THE SACRED VALUE OF DEATH IN UM DOCE AROMA DE MORTE, FROM GUILLERMO ARRIAGA

Abstract

Guillermo Arriaga, fiction and screen writer seems to demonstrate a deep interest

in Death as an important theme all over his work. We can verify it in films such as Amores Brutos

(2000), 21 gramas (2003) and Babel (2006), but especially in his last novel published in Brazilnamed Um doce aroma de morte (2007). Using the countryside of Mexico, an arid and miserable

region as the scenario for his story, the author demonstrates the way death can become

something sacred. Death in Um doce aroma de morte appears in his narrative as a construction that

uses the limit as its main element, manifested in situations where a curious contemplation of the

livid, naked and aromatic body of Adela emerges. The bad smell and the degradation of the body

that serve as evidence for the physical death are diluted in the bittersweet floral smell that gives

off from Adela’s body. In this way, thinking Death as a sort of leit motiv in the Arraiga’s narrative

we purpose to understand it in two different movements: The ritual that involves the death’s

body and the sacred aura related to the character’s death.