fellow citizen threatens to shame the authorities who during the lull inLa Violencia have been trying to restore the people’s confidence in the local and national governments’ abilities to maintain the peace. Thus, the lampoons indirectly threaten the image that the political establishment has projected, an image of a lawful system, itself resorting to violence only when absolutely necessary.

The members of the town’s political establishment are among the novel’s major characters: the mayor, Judge Arcadio, and, since the Catholic Church remains a strong political institution in Colombia, Father Ángel, the priest. At first, even after Montero’s crime, they dismiss the lampoons as a silly prank, changing this attitude only after the tension in the town becomes intolerable. Until then, the civic leaders’ vested interest in preserving the community’s image as a pacified town prevents them from seeing that the lampoons portend the resurgence of social and economic hostilities that have been repressed during the period of political peace. Father Ángel prefers to believe that he has succeeded in shaping, especially through the power of censorship granted him by the state, a parish exemplary in its spiritual harmony. He refuses to believe that the posters’ accusations of sin have much merit; to do so would expose him as a failure. Judge Arcadio, enjoying a government salary and a meaningless title, would rather not disturb the status quo by investigating the problem of the silly lampoons. The mayor, who also heads the police, would like most to maintain the peace since he has learned to use his office to enrich himself quietly; and to use his police powers against the posting of mere gossip would seem an undue and even illegal use of force.

While the civic leaders ignore the lampoons, the town’s wealthy citizens, the chief targets of the posters, become increasingly tense since they make the most pretensions to respectability. The Asís and Montiel households, besides the Montero family, exemplify the reaction of the upper class to the lampoons. Rebeca Asís, like the wife of César Montero, is accused of adultery. Her husband, Roberto, less impulsive than Montero, doubts the truth of the poster, but begins making unexpected appearances at his home should the rumored lover arrive there. Rebeca, together with the other wealthy ladies of her church group, implore Father Ángel to condemn the lampoons from the pulpit, but the priest continues to deny the seriousness of the situation. Only after he discovers that Roberto’s shame may actually lead to another killing does Father Ángel decide to denounce publicly the posting of and overreaction to lampoons. In the meantime other families shamed by the public posting of their own sins react by leaving town. Among those preparing to flee is the widow Montiel, an extremely rich woman whose wealth accrued from the unsavory financial and political practices of her dead husband. Before she can leave, however, the lampoons drive the widow insane, and she attempts suicide.

In contrast to such violent reactions are the nonchalant attitudes of other members of the population: the wealthy Don Sabas, Judge Arcadio’s “wife,” the dentist, and the poor. An unscrupulous rancher, womanizer, and traitor to his former political allies, Don Sabas has one redeeming virtue: his shame-lessness. He tolerates the lampoons because there is no disparity between his public image and reality; he never pretends to be respectable. Because of this, García Márquez presents him as a less reprehensible character than the hypocrites who make up the rest of his class. Similar to Don Sabas in this respect is Judge Arcadio’s common-law wife, who, despite the entreaties of Father Ángel, refuses to pressure her lover into marrying her. Since Arcadio saved her from poverty and loves her, she does not fear gossip; interestingly, a lampoon against her never appears. Her attitude reflects that of the town’s poor who, struggling against disastrous floods and economic exploitation, at best find the current upper-class concern with respectability amusing.

Of the novel’s characters, the dentist fears the lampoons least simply because he has high ideals and lives up to them. Both during the peak of La Violencia and during the uneasy interlude of peace, he has steadfastly opposed the forces now in control of the town. Having refused to leave town when the government was intimidating its opponents with gunfire, he worries little about mere lampoons, despite the qualms of his wife. However, because of his integrity and continued political opposition, the dentist threatens the government’s recent conciliatory image; in a sense his presence is a lampoon against the state, exposing its oppressive nature. This becomes apparent when the dentist, in protest against the government, refuses the mayor treatment for a terrible toothache. Desperate, the mayor and his policemen break into the dentist’s office and force him to extract the tooth. This violent reaction to the dentist’s protest belies the government’s peaceful image, revealing the state’s tyrannical nature and prefiguring the renewal of open warfare.

While the mayor carried out his attack on the dental office under cover of night, the increasing tension in town caused by the posters finally leads him to take openly repressive measures to find the person disturbing the nerves of the community. Having been convinced of the lampoons’ demoralizing effect by Father Ángel, the mayor orders a curfew requiring that all citizens remain in their homes at night between the hours of eight and five. Despite this decree, the lampoons continue to appear, and it becomes obvious that more than one person is posting them. After a while, the mayor even suspects that the local men recruited to enforce the curfew may themselves be tacking up posters. He begins to realize that respect for his authority has declined. When a youth is caught, not posting lampoons, but actually distributing fliers critical of the government, the outraged mayor, fearing rebellion, places the town completely at the mercy of the police, who are in fact nothing but hired killers. Faced with open criticism of the regime, the mayor abandons his government’s conciliatory image, reveals its oppressive character, and moves to crush the sources of free speech.

The first to die from the state’s renewed attempts to silence criticism is the youth arrested for distributing forbidden propaganda. Tortured to reveal the sources of the fliers, he dies in his cell after attempting to “escape.” Hoping to preserve whatever remains of the government’s nonviolent image, the mayor refuses to allow an autopsy; he fails, however, to get judicial sanction for this act when Judge Arcadio flees town to avoid any connection with the shameful murder. With this crime La Violencia begins anew, as the police ransack the town, seeking fliers, finding weapons, and filling the jail. Opposition arises, and men flee into the jungle to join guerrilla bands. Stunned by the violence resulting from the seemingly innocuous lampoons, Father Ángel becomes virtually comatose, unable to accept the evil reality of what he thought to be an exemplary town.

Yet in spite of the renewed bloodshed, the novel ends with the cessation of the rains and the breaking of a brilliant day. Because of the oppressive mood powerfully perpetuated by García Márquez through most of the novel, we actually feel relieved when the violence finally breaks out. At least the immorality and injustices are out in the open where they can be recognized and combatted. Exposed by the open criticism of the lampoons and fliers, and by their own violent reaction to that criticism, the upper class cannot feign respectability, nor the government, legality, while imposing their control over the community.