Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's (1984) Chronicle of a Death Foretold is told in first person narrative by a journalist figure who returns to a Colombian town 27 years after the death of Santiago Nasar. The novel begins with two misunderstandings of Santiago's final dream. Santiago's mother provides one, and the other is provided by Santiago himself. These misinterpretations are significant, because the narrator will hear many misinterpreted stories of the events that unfolded nearly three decades before and since. There are many themes in the book, from Latin American "machismo" and women's roles to that of memory and time. Time and memory as products of consciousness remains a significant theme. For the narrator is investigating events that occur years before, but these events are interpreted in one manner as they occur and differently in hindsight. As one literary critic maintains, "The narrator registers the townspeople's original misinterpretations of objects, events, and other characters' behavior as a bizarre and incomprehensible incident unfolds right before their eyes. The novel also insists on the fact that, with the privilege of hindsight, the narrator and the townspeople are able to reinterpret these texts under a different light" (Olivares 1987, 485-486). This analysis will provide a summary of the novel, with a focus on another major theme of the work. The theme to be analyzed is the distinctions in class which figure

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hat he is going to be killed. Without hope or opportunity, many of the inhabitants of the town believe that fate is inevitable. Instead of believing they have some control over their lives, a life of hardship and tradition make them passively accept fate as something that cannot be individually influenced. From the elaborate wedding to the neglected note that nobody seems to care about, fate seems to make many of the characters react in a foreordained manner in the story. It could be for this reason that Garcia Marquez chose to call the murder a "death foretold". As one reviewer says of the events of the story, "Garcia Marquez's chronicle focuses on the random events accompanying the murder. Elements are carefully united to show how people �go on living without an exact knowledge of the place and mission assigned to us by fate'" (Hutchison 1983, 758). This is ironic in the sense that if any of them would have bothered to read the note or inform Santiago, fate for many of the characters may have been altered. The townspeople continue to discuss the imminent death of Santiago, yet nobody acts as if it is something they can or that should be stopped. The class from which Angela originates is one used to hardship and sufferi

Category: Literature - C