Death Foretold

Journalism is traditionally viewed as a concrete sequential method of communicating the occurrences of events. However, this is not always the case as explored by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Marquez manipulates an established plot line with style aspects characteristic of journalistic narration including a spiral plot structure, repetition, and the early reveal of the main plot point. These elements also serve to craft a nonlinear narrative and organizational structure through Marquez’s twofold utilization of each device. By basing the two contradictory styles in the same key literary elements, Marquez reveals their complementary nature that together forms the narrative of the novella. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold,

The distinguishing factor between a spiral plot structure and a cyclical is the developing information provided at each repetition, the narrative never crosses itself as it would in a cyclical structure but continues in a multiplanar spiral nature. Marquez establishes details early about the murder including the activity of the killers the night beforehand: “The men who were going to kill him had slept on benches, clutching the knives wrapped in newspapers to their chests, and Clotilde Armenta held her breath so as not to awaken them” (15). The early reveal of the killers and the weapon is already unconventional, but, Marquez revisits the same plot point forty pages later when he establishes the events occurring just before the twins went to sleep on the park benches: “Clotilde Armenta hadn’t finished dispensing her milk when the Vicario brothers returned with two other knives wrapped up in newspapers. … It was with these knives that the crime was committed, and both were rudimentary and had seen a lot of use” (58-59). Marquez displays spiral structure as the narrative winds through the same point in the narrative but reveals different information each time. The strategic release of

Rhythm formulates the interpretation by a reader and Marquez utilizes it to continue engagement. The repetition of the narrative provides a pattern of commonality and points between which the story can develop, and the repetition of these points eases the understanding and absorption of his style. One of the most repeated points is the statement foretelling the death of Santiago Nasar. The narrator’s sister, Margot, recounts the confusion while the only constant was the knowledge of his planned murder: “‘no one could explain to me how Santiago Nasar ended up being involved in such a mix-up.’ The only thing they knew for sure was that Angela Vicario’s brothers were waiting for him to kill him” (21). This establishes the widespread nature of the knowledge within the townspeople. The twins reveal their plot to most of the townspeople they meet along the way and it is concretely stated later on that “there had never been a death more foretold” (50). Repetition is overtly nonlinear with the revisiting of events and points many times over, but it also more covertly solidifies the journalistic narration. Journalists hear from sources and report to the public the same key elements many times to solidify them in memory and reaffirm the facts. Marquez manipulates this aspect of journalism through its