Los Santos Inocentes: Social Themes and Narrative Structure

Miguel Delibes' novel, Los Santos Inocentes, presents a series of everyday events that profoundly shape the lives of the poor, humble, and humiliated Spanish peasantry. These individuals are considered by the landlord as inferior beings, mere objects to be replaced when old or unusable. Alongside this powerful component of social conscience, the presence of Nature is also a key element, a humanized nature with which the characters live in perfect harmony. Through Los Santos Inocentes, Delibes portrays victims of supreme injustice, such as Azarías and La Niña Chica.

Novel Structure

Los Santos Inocentes is a traditional novel. The crime (the murder of Maestro Iván) can be approached from a structural viewpoint in two ways:

• As a major event that justifies and motivates the story of all the facts that precede it.
• As another episode in the series of actions that punctuate the novel.

This dual consideration defines Delibes' narrative method in the novel. His texts are characterized by a distinct structural unity, yet each chapter possesses sufficient autonomy and significant value.

External Structure: Three Parts

The story can be divided into three main parts:

1. Part One: Character Presentation

   Covers the first three books, focusing on the presentation of the humiliated characters from two perspectives:

   • Social: Highlights the misery that defines the lives of these characters.
   • Existential: Emphasizes the prevailing gentlemanly conduct despite their circumstances.

2. Part Two: Antagonism and Conflict

   Constituted by the fourth book, which introduces an antagonistic character, Maestro Iván, and develops two key features:

   • The confrontation between two conceptions of life.
   • The confrontation between two passions.

3. Part Three: Culmination

   Consists of the fifth and sixth books, which feature culminating episodes.

Internal Structure: Key Elements

Delibes seeks to highlight a number of elements he sees as key to the entire narrative:

1. The human profile of the characters, especially Azarías, the axis around which the story revolves.
2. The landscape or framework for the events; the farmhouse serves as the spatial universe for the story.
3. The clash of passions: those of the landowners, based on contempt for nature and humanity, versus those of the humble, who are integrated into their living environment and possess nobility in their attitudes.