.
Furthermore, Clotilde Armenta, who was informed of the upcoming killing, aforesaid "those two aren't going to kill anybody, much less someone rich" and later, "it's to spare those boys from the horrible duty which has fallen on them." Due to their good statuses in their community, it was hard for people to believe their claims of wanting to kill Nasar. Due to the obligations of maintaining honor within the family, the brothers speak openly of their plan to everyone, which made it seem as though a joke, and a bad one, but also showed a sense of fear of going through with it. The spontaneous remarks shows weakness, as though begging for someone to prevent them from carrying out the murder; however, nobody gave them the possibility to abandon the plan.
Two themes interlinked with each other which lead up to Santiago Nasars' death are competence and urgency. Searching at all possible locations, the twins' desperation to find this man continues; Commencing at Maria Alejandrina Cervantes' place, the twins waited where Nasar had previously been until two o'clock an waited for him to return. When he did not, Pablo and Pedro continued in search for him at Clothilde Armenta's milk shop, where he was nowhere to be found either. The search for a man claimed to have taken their sisters virginity, shows the commitment of the brothers to follow through their homicide plan.
The interconnected theme is furthered when the twins immediately rush to the pigsty in search of two of their best knives: "one for quartering, ten inches long by two and a half inches wide, and the other from trimming, seven inches long by one and a half inches wide," after Angela Nasar reveals Santiago's name. The significance of choosing their most threatening tools, and sharpening them at a meat market, where sharp-edged apparatus is needed, gives a fearful awareness of what is anticipated.
