Summary of a chronicle of an announced death
Chronicle of an announced death by Gabriel García Márquez was published in 1981 and is based on real events. The context of the work takes place 30 years before the publication of the work, 50s.
The novel develops in a historical context that is characterized by the independence of Latin America countries during the first half of the S. XIX, less Cuba until 1898. In Latin America the situation of each country in the twentieth century is different. However, we can talk about a series of circumstances that these countries share and that explain many of the aspects of their literature. Economic backwardness and social inequalities has resulted in political instability, one of the main problems suffering from these countries.
The twentieth century was marked by the two world wars that whipped the world. Colombia was going through an era of little technological, industrial and commercial development.
The most important social and cultural feature is miscegenation and conjunction of tradition, modernity is the dominant note in that culture. It should also be noted that in this time the woman did not have opportunities and her functions were very small.
Chronicle of an announced death is a novel with chronic aspects that belongs to magical realism. Magic realism is a genre mainly used by Latin Americans during the second half of the twentieth century, the original term was coined by German writer Franz Roh. It is defined as a stylistic concern and the interest of showing the unreal or strange as something everyday and common. It is not a magical literary expression, its purpose is not to raise emotions but, rather, express them, and it is, above all things, an attitude towards reality. Chronicle of a death announced interspersed these elements with reality.
It is called chronicle because it tells facts before something happens, in this case a murder. Everything that happens in the work was already revealed and only explains the facts that influenced that it was so.
“Roads that cross and eyes that do not see, walk to death."
I have chosen this phrase that is named in book because it expresses the essence of the book and what the novel expresses.
In this phrase three fundamental keys are established to understand the work of Gabriel García Márquez. In the first place, the roads represent the different issues that the work deals with such as honor, death, love, religion, revenge or machismo. These issues are reflected in the different parts of the work, for example, honor and revenge are present in the need of the brothers Pedro and Pablo Vicario of killing Santiago Nascar, love in the different relationships of the characters. Others such as religion or machismo are manifested in the characteristics of society at that time. Second, the eyes they do not see is a metaphor aimed at those people of the work that knew what was going to happen but the blind were made and did not act. Finally, obviously, it is a reference to the death of Santiago Nascar. The whole work revolves around their death and the topics previously said in the work the purpose of their death.
Structure
Internal structure
This work has a chronology that tells the story in a way that does not follow the famous approach, knot and outcome. By telling the same story from different points of view or starting at the end, the order of the events is ordered by the reader and creates his own chronology with the data received. In this case the structure is non -linear because the chronological order is broken and has a closed end but an interpretation of the open facts.
Chronicle of an announced death would divide it into three parts, ordering the events of history in an order.
- APPROACH: Bayardo San Román arrives in the town in search of a wife and marries Ángela Vicario. When he discovers that he was not a virgin he returns and Angela acknowledges that it was Santiago Nascar.
- Knot: the brothers Pedro and Pablo Vicario find out and run to kill him while announcing the news. No one intervenes and Santiago Nasar does not find out, he is killed.
- Outcome: After the murder, the brothers are imprisoned. Years after disappearing, Angela writes Bayardo every day, one day, he appears with all the letters to meet her with her.
External structure
The work is divided into 5 chapters that detailed the death of Santiago Nascar from different points of view. The chapters lack the name.The novel begins by the end and from that contextualizes and tells the reasons for his death.
- Chapter 1 presents the protagonist, Santiago Nasar, and his family. It tells how Nasar is going to see the bishop and reveals the murder at the beginning but does not give details. It also describes the murderers and the atmosphere of the people. Page 9 of the book
- Chapter 2 focuses on the family of Ángela Vicario and the mysterious Bayardo San Román to the wedding. Bayardo San Román returns his wife on the same day for not being a virgin. Page 33 of the book
- Chapter 3 Talk about the Vicario brothers and how they plan the murder, several secondary characters appear in this chapter and function as extras to understand the intentions of the brothers. It also ends the murder. Page 59 of the book
- Chapter 4 The previous chapter tells, recounts the autopsy of Santiago Nasar, the imprisonment of the Vicario brothers, the disappearance Ángela Vicario and Bayardo San Román and his reunion years later with an angels in love and obsessed. Page 85 of the book.
- Chapter 5 The crime from the point of view of Christ Bedoya and Santiago Nascar. Tell all the details of the moments before the crime and ends the death of the protagonist. Page 111 of the book
The novel passes 27 years after the murder of Santiago Nascar. This does not follow an order and therefore the time is fragmented due to the characteristics of the work.
Chronicle of an announced death of temporary jump that are connected to each other with arguments, their time is align. Start in the future and then go to the past and advance to the present, later, travel again to the future and return to the present. These changes produce that the description of the events of the future are those of the present but of a different point of view.
I have divided the duration into three parts:
- Since Bayardo San Román arrived six months earlier until his wedding day.
- The wedding day and the night of the death of Santiago Nasar.
- From the crime to the reunion of Ángela Vicario and Bayardo San Román.
Storyteller
The narrator has a primary function for the novel since it is the complementation of temporary jumps. Like the chronological order, the narrator varies according to the time for a different approach, that is, it makes an equal function but in its own way.
Gabriel García Márquez presents several narrators:
Narrator in 1st person and witness although unaware that a crime is going to be committed.
- "They had not stopped howling since I entered the kitchen, and I found …" Page 86
- "I had been in Parranda with Santiago Nasar and with me even a little …" Page 25
The characters as dialogue. The dialogue between the characters is scarce and colloquial
- “ – Santiago Nasar knows why – said Pedro Vicario.”Page 64
- “ – That’s not why – said Clotilde Armenta-.”Page 68
Narrator in 3rd person and omniscient.
- “Owner for the first time of his destiny, Ángela Vicario discovered that hatred and love are reciprocal passions.”Page 108
The witness narrator also collects information and reconstructs the facts. The information is collected from interviews with the characters and the reports of the murder in the trial.
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