driving it in like a nail.

A celebration or party, especially a lively and joyful public event. The word refers to the wedding party and all its music, food, and dancing that filled the town the night before the murder.

A place where people pay to have sex with prostitutes. In the novella it is María Alejandrina Cervantes's establishment, which the Vicario twins visit the night before the murder.

Involvement with others in doing something wrong, even if only by staying silent or doing nothing to stop it. The entire town shares this guilt because nearly everyone knew of the planned killing and failed to act.

The belief that events are fixed in advance by fate and that human effort cannot change them. This attitude runs through the town, causing people to shrug off the announced murder as something that simply must happen.

Having total, unlimited power over everything. Used here as a title-like description of God's absolute authority, emphasizing the irony that even such supreme power seems directed toward an impossible outcome.

A loud, confused noise made by a crowd of excited or alarmed people. Here it is the sound of townspeople rushing toward the square after the murder, which the narrator's mother mistakes for a parade.

The flat ledge or strip of stone or wood at the bottom of a doorway, at floor level. Santiago receives his final stab wounds while standing on this threshold between outside and inside his house.

Injuries made by a sharp pointed weapon being thrust into the body. Santiago receives seven of these from the Vicario brothers' knives during the attack at his front door.

So surprising or shocking that it is almost impossible to believe. The text uses it to describe the most jaw-dropping revelations that the narrator has saved for the very end of his reconstruction.

Gradually eroded, faded, or distorted by the passage of time until the original is no longer clear. Here it describes how a real memory can be rubbed smooth by years of repetition until it is indistinguishable from imagination.