Chronicle Of A Death Foretold Literary Analysis

In the writing of his novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Márquez defies literary standards by revealing the novel’s finalé in the very first line. While this may appear as only a defiant and creative approach, Márquez holds deeper intentions in his innovative take on foreshadowing. The journalistic structure within Márquez’s investigative novel along with the author’s use of rhetoric allows a seemingly magical apologue become relatable and engaging to Márquez’s audience. Márquez brings his readers into an alternate but very relatable universe as he compares unnatural symbols to relatable scenarios that the reader can comprehend. As Márquez’s audience is primarily Latin American, and exposed to powerful romance novellas written

Márquez accomplishes this effect through the use of bibliomancy throughout his novel, allowing his audience to relate to seemingly impossible events. For example, the autopsy of Santiago Nasar reveals “six minor wounds on his arms and hands... he had a deep stab in the right hand”(75). While readers of different audiences may find Santiago’s wounds to be oddly specific in location and an unnatural description of a cadaver, Márquez’s Latino, largely Catholic, audience is able to recognize the lacerations as a depiction of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion and the lacerations he received. Márquez specifically incorporates this in order to allow his audience to understand the magnitude the murder holds to the townspeople, just as the death of Jesus did to his disciples. Márquez also alludes to the bible in the description of Santiago’s murder, as the narrator describes, “the strange thing is that the knife kept coming out clean”(117-118). The narrator is alluding to the innocence of Santiago, as he is actually pure and did not take Angela Vicario’s virginity. The idea of purity is religious in nature, and due to its mentioning throughout the Catholic bible, Márquez’s audience is able to notice the allusion and understand why the knife is not blood-ridden as it logically should be.

Márquez makes this clear in the intentions of the narrator, who works to determine the events that took place the night of Santiago Nasar’s murder. The narrator makes this very clear early on, stepping aside from his narrative to reveal his purpose, revealing “I had a very confused memory of the festival before I decided to rescue it piece by piece from the memory of others”(43). In Chronicle, Márquez lives through the narrator, as he seeks to write a novel that steps away from the standard Latin American poem or romantic novel and instead develop a surreal mystery that whisks the reader away. However, Márquez also finds a need to establish relatability in the novel, which he does through his structure. Márquez brilliantly includes very few instances of narrative disruption, and structures the novella as one, long, investigative report. This includes the presentation of background information, as is done in an interview with Placida Linero, the narrator reporting “Plácida Linero, his mother, told me twenty-seven years later, recalling the details of that distressing Monday. ‘The week before, he'd dreamed that he was alone in a tinfoil airplane and flying through the almond trees without bumping into anything,’ she said to me”(3). In the delivery of crucial background information, Márquez not