My Take - Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the finest examples of powerful writing. The title of the novella gives the exact description of what it deals with. The novella is a chronicle of a murder that has been foretold, so much so that the entire knows about it. However, we should not let ourselves be deceived by the straightforwardness of the title because the ambiguity of the narrative can said to be directly proportional to the unambiguousness of the title.
In contrast to other murder stories, the author in this novella clearly states the identity of the victim, the perpetrator and their motives from the very beginning. However, the author remained equivocal to the end about the culpability of the murdered man. It is not revealed whether the murdered man was actually guilty of the crime imputed to him, though throughout the novella we find several hints that try to establish his innocence. Nevertheless, one must bear in mind that the unnamed chronicler was a close friend of Santiago Nasar, therefore it is possible that his personal bias crept into the narrative which made him predisposed to dismiss/disbelieve the rape victim’s narrative.
However, the main concern of the author wasn’t the culpability of Santiago Nasar but rather the fact that nobody from the whole town came to his aid or even warned him despite knowing fully well that he was doomed to death. Thus, the godforsaken town became a microcosmic representation of the entire humanity. The fact that nobody bothered to warn Santiago Nasar speaks volume about the inherent sadism of men. Though everyone was appalled to see Santiago’s grotesquely mutilated dead body yet nobody bothered to stop the gruesome murder which was taking place in full public view in broad daylight.
Though sprinkled with instances of magical realism, this novella is, in fact a harsh and unflattering representation of reality. The novella hits hard at the feigned morality of the human society. If we look around us with a more discerning eye we will see such foretold murders, perhaps not as obvious as Santiago’s murder but murder all the same, happening every day, everywhere. Though most of us are quick to express our outrage at such heinous crimes yet none of us actually bothers to stop them from happening, just like the goddamned townsfolk of Santiago Nasar’s town.
My rating – 5 ⭐


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