Literary Analysis of Los Santos Inocentes by Miguel Delibes

Literary Analysis of Los Santos Inocentes

Los Santos Inocentes was written by Miguel Delibes in 1981, focusing on the themes of estates and chieftaincy in 1960s Castile. The novel serves as a moral denunciation of the feudal state of vassalage that persisted in these estates as a remnant of the past.

The text in question belongs to (-------------------), a book that speaks of (--------------------------).

Narrative Perspectives

The language used by the author varies based on the narrator's position:

• Narrator-chord: Identifies with the characters using an oral language base.
• Narrator-witness: The author remains detached from the action but stays close to the events being narrated.

In this text, we have a narrator (---------------------------). The fragments predominantly feature a descriptive and literary style.

Oral Language Resources

Key linguistic resources include:

• Polysyndeton: (---------------------------)
• The particle "that": (------------------------)
• Enumerations: (------------)
• Colloquial turns: (-------)
• Literary devices: Occasional use of hyperbaton (----------------), metaphor (---------------), hyperbole (---------), metonymy (------------), and ellipsis (...).

Rural Language and Social Markers

The text highlights rural language features such as:

• Article fronting: (------------)
• Polysemous terms: (---------------------)
• Diminutives: (-------------)
• Slang: (-----------------------)
• Phatic function: (---------------------------------)

In contrast, other statements denote a higher social standing (------------), the use of infinitives to mark the start or end of a journey (---------), or the use of the past tense (--------------) to describe (----------).

Syntactic Construction

A basic characteristic of the language is its oral nature, utilizing simple syntactic constructions:

• Coordination: (------------------------)
• Substantive subordination: (----------------)
• Adjective subordination: (----------------)
• Adverbial subordination (time): (-----------------------)

Despite the poetic character of Delibes' prose, punctuation is sparse, consisting mostly of commas and occasional interrogative sentences, which remain more suited to prose than poetry. Ultimately, Delibes successfully achieves a coexistence of a sophisticated, rich vocabulary with a fresh, living oral language base.