Chronicle of a Death Foretold Analysis
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According to John Schilb in Making Literature Matter, there are seven elements of fiction that not only serve to add impact to a story but also serve as a useful framework for critical analysis. These are (1) plot and structure; (2) point of view; (3) characters/characterization; (4) setting; (5) imagery; (6) language; and (7) theme. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the author employs these elements to tell the story or chronicle the events of a murder that occurred when he was a young man in his native Caribbean town. One night as Garcia Marquez was generally enjoying a night of debauchery, his friend Santiago Nasar was murdered, a murder the entire town knew would occur. Mature now, Garcia is the narrator-detective who vows to solve the mystery that surrounds the murder by interviewing people who remember the murder, reviewing court documents, and searching his own memories. As Michaels (G1) notes, "He accumulates many kinds of data - dreams, weather reports, gossip, philosophical speculation - and makes a record of what happened first, second, third, etc. In short, a chronicle." This analysis will discuss how Garcia Marquez uses the seven elements of fiction to enhance his chronicle as well as to reinforce his main theme that love and pain are inextricably bound together in human destiny. Schilb (95) maintains that the theme of a work of fiction is "the main claim [a work] seems to make" that serves as a form of "as
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Setting also reinforces the theme of the dualistic nature of love and hate intertwined with human destiny. We see this in Garcia Marquez' use of a Caribbean town where the weather can be of a dual nature in an instant as easily as love seems to turn to hate or violence. The day of the murder, driven by Santiago's lust and passion, the weather is depicted as both "funereal" and "radiant" (Garcia Marquez 2). Bell-Villada (93) maintains the setting is a "cultural territory," and a "glimpse of a dizzying array of people and patterns and meanings." The detective interviews numerous people. He explores dreams, unearths buried memories, and even investigates hallucinations as a means of piecing together reality to uncover the mystery that surrounds the murder, especially the unproven contention that Santiago did, indeed, deflower the bride. Lust and an unchecked thirst for desire seem to drive the characters in this work.
Garcia Marquez also relies on style to help demonstrate that there is no clear cut answer as to why human destiny involves experiences that seem to combine love and hate in a powerful manner with often fateful consequences. Marquez' association with magical realism is evident in the no
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Approximate Word count = 2131
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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