How The Techniques Of Magic Realism, The Townspeople And Irony Marks The Fate Of Santiago Nasar In "A Chronicle Of A Death Foretold" By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In the novel "A Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, many different aspects are explored such as culture, magic realism, irony and how these connect along with the narration. Marques develops a story about Santiago Nasar's tragical death using these aspects to tell the story. This essay seeks to demonstrate how the effects of magic realism, the culture of townspeople and how the use of irony marks the fate of Santiago Nasar.

Magic realism holds the definition of "A literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative or technique is combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy" . In the novel structure, narration along with multiple perspectives defines the magic realism that is evident in the novel. The format of the novel is a chronicle as the title has revealed. Chronicles are made in the way that the information is based on witness accounts, information gathered from many different places and perspectives. In the novel, the narrator speaks in 1st person narration, but because of the different accounts, the narration suddenly becomes omniscient, all-knowing, all though this would be more common to see in a 3rd person point of view. This would then be able to signify the narrator as not just one person, but several people (since that is the way chronicles work) telling the story of Santiago Nasar, giving the feeling of magic realism through multiple-perspectives in one narrator. Along with the constant repetition of stating that Nasar was going to die it confirms the theme of fate and how predestined it was all along. It is already recognized in the first sentence of the novel "On the day that they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on." (p.1), the author uses the chronicle structure to inflict the flickering of different witness accounts which leads to play of timeline. The novel is based on different stories, again built on witness accounts that all lead to the same conclusion - Santiago Nasar dying - the inevitable fate. This concludes that the structure gives the inevitable fate of Santiago's life be left in the hands of the Vicario brothers and that all the people around him had no power to stop it, "It's as if it had already happened" (p.62)

Another evidence of this is also on the first page "He'd dreamed he was going through a grove of timber trees where a gentle drizzle was falling, and for an instant he was happy in his dream, but when he awoke he felt completely spattered with bird shit" (p.1) the obscure difference between dream and reality of the novel, again a use of magic realism, confirms the foreshadowed fate of Santiago Nasar.

Secondly, the fate of Santiago Nasar is also based on the culture and society at which the tragedy occurs at. South American culture in this society is deeply rooted, as this town was very enclosed. There was not much communication. It is to the extent when the bishop plans to come for a visit, it becomes the event of the year and everyone in town prepares for it. To emphasize, this means that it is very isolated, which means that the culture is deeply rooted and has not developed - it is still quite conservative. Among these deeply rooted cultural beliefs machismo/honor and beliefs of superstition are present in the novel. Machismo is well-presented in the characters of the Vicario brothers. They have to be the men in the family as the father cannot work, so they have to take care of the work that the father otherwise would have done. So, when taking up the role they had been given as the men of the family, the "issue" of their sister Angela not being a virgin anymore inevitably had to be dealt with by them. It had to be done, "There's no way out of this. It's as if it had already happened" (p.62), it was fated. This situation is directly connected to honor, as Angela marrying someone directly represents the family. When she reveals that Santiago Nasar took her virginity, the only thing that needed to be done to restore this damage of honor was to kill him.

Superstition is also an important part of their cultural beliefs. Many of the dreams and thoughts were interpreted as a meaning of life. Santiago Nasar's