Chapter three in Pereira Declares, by Antoni Tabucchi, is about the first in person encounter between Pereira and Monteiro Rossi. Within this chapter, Pereira is trying to locate the place that Rossi has said to meet at. As Pereira arrives at this location, he is at first oblivious to the festival that surrounds him, but then soon realizes that he has stumbled into a Salazarist festival and is shocked. The remaining parts of this passage tell a story of how Pereira is taken away by the music playing and finds a sort of peace in the moment. In this passage, Tabucchi uses pinpointed diction, symbols and imagery to display the theme of the novel and to create and change the tone throughout the passage. 

Throughout the passage, Tabucchi uses special diction to display the theme of the novel on top of creating and changing the tone of the text. In the first half of the passage, when Pereira first realizes that he is in a Salazarist festival, Tabucchi uses dark words like “terror” and “blood” (10), to create a fearful tone in the beginning of the text. This shows the fear that is inflicted on the populace just from being in the presence of people who support the dictatorship. Pereira is shaken so much by the festival that he flops down on a bench in shock, it’s only then that he notices the music. As the music is playing Tabucchi uses words like “radiant”, “passion”, and “beautiful” (10,11) to change the tone to a bright and relaxing feeling, at the same time allowing the reader to slip into Pereira’s past and leads us into the introduction to Monteiro Rossi. 

Another strategy Tabucchi implores to display the theme of the novel and change the tone of the passage is the use of symbolism. In this particular passage the symbol used is music. In the beginning, Pereira is extremely distressed and frightened by the festival he has stumbled upon. Visions of atrocities committed by the regime flash through his head such as “Alentejan carter who had shed his blood all over his melons” (10).  But then his mind comes to rest once he hears this beautiful music being played. Pereira begins to think of his childhood and how he “thought of life as a long radiant future” (10). In this portion of the passage the festival and the ideas behind the festival, are symbols of the inner beast in man. They represent how bleak. Hopeless and full of fear the world can be when we let this inner beast within us all take over our actions. We can see this fear in Pereira’s reaction when he discovers where he is. He is so shaken and fear struck, that he has to sit down and collect himself. The only thing that strikes this fear out of him is the music. 

The music in the portion of the passage represents culture and the human’s ability to resist the inner beast. After hearing the music Pereira is reminded of his wonderful childhood, where “any number of beautiful girls had been mad about him” (10). The symbol of the music changes the tone of the passage completely. The reader is now filled with pleasant feelings about life instead of the fear inflicted in the first part of the passage. This is the most interesting part of this passage. The use of the festival and music as symbols draws attention to an overall theme of the novel, that having culture and freedom and resisting the inner beast is what humanity is about, and to not allow people who have let the inner beast takeover get into power. 

A third device Tabucchi uses in this passage to convey the theme of the novel and to create tone is imagery. Tabucchi uses visual imagery to make the reader feel as if they are in Pereira’s head, experiencing things as he is, thinking the same thoughts that he is. The author paints a vivid picture when he describes Pereira’s childhood when “he had a trim figure and was athletic and had the girls falling in love with him” (10). Images like this one throughout the passage help set up a lighter and more relaxing tone through the end of the passage. The visuals put the reader inside of Pereira’s head and show us how his childhood was so full of hope and ambition. This in essence, also projects the theme of the novel by showing us that Pereira being a writer and a man of culture, was able to have an amazing childhood. Pereira was handsome, in shape and intelligent, and he was able to be all these things because he resisted his inner instincts, essentially he was civilized. The reader can assume Pereira is civilized and has culture due to the fact that he “seemed to recognize himself”(11), in the singer that was performing at the festival. This also alludes to the symbol of music being the culture in the situation as the festival and the ideas behind it are human’s inner beast. This just furthers the idea that Pereira is a cultural man and that the vivid imagery behind his childhood flashback contribute to the overall theme of the novel.`

To conclude, the tone starts out as a scary, dark and fearful one, but s then transformed into a safe, relaxing and relieving one. This tone creation and change assist the author in representing one of the overall themes in the novel. The theme that what separates humans from animals is culture and the fact that we can resist our inner instincts. That the resisting of our inner beast is what essentially makes us human, what makes us civilized. And Tabucchi does a phenomenal job of using Diction, Symbols and imagery to address this theme. Tabucchi also does a fantastic job in using the very same methods to create and change the tone of this passage. Finally, Tabucchi uses pinpointed diction, symbols and imagery to display the theme of the novel and to create and change the tone throughout the passage  