Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Chronicle of A Death Foretold. I think it embodies all of the characteristics of a “good” IB English book. I think it was placed perfectly in the syllabus in the Senior Year because there are aspects of Little Fires Everywhere. Macbeth, and Atonement. I was able to pull from those previous readings to make connections throughout the novel. Chronicle of A Death Foretold was a very thought-provoking novel for me, and I have figured out why. Fate. My idea of fate is skewed in a way. I view fate optimistically, probably because I am a hopeless romantic at heart, but Chronicle challenged my view of fate. I see fate as running into someone you have not seen in years, and you fall in love all over again. Or, you miss the train to go to work in the morning, and you miss a catastrophe. But can fate be used to justify an entire community essentially turning its back on a community? I am not sure. Was Santiago going to die no matter what? Maybe, but the people who did not warn him are using fate to justify their own actions rather than taking responsibility. I can’t keep looking at fate in an optimistic view without taking into consideration the means people will go through just to avoid responsibility for their actions. I think there are two sides to fate: optimistic fate and consequence fate. For example, at Girl’s State, I ended up finding the girl I plan on rooming with in college. It was pure coincidence. We signed up for the same seminar, got lost at the same time, approached the same lady to ask directions, and then we met each other and realized we wanted to go to the same college and study the same obscure thing. In my mind, that is optimistic fate. There was no connection between us prior to that single encounter, and boom, it was like all the stars aligned, and I have found someone with whom I can relate in college. On the other hand, consequence fate comes from the consequences of a person’s actions. In this case, the community would be experiencing consequence fate by not telling Santiago about the plot to kill him. They must live with his blood on their hands for the rest of their lives. Consequence fate brings on an unknowingness of the situation; If I had done this, could I have prevented that? I believe everyone’s actions lead to other actions, but that is not justified by fate. We all chose to take IB English sophomore year. Is that fate? Or is that the outcome of a decision we made? That is what Chronicle of A Death Foretold has forced me to look into. What is considered fate, and what is not? As someone who tries to see the good in everything, it is hard not to justify good things as fate without justifying the bad things as fate. Ultimately, I think it is up to the person to decide if something is fate or if it is a consequence of their previous actions, and if not, to justify it as a consequence fate!