Schedule for Chronicle of a Death Foretold*

Assignment Due Date

Marquez Article and Magical Realism Notes ____________

Reading Guide ____________

Chronicle of a Death Foretold Quiz ____________

Magical Realism Quiz ____________

Chronicle of a Death Foretold Vocabulary Test ____________

Interactive Orals Reflective Statement ____________

Jigsaw Seminar ____________

Study Guide ____________

Chronicle of a Death Foretold Final ____________

*Note: Dates are subject to change.

Websites to visit for Chronicle of a Death Foretold:

http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_biography.html

http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_mr.html

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism

Chronicle of a Death Foretold YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnHIedjJ4bs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVpiPcfYDe8

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 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Vocabulary

1 augury
2 apostolic
3 baptistery
4 pontifical
5 furtive
6 jubilation
7 insomniac
8 providential
9 capons
10 contraband
11 manioc
12 geld
13 fado
14 saltpeter
15 fickle
16 superfluous
17 consecrated
18 idyllic
19 morass
20 languid
21 organdy
22 reproach
23 penury
24 lapel
25 pommel
26 martyrdom
27 tamarind
28 jilted
29 merengue
30 lignum vitae
31 consummated
32 panopticon
33 predisposed
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34 stolid
35 scapular
36 novice
37 marquetry
38 blennorrhea
39 machismo
40 Saint Elmo's Fire
41 seigneur
42 episcopal
43 perforations
44 stigma
45 encephalic
46 houri
47 rustic
48 irreparable
49 expiated
50 precipice
51 valise
52 reticence
53 douche
54 coup de grace
55 arnica
56 missive
57 oblique
58 squalid
59 enigma
60 decedent

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Name: ________________________________________

Chronicle of a Death Foretold Reading Guide

Chapter 1

1. What is a chronicle? How is this work like a chronicle? How is it unlike a chronicle?

2. What details of the "death" day do various people disagree about? What does
this disagreement indicate?

3. What did the people in the town expect would be important that day? What
actually turned out to be important? What is the "lesson"?

Chapter 2

4. Discuss Bayardo San Román:

a) physical description

b) why does he want to marry Angela?

c) actions that reveal his character?

5. Discuss Angela:

a) how does she feel about Bayardo (before the wedding)?

b) the town's and her family's expectations of her

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6. Describe the "sexual" culture of the town. What attitudes prevail about the proper
role of men, the proper role of women?

7. What is the motive given for killing Santiago Nasar?

Chapter 3

8. What "time frame" is described in this chapter?

9. What is the reasoning of the Vicario twins? What justifies their act? How do they really feel
about it? Give evidence.

10. What does the fact that nearly everyone knows (except Santiago) what is planned tell us about the
fundamental assumptions, values of the town?

11. How do class differences influence feelings about Santiago?

Chapter 4

12. What is significant about María Alejandrina Cervantes and her "girls"? What
attitudes do the townspeople and the narrator have toward them?

13. Explain what happens to Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Román after the murder and in later
years?

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14. Discuss Angela's "love letters." What wry/ironic comment is Marquez making about such letters
when he has Bayardo "return" to Angela but with the letters unopened?

Chapter 5

15. What does the narrator discover about Santiago's role in "deflowering" Angela?

a) did Santiago die "understanding" the reason for his death?

b) why would Angela withhold the name of the real perpetrator? who
might it be? evidence?

c) what symbolic meaning does this mystery have for ALL humans?

16. What puzzles most of the townspeople as they look aback on the morning of Santiago's death?

17. Why, in some sense, does the "piecing together" of this chronicle make the narrator and the
townspeople "feel better"?

18. After reading the book, what might readers conclude is the significance of the title for themselves?
Why?

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The Characters: Identify and describe:

19. Major Characters:

a) the narrator

b) Santiago Nasar

c) Bayardo San Román

d) Ángela Vicario

e) Pedro Vicario

f) Pablo Vicario

20. Minor Characters:

a) Divina Flor

b) Flora Miguel

c) María Alejandrina Cervantes

d) Clothilde Armenta

e) Plácida Linero

f) Cristo Bedoya

g) Colonel Aponte

h) Father Carmen Amador

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 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Jigsaw

Each group of four will choose one of the following topics (via lottery). Your group will be responsible
for tracking that topic throughout the novel. After becoming “experts” on the topic, you will share their
knowledge with the entire class.

1. Women in the novel: their aspirations, the choices available to them, dependence on men
or independence from men.

2. The code of honor that functions in this society. What are the assumptions / principles on
which this code is based? The role of “honor” in the novel.

3. Physicality vs. spirituality. Show how Garcia Marquez’s language reflects both the physical and
spiritual forces at work in human life.

4. Religion and superstition. What role does religion and/or the supernatural play in the lives of the
villagers?

5. Imagery and Symbols. What are the most important images and symbols in the story? How are
they used in the story? What effect do they have on the story?

6. Fate vs. free will. What vision of human nature does the novel depict? Are human beings in
control of their destiny?

7. “Machismo” and the male role in this society. How do males themselves view this role?

8. Tragedy vs. comedy. The key element of tragedy is the inevitability of suffering (in other words,
the outcome cannot be prevented). A comedy, on the other hand, often depends upon ridiculous
and seemingly random coincidences (we laugh precisely because we did not “expect” such an
outcome). Look at this novel as both tragedy AND comedy.

9. Surrealism and Magical Realism. What are these? How are they used in the story? What effect do
they have on the story?

Each group must:

 Prepare a written analysis of your individual findings. Submit this to turnitin.com

 INCLUDE six IMPORTANT and SIGNIFICANT quotations that support your conclusions or
illustrate your topic (include page numbers).
 Present the material to the class in 6-8 minutes.

This assignment is worth a test grade.

Due on ____________________________________.

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 Chronicle of a Death Foretold Study Guide

1. What information does the first paragraph of the novel give you about the story that is going to
unfold?

2. Why doesn’t Victoria Guzmán warn Santiago Nasar about the men who are going to kill him?

3. What signs does Santiago Nasar overlook that would have forewarned him of the impending
crime?

4. What impression does the writer give you of the bishop and of the townspeople’s relation of him?

5. How does the writer communicate the animosity of the poor towards the rich in the novel?

6. Describe the character of Santiago Nasar.

7. What aspects of physical violence do you observe in the activities of the townspeople? Find
examples from the book.

8. What precipitates the murder of Santiago Nasar?

9. In what ways are the wedding festivities unusual for the town?

10. What do you learn about the background of Bayardo San Román?

11. What was Bayardo San Román’s father known for?

12. How have the Vicario sisters been raised? What is it about them that the narrator’s mother notes is
particularly unusual and virtuous?

13. What is shown about Bayardo San Román when he buys the house belonging to the widower
Xius?

14. What do Angela Vicario’s confidantes explain to her about a women’s “honor”?

15. Why does the narrator’s mother consider Angela Vicario’s putting on the wedding veil to be an act
of courage?

16. Which of the townspeople were forewarned of the murder? What are their reasons for not having
spoken to Santiago Nasar about it?

17. How does the writer build suspense about the fate of Santiago Nasar? Why doesn’t it matter that
you know what has happened from the beginning?

18. Describe the autopsy that is performed on Nasar. Who does it? What is the narrator’s opinion of it?

19. What is ironic about the description of Nasar’s wounds as stigmata and about the description of his
brain made during the autopsy?

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20. After the murder and the autopsy, how do people recollect their impression of its effect on the
town?

21. Who is considered to be “the only one who had lost everything”? In what way is this accurate or
inaccurate?

22. What are the fates of the members of the Vicario family after the murder?

23. What plea do the Vicario twins make at their trial? What is your assessment of the accuracy of this
plea?

24. In what ways does Angela Vicario change after the murder? What does she realize about her
mother? About Bayardo San Román? How does she deal with this?

25. What is the effect of the murder on the people of the town? How do those who could have done
something to prevent it console themselves?

26. What are some of the coincidences that conspired to allow the Vicario brothers to be successful in
their murder of Santiago Nasar?

27. What does magistrate conclude about Nasar’s implication in the crime? On what basis does he
draw his conclusion?

28. What is the narrator’s assessment of Nasar’s feelings at the time of his death?

29. What other opinions are expressed on this matter and by whom?

30. What instances are given to show that the Vicario brothers do not want to carry out the murder?

31. How does Santiago Nasar learn that the Vicario brothers are going to kill him? How does he react
to this information?

32. Why does Plácida Linero, Nasar’s mother, bolt the front door of the house?

33. What are Nasar’s actions after the Vicario brothers’ attack is concluded?

34. What effect is achieved by Nasar’s long walk into the house?

35. Who do you feel is to blame for the murder?

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 Literature Analysis Questions (Optional Review)

Point of view
In what ways does the narrator’s profession influence the way in which the novel is told? Why do you
think García Márquez chose to make his narrator a journalist?

Plot
Although the first sentence of the novel informs the reader that Santiago Nasar is about to be killed, the
actual murder scene is withheld until the final pages.
- What takes up the intervening pages?
- What purpose is served by having the reader wait until the end to “see” the murder list?
- What effect does this have on the reader?
- In what sense is the inevitability of the murder intensified by the sequence of events García Márquez
sets down?

Action
A. Discuss the central action of the novel and the way in which the author traces its possible causes and
its complicated effects on the townspeople.
B. What form of literature is distinguished by its sense of inescapable catastrophe?
C. In what way can the action of the novel be viewed as a contemporary tragedy? What aspects of
Chronicle of a Death Foretold interfere with this definition?

Imagery and Symbols

Point out the way writers use patterns of images and symbols to convey a novel’s themes. Trace the
images and symbols in Chronicle of a Death Foretold and discuss how each reflects an important aspect
of theme. (Mention the cocks, animals, butchery, the cult of death, flowers, trees, colors.)

Surrealism
Research the literary and artistic foundations of surrealism and examine the way surrealistic elements
abound in the novel. Have the class look for juxtapositions of unexpected and incongruous images, such
as the vision of Divina Flor in which she sees Nasar walk into his room holding roses which is juxtaposed
shortly thereafter with the real walk Nasar takes into the house in his dying moments holding his hanging
intestines in his hands.

Irony
Research and discuss with the class the way writers use irony to comment on character and action as it is
unfolding. Trace the incidents in the novel in which García Márquez used irony, and discuss his apparent
reasons for doing so. Begin, perhaps, with a discussion of Bayardo San Román’s purchase of the house of
the widower Xius, a house in which the widower and his wife had lived happily for thirty years.

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