The publication of Chronicle of a Death Foretold has sufficient power to alter the course of an individual’s life. While Marquez was highly influenced by Metamorphosis, the message of the book has an entirely different take than any other book I have ever read.
While reading this book, I was highly influenced by the theme of fate. As a very high anxiety-driven person, I was hesitant to allow events in my life to be seen as simply fate. I have always been one to understand that events in my life are essential for “my plan” and that nothing is purely coincidence. However, in terms of Santiago Nasar, his last days were purely fate.
Fate is a heavy driving force in this book. From his hand feeling like a dead man’s, to every single person stepping over the letter on the floor, there was no chance that Santiago would be a living man. Santiago’s date is an unavoidable force of nature in the sense that no protection would have kept him alive. There are far too many “circumstances” that lead to his inevitable death.
While reading this novel, I understood that fate is an unavoidable factor in life that simply cannot be altered. This is not just in Santiago’s life, or Angela’s life, it is in everyone’s life. Clearly, Marquez is a believer in the fact that fate cannot and must not be altered. Whether you are aware of your future date, it cannot be changed. Fate is unavoidable.
Understanding that fate is unavoidable within my life as well, has caused me to recollect on past events and have the motive to apply this fate to my future. Whether it be getting into a dream school, true love, or even my death (hopefully not in the same realm as Santiago) it will all happen the way that fate intends it to occur. Instead of worrying and hoping that nothing will go wrong, perhaps it is best to understand that we as humans can not avoid fate. Fate is an extreme factor that is unlike any other.
While fate is an overarching concept within Chronicles of a Death Foretold, magic realism is a reoccurring factor. This novel takes place in Colombia. The utilization of this location has an extreme impact on the novel. The culture of the area impacts the outcome of events tremendously. For example, the disorganization of the community is essentially what causes such disorganization in this murder investigation. The drunkenness and the inappropriate buildings are all factors that cause this story to unfold in such a misconstrued way. The events of the story interweave between fiction and reality, due to the culture of where this novel takes place. In this town in Colombia, most people are more focused on having fun than the true issue at hand. The disorganization of the town causes a disorganized recollection of events. It is clear that this magical realism is prevalent throughout the town in Colombia, therefore this said magical realism is present within the story.

I can’t be the only one who read half of this book with my jaw hanging open.  It is truly an absurd chronicle, which is why it doesn’t surprise me that it is so commonly taught by IB teachers. It also doesn’t surprise me that Kafka was such an inspiration for Garcia-Marquez, because this book is crawling with insanities.

I thought that it was interesting how time works in a cyclical fashion in the novel. We start the novel with the day that Santiago Nasar dies, go through the story, and then end up at the day he dies again. It adds a lot to the story-telling element of the novel, but the progression doesn’t make any logical sense. All of the information given at the end about the day he died could have easily been thrown into the first two chapters, so why make it cycle back at all? Is this an element of magical realism, or is it representative of how the narrator is receiving information? It’s strange but interesting to think about.

I feel like every time I re-read this book I will discover new information that blows my mind while also uncovering part of a new theme, or just a detail. It reminds me of Atonement in that way.

The way religion kept coming into the story was quite interesting to me, and I find it hard to believe that Garcia-Marquez didn’t intend it to be a commentary.  The bishop sailed past the town that is offering him everything that they can in a performative routine as he does every year. Angela, the only one who leaves town, seems to have a real issue with this. After Pedro and Pablo confessed to killing Santiago to Father Amador, they say that they are innocent. Father Amador replies, “Perhaps before God”. Father Amador was also responsible for the botched autopsy performed on Santiago Nasar. While the findings were medically helpful, it was inadmissible in court and poorly performed. I understand why Cristo Bedoya didn’t perform the autopsy, but there was another medical student there on vacation who would’ve had more up-to-date knowledge on how to not butcher a corpse. I’m pretty sure Father Amador is the one who knew about the attack but got scared and just rang a bell instead, but that might’ve been Colonel Aponte. I’m not sure if Garcia-Marquez has a personal gripe with religion, or perhaps he just wrote what he saw while he lived in this town, but it is clear that the religious figures of Sucre, Columbia have a cult around them while being woefully inadequate at their jobs.

While magical realism is still a topic that I am trying to come to terms with, I think it works so well within this book. At its core, magical realism is strange things being told as fact, and that perfectly describes the events the led to Santiago’s death, his death, and the events after. Even the judge over the case seemed wildly perplexed by the entire encounter.

Strangely, my biggest question is still who Angela’s attacker could be. Is it someone we met? Is it someone we didn’t? Does Garcia-Marquez even know? All I know is that this book keeps my mind up at night.

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!

Here’s the deal I’m not a crazy super feminist because in my opinion men are equally as important but I have to acknowledge the amazing abilities of a woman who knows her worth and her power and Angela Vacario is a fantastic representation of that. I was a little worried about her at the beginning of the book because I was like girl you are heartbreakingly sad the way she was talking about the only thing that she could do is kill herself and all that stuff I was like all right you’re quite the joyful little character there however with the help of none other than Bayardo and of course  Santiago Nassar who allegedly did some stuff she became this mastermind manipulator. We can’t pretend like miss girl didn’t know that there was gonna be an issue with her getting married because she wasn’t a virgin there’s no way that she was unaware of that. she went through with it anyway and married some random dude I guess who she thought had to be attractive because why in the world would you even consider marrying a man who’s not a little bit attractive?? he had money, her family was ready for it and then uh oh we find out that Angela has done the dirty… oopsie. now this sends Bayardo into a little frenzy as we all know.  boy is like absolutely not I cannot have her as a wife and is like take her back which I know I said this in class but let me say it again the way that they kept saying that they were returning her she was being returned the word return I didn’t like that that made Angela sound very objectified and like she was some kind of transaction.  he really said insert cash or select payments type with that one. anyways to get to the fun part the way that she writes him a letter every week for years is 1) dedication like yes queen gets your mans and 2) it’s the way that he did not even have to open a single letter to come back to her… like how did you mastermind that? that was amazing… not only that she saw him and was like oh you’re not necessarily the same way you were long ago but then she was like oh shoot you’re old and fat and have no hair let me call the shots, therefore she did. the amount of powerful feminine energy throughout the novel is not really super evident until you take a little deep dive it’s such an underlying little motif throughout some of the women and I love it especially in the class full of females who have very strong opinions you just have to eat it up it’s too good. I mean beautiful beautiful acknowledgment of her power and low-key none of this would’ve happened had Santiago Nassar  not butt his way between that so minor slay for him I guess.  ha ha slay is  funny because he was literally slain I still can’t get over the fact that he was walking through these peoples house  holding his intestines and then just smiled at them.  that got a good little giggle out of me anyways this was a good nice little read.  I liked it have a joyous day

This book was very thought invoking and funny. I enjoyed reading it and discovering the hidden lessons within it. But there were some things that just felt unfinished. To Garcia-Marquez, they are funny, little jokes. To me, they are stay up late pondering about them questions that will never be answered.

My biggest issue is with Angela and Bayardo. He threw me in such a loop! First Angela doesn’t want to give Bayardo a time of day, then she pines after him for half a lifetime. I understand it’s a power move to get back into society, but I could not seem to completely rap my brain around it. She had seemed like the type of person not to be bothered by that stuff. What’s crazier is that Bayardo came back! All because he felt guilty about barring her from society and marriage, not for love. It makes me wonder if they will even last. I feel like they are equally match in spirit, Angela with her masked hatred and Bayardo with his gigantic ego. I would buy and read a second book to find out who wins! Although, maybe not because Garcia-Marquez might just use it as another opportunity to create more unanswered questions.

Another thing I felt cheated on was the years in between Baryardo leaving the sinful town and him eventually reuniting with Angela. What was he doing that made him deteriorate so much? Does he still have money or was he pretending? Why did he never try to remarry? With the double standard for men in the book, along with his good looks and money, I’m sure he could have gotten another acceptable marriage.

The Mayor got on my nerves a lot. He was basically useless. Even Father Amador called him a “barbarian” and his orders “stupid” (Garcia-Marquez 72). When he found out about the coming murderer, he practically gave them a slap on the wrist. He took their knives and sent them to bed. When he found out that they got knew knives and were trying to track Santiago Nasar down and kill him, Colonel Aponte decided to finish planning a domino game before dealing with it! By the time he was finished, the killing was over. After all that, he still stayed the mayor. I was very confused by that. He may have shown his strength through war, but was not his failure to prevent the murder enough to get him removed from office? Why would the people of the town continue to follow a spineless leader?

The Angela’s mother, Pura Vicario, was very puzzling. For a mother that supposedly loved her family very much, she had a funny way of showing it. She literally beat Angela to a bloody pulp. Also, she raised her daughters to never dream about anything in life except marriage. But, maybe the way she raised them was a sign of love in her own way. She raised her daughters so that they would be good wives that could easily marry into rich families.

Now I did not write this whole blog post to drag Chronicles of a Death Foretold through the mud. There were just some elements that rubbed me the wrong way. All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot and it’s probably one of my favorites out of the books we read together.

I enjoyed reading Chronicle of a Death Foretold because it was unlike anything I have read before. I did not think I would like this book because I like having the plot of the book being discovered throughout the book and not known at the very beginning. Although the murder was useful to know because the motives and details of the murder are slowly revealed. Also, every time Pedro and Pablo were mentioned, I envisioned Pedro Pascal. I don’t really want to see Pedro Pascal having blennorhea to be honest…

Angela Vicario’s role in this book shows how in a place where a woman has no power, she is able to manipulate Bayardo to coming back to her with the letters. Although there is a battling power dynamic of Angela sending the letters and Bayardo not opening them shows how Angela can still have her life even though she is not a virgin.

The end of the book where Santiago gets nailed to a door with knives captivated me because of the magic realism.  Also, I was surprised that they actually were able to kill Santiago. They possessed the skills of pig butchers but lacked the medical knowledge of where the heart is. The drunkenness’ and blasphemous behaviors of the town ultimately lead to unfortunate consequences.

The discussion of purity and marriage in that society can be a double standard because the women have to be “pure”, but the men can go to brothels and be players all they want with no consequences. Women can bring shame to their family by not being a virgin and never able to remarry. Bayardo returned Angela after she revealed she was not a virgin with the intention of dying, which shows he did not truly love her. Only until after she could not have him, she was utterly obsessed with him.

Disorder in the town shows how there is no structure and therefore no proper legal system. The way the body was examined and the legality of it all proves there was no successful criminal justice system. I do not think I could function in a town where a threat to kill someone is not taken seriously, also the mayor needs to be replaced asap.