Motifs (recurring ideas or images) in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold include honor, customs, violence, indifference, and foreboding. Let's look at each of these.
The novella's narrator chronicles the murder of Santiago Nasar, but this murder is not at all a mystery. The murderers, in fact, actually announce their intentions ahead of time. These murderers are Pedro and Pablo Vicario, and they are out to avenge their sister Angela's honor. Herein lies the first motif of honor. Angela has just gotten married, but on the wedding night, her groom discovers that she is not a virgin. He sends her home. Angela says that Nasar is the one who took her virginity, and therefore, her brothers must avenge her honor by killing Nasar.
These events reflect the customs of the time and place in which the characters live. No one in the story questions whether or not...
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these customs are good. They merely follow them, for they have always done so. Pedro and Pablo don't actually want to kill Nasar, but it is expected of them, so they go ahead and announce that they are going to do it.
What the brothers really want is for someone to stop them and tell them that they must not kill Nasar. But no one does. Violence is part of the culture. It is actually a duty. So the people the brothers tell of their intention simply let them go on about their business. They are indifferent to the whole thing. It doesn't involve them. They aren't the ones doing the avenging or being murdered. So they say nothing.
Finally, the story presents the motif of foreboding, or in this case, a lack thereof. Nasar's mother claims to be an interpreter of dreams, but she does not recognize that Nasar's dream on the night before his murder actually foretells his death. There is a deep irony here that is enhanced by the announcements of the murderers and the apparent lack of care for a person's life.