IB English Literature: Year One 2019

Name: ________________________________________

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 IB English Literature: Year One 2019

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel García Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia, in 1928, the eldest of sixteen children. After
graduating from the University of Bogota, he worked as a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El
Espectador and as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and New York. His most
famous work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold occupies a unique place among Márquez’s works because the narrative is
both journalistic and fictitious. García frequently uses journalistic techniques in his fiction. For example,
in most of his novels he creates a high level of interest in the very first line of the text, and employs
many journalistic details based on close observation throughout the entire novel. Márquez himself said
that he became a good journalist by reading literature, and that journalism in turn helped him maintain
contact with reality, which he considers essential to writing good literature.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Latin-American novel did little besides realistically portray of regional or
national life and customs. In terms of narrative technique, this fiction functioned within the realist
tradition of the nineteenth century. In the late 1940s, Latin-American novels changed, as they had been
influenced by the modernist novels of Woolf, Joyce, and Faulkner. Such modernist novelists were well-
known among Latin American intellectuals by the 1930s.

Along with contemporaries such as the Cuban Alejo Carpentier, the Guatemalan Miguel Angel Asturias,
the Mexican Agustin Yanez, and the Argentine Leopoldo Marechal, Gabriel García Márquez contributed
novels that insisted on the right of invention. The books were concerned with the construction of new
realities, not the reflection of existing themes. One technique that came into being in this fiction is magic
realism, which is the incorporation of fantastic or mythical elements matter-of-factly into otherwise
realistic fiction. Alejo Carpentier was the first to use the term when he recognized the tendency of his
region’s authors to illustrate the mundane by means of the extraordinary.

Colombia prides itself on being a stronghold of Spanish tradition. Gabriel García Márquez became part of
a coastal group that wanted to leave Bogota and the conservative attitudes prevalent in much of
Colombia. Coastal towns like Barranquilla were more supportive of innovative and imaginative
literature. Márquez and his contemporaries involved in this coastal movement were called the "Group of
Barranquilla." Márquez’s first novel, Leafstorm, strongly reflects Faulkner’s influence in its structure and
narrative point of view. In the 1940s, Márquez read and learned from Faulkner’s novels. Márquez, who
was originally planning to study law after graduating from university, said that when he first read
Faulkner, he knew he had to become a writer.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold showcases Márquez’s skills as a journalist rather than as a novelist. After
the publication of the novel, journalists poured into Sucre, the town where the real murder that inspired
the book took place, in order to interview the surviving characters. In a strange twist, real life replicated
the novel—the novel tells the story of a the narrator’s return to the Colombian town to resolve the
details of a murder twenty years after it had taken place.

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Plot Overview

The narrative outlines the events surrounding the murder of Santiago Nasar, a young man who is
thought to have taken the virginity of Angela Vicario. On her wedding night, after discovering that she
was not a virgin, Angela’s husband, Bayardo San Roman, returns her to her house. Angela’s twin
brothers, Pedro Vicario and Pablo Vicario, ask her who took her virginity, and she tells them that
Santiago Nasar did. The brothers find Santiago and kill him.

The narrative is non-linear. The narrator begins the story by telling us about Santiago Nasar’s household
the morning he was murdered. In the course of the chapter, we learn that Santiago lived with his
mother, Placida Linero; their cook, Victoria Guzman; and her daughter, Divina Flor. Santiago‘s father,
Ibrahim Nasar, has died three years previously. After his father died, Santiago took over the family
ranch, which has been very successful; the Nasars are wealthy in their community.

The day that Santiago is murdered was a significant day in town because the bishop was coming by boat
to bless the marriage of Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman. Many people were heading over to the
dock to see the boats. Pedro and Pablo Vicario were sitting in the local milk-shop, which was en-route to
the dock, so that they could see Santiago Nasar either going or returning in order to track him down and
kill him. The narrator’s sister learns that Angela Vicario was returned home on the night of her wedding.

Bayardo San Roman had come to town to find a bride. After deciding on Angela, the courtship was short.
Because Bayardo came from a prestigious, wealthy family, and the Vicarios were relatively poor, Angela
did not really have a choice, even though she did not love Bayardo at the time they were wed.

The night before the murder, there had been lots of wedding revelry that had continued into the early
morning at a local whorehouse run by Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, where Santiago Nasar had been
carousing with the twins and the narrator until early in the morning. After returning home and finding
their sister in disgrace, the Vicario brothers set out to avenge her honour by murdering Santiago Nasar.
Even though they repeatedly announced their intent to murder him, the butcher, the police officer, and
the Colonel all thought that the Vicarios are largely bluffing. Clothilde Armenta, the proprietor of the
milk shop, even told the local priest about what the Vicario twins were threatening to do. However, in
the excitement surrounding the arrival of the bishop, he forgot about her warning.

After the murder, the entire Vicario family left town because of the disgrace the combination of events
had brought upon their family. A week after the murder, Bayardo San Roman left with his family; they
came and retrieved him by boat. The Vicario brothers were imprisoned for three years. After their
release from prison, Pablo proceeded to marry his betrothed, Prudencia Cotes, and Pedro went back
into the armed forces.

After Bayardo returned Angela to her home on their wedding night, she fell in love with him. After she
moved away from the town where she was disgraced, she wrote him letters every week for seventeen
years, and eventually he returned to her.

For years after the crime, it was all anyone in the town spoke of. The narrator tells how his friend Cristo
Bedoya searched frantically for Santiago the morning of the murder in order to warn him of the Vicario
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brothers’ plan, but failed to find Santiago because he did not realize that Santiago had gone to the house
of his fiancé, Flora Miguel. Her father was the first to warn Santiago of the murder. At this point, there
were crowds of people outside who had come to see the Bishop but had lingered because they had
heard the rumour that Santiago was to be killed.

When he left Flora Miguel’s house, Santiago was very confused. Clothilde Armenta yelled at him to run,
and he ran the fifty yards to his front door. The Vicario brothers easily caught up with him, and stabbed
him to death right outside of Santiago‘s front door.

Themes

 Ritual

Manifestations of love in Chronicle of a Death Foretold are ritualistic, and the novel itself is a ritual which
re-enacts Santiago Nasar’s death. When Bayardo San Roman first comes to town, he decides to marry
Angela Vicario, whom he has never met. His courtship of Angela demonstrates the rituals of Latin
American marriage culture. He brings her a gift of a music box inlaid with mother-of-pearl for her
birthday, and obtains everything his future bride asks for. The purpose of this courtship ritual is not to
cause the lovers to fall deeper in love but rather to demonstrate the man’s affluence and power.
Personality does not determine worthiness; rather, their family and wealth do. Angela Vicario’s
obsessive letter writing is another example of ritual. Angela does not care what she says in her letters;
she is more concerned with the fact that Bayardo is receiving them. The ritual of writing brings her
happiness. Similarly, Bayardo San Roman does not read her letters, but receiving two thousand letters
over the course of seventeen years gives him the certainty that she is serious in her desire for him to
return to her. The novel’s style is itself a ritual repetition of the events surrounding a crime. It does not
follow a traditional narrative arc, but rather is told for the cathartic value of the act of telling. The only
thing we gain from reading the story is the same limited knowledge of the occurrence that is available to
the narrator. In this sense, the novel can be seen as a mere ritual of investigation as an end in itself with
no other results or discoveries. 

Honour

In the culture of the Colombian town in which the narrative takes place, honour is taken very seriously,
reflected in Marquez’s narrative. Nobody in the novel ever questions any action that is taken to preserve
someone’s honour, since it is commonly believed to be a fundamental moral trait that is vital to keep
intact. A person without honour is an outcast in the community.

All of the characters in the novel are presented by Marquez as being influenced by this powerful
construction of honour. The defence of this ideal is directly responsible for Santiago Nasar’s murder. The
Vicario brothers kill Santiago in order to restore the honour of their sister. She dishonours her family by
marrying another man when she had already slept with someone else. In order for this wrong to be
righted, her brothers must kill Santiago, the man who supposedly took her virginity, in order to clear her
name. Though a few people in the community, like Clothilde Armenta and Yamil Shaium, are presented
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as trying to prevent the death from occurring, most people turned the other cheek, because Marquez
suggests that they believed that the severity of the crime deserved a cruel punishment. The fact that
death is considered a reasonable retribution for the crime of taking a girl’s virginity indicates how
unacceptable it was to sleep with an unmarried woman in this culture; doing so ruined her chances of
marrying well, and marriage was women’s one way to advance in the world.

Revenge

Marquez presents the manner in which the twins kill Santiago as appearing to be much more vicious
than what a simple murder for honour would entail. The twins first obtain their two best butchering
knives, one for quartering and one for trimming. When Colonel Aponte takes these knives from them,
the twins return to their butchering shop to get another quartering knife-with a broad, curved blade-and
a twelve-inch knife with a rusty edge. Intent on making sure Santiago is dead, the twins use the knives to
stab him over and over again. Seven of the wounds are fatal; the liver, stomach, pancreas, and colon are
nearly destroyed. The twins stab him with such vengeance that they are covered with blood themselves,
and the main door of Placida Linero’s house, where Santiago was killed, must be repaired by the city.
Further supporting the view that the twins acted in revenge is the fact that they show no remorse for
the murder. After the murder, the twins fear revenge from the Arab community. Even though they
believe they have rightfully murdered Santiago for their sister’s honour, the twins think that the tightly
knit community of Arabs will seek revenge for the loss of one of their own. When Pablo becomes ill at
the jail, Pedro is convinced that the Arabs have poisoned him.

Gender Roles
Marquez’s presentations of the different genders is clear throughout the novel:
Purisima del Carmen, Angela Vicario’s mother, has raised her daughters to be good wives. The girls do
not marry until late in life, seldom socializing beyond the confines of their own home. They spend their
time doing embroidery, sewing, weaving, washing and ironing, arranging flowers, making candy, and
writing engagement announcements. They also keep the old traditions alive, such as sitting up with the
ill, comforting the dying, and enshrouding the dead. While their mother believes they are perfect, men
view them as too tied to their women’s traditions.
Purisima del Carmen’s sons, on the other hand, are raised to be men. They serve in the war, take over
their father’s business when he goes blind, drink and party until all hours of the night, and spend time in
the local brothel. When the family insists on Angela’s marrying Bayardo, a man she has seldom even
seen, the twins stay out of it because, “It looked to us like woman problems.” “Woman problems”
become “men’s problems” when the family calls the twins home upon Angela’s return. She feels
relieved to let them take the matter into their hands, as the family expects them to do.
Class
Wealth and social class are factors that structure and determine the lives of the characters. This is most
apparent in Angela’s engagement to Bayardo San Román. Bayardo, an outsider who is “swimming in
gold,” is betrothed to Angela against her will. The marriage is arranged by Angela’s parents, who come
from a more modest background than Bayardo. Such an arrangement is seen as normal in the town,
where social class is extremely important and “marrying up” is common practice. Further, ethnicity plays
a less prominent but still important social role: the minority group of Arabs—to which Santiago Nasar
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belongs—are relegated to a kind of community within the community, one that is looked on with some
suspicion by the non-Arab majority.
Deception
The central theme of deception is focused on Angela Vicario, though Marquez makes clear that others
tell lies and deceive also. Angela Vicario is presented by Marquez as not being a virgin when she marries
Bayardo. Her mother is presented as having been sheltered her for her entire life. Marquez makes clear
that Angela has never been engaged before, nor has she been allowed to go out alone with Bayardo in
the time they have known one another. However, Marquez describes Angela’s concern that her
bridegroom will learn her secret on their wedding night, and she is presented as considering telling her
mother before the wedding. Instead, she tells two of her friends, who advise her not to tell her mother.
In this part of the narrative, Marquez explores how easily persuaded Angela is, to deceive her husband
and perhaps challenges the societal expectations put on the genders in this culture. Not only does
Marquez present Angela as wearing the veil and orange blossoms that signify purity, she is also seen to
carry out her friends’ plan of deception on her wedding night.

Supernatural
Throughout Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez weaves elements of the supernatural. From the
dreams that Santiago has the night before his death to the signs that people note foretelling his death, a
sense of an unseen force prevails. For example, Santiago has inherited his “sixth sense” from his mother,
Placida. Margot feels “the angel pass by” as she listens to Santiago plan his wedding. Supernatural
intervention pervades all aspects of the characters’ lives. For example, Purisima del Carmen tells her
daughters that if they comb their hair at night, they will slow down seafarers.
Fact, fiction and memory
Structurally the novel resembles a documentary film: a dramatisation or reconstruction of the murder is
framed and informed by a huge number of witness testimonials, which are presented to the reader as
direct quotations, or “talking heads.” Though the Narrator casts a wide net of discovery, he struggles at
times to pin down the facts of the case—no two witnesses can agree on every single detail. A haze
hovers over the events of the murder, partly because so many years have passed, and partly because
everyone in town was exceedingly drunk on the night of the wedding. Instead of representing only those
facts that strike him as true, the Narrator presents as many accounts of the fateful morning as he can,
and refuses to polish over the contradictions they pose. Through these many contradicting accounts—
one notable example being the widespread uncertainty about the weather on the day of the murder—
the narrative demonstrates that memory is fallible, and that sometimes remembering is more like
fiction-making than fact-finding. Most facts are lost to the past, and memory is just a story we tell
ourselves. Furthermore, while memory can make fiction out of facts, sometimes the facts themselves
can seem stranger than fiction. The uncertain border between fact and fiction is explicitly remarked
upon by the Narrator and a number of the characters, most notably in the final third of the novel, when
the Magistrate investigating the case becomes increasingly perplexed by the idea that “life should make
use of so many coincidences forbidden literature.” This observation that life sometimes reads as bad
fiction takes on a new complexity when one considers that a) the murder of Santiago Nasar is of course
fictional—this is a novel!—and b) the novel is based loosely on true events. Overall, Márquez seems to
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suggest throughout his novel that the border between fact and fiction cannot so easily be drawn—
experience, especially traumatic experience, and especially traumatic experience seen through the lens
of memory, is as much experienced as it is constructed.

Motifs

Magical Realism

Márquez repeatedly uses strange, surreal details to highlight otherwise ordinary events. One instance of
this is his description of the local brothel, which sounds so nice that the reader at first has trouble
discerning what exactly Maria Alejandrina Cervantes does—though she is a whore, the description of her
house is so beautiful that if one were to gloss over the description, they might perceive her house as an
elegant domicile.

Márquez uses magical realism in Chronicle of a Death Foretold to illustrate anecdotal digressions or
details about characters that are not at all essential to the plot, though they are interesting. In the
opening of the book, the narrator discusses the dream that Santiago Nasar has right before his death:
"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."
This whimsical sort of detail works against the journalistic investigative style of the narrative, and sends
the reader into several different conceptual areas between reality and fiction that he then has to
disentangle. 

Symbols 

We learn that both the Narrator’s and Santiago Nasar’s mothers interpret symbols from dreams, but the
overall importance or significance of symbols in the novel is never clearly linked to any other concept or
idea that informs the work as a whole. This is especially true because the work is supposed to be
journalistic and factual, so any such symbols work against the narrator’s purported intent of clarifying
the events surrounding Santiago Nasar’s death, becoming purely anecdotal. Because they occur
randomly, constantly, and without any easily discernible premeditated purpose, it is difficult to
distinguish any recurring symbol that has a greater significance in the text as a whole.

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chrondeath
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/chronicle-of-a-death-foretold

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Write the definitions, as you come across these words:

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

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30 lignum vitae
31 consummated
32 panopticon
33 predisposed
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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Group task

Each group of four will choose one of the following topics. Each group must choose a different topic.
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 honour 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 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. 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.

 Include six significant quotations that support your conclusions or illustrate your topic (include
page numbers). You must include analysis of these quotations.
 Present the material to the class in 6-8 minutes.

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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?

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

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?

16. What puzzles most of the townspeople as they look back 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 text, what might readers conclude is the significance of the title? Why?

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The Characters: Identify and describe:

Major Characters:

a) The Narrator

b) Santiago Nasar

c) Bayardo San Román

d) Ángela Vicario

e) Pedro Vicario

f) Pablo Vicario

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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1. Comment on the epigraph. How does it relate to the text as a whole?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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ACTIVITIES: Choose one of the following:

1. Compose character sketches of the women in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Describe their lives, their
aspirations, the choices that are available to them, and their individual responses to the circumstances
in which they find themselves.

2. Write a short essay in which you discuss how violence and brutality are shown to be an intrinsic part
of the life of the town and of the culture it reflects.

3. Discuss the class system that emerges in the society of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. On what is it
based? In what ways does it influence the central action of the novel?

4. Write a short essay in which you contrast the qualities of physicality and spirituality in the lives of the
characters. Show how the language of the book reflects these opposing tendencies, and comment on
Márquez’s use of powerful images to reflect both the physical and spiritual forces at work in human life.

5. Discuss the overall attitude to religion that is presented in this novel. Use specific quotations from the
book to support your discussion of the place of religion and the supernatural in the lives of the villagers.

6. Assume Angela Vicario’s identity and write a letter to a distant friend, a letter the narrator fails to get
hold of, in which you reveal why you named Santiago Nassar as “the perpetrator”, how you feel about
the consequences of what you did, and your true feelings for Nasar himself.

7. Write a news story reporting the murder of Santiago Nasar which conforms to the style and format of
news reporting. Interview several townspeople and include their reactions to the murder in the story.

8. What is the “cult of machismo” referred to in the novel? In what way does adherence to it influence
the course of events in Chronicle of a Death Foretold? Find newspaper or magazine stories whose events
might also indicate the actions of men caught in the cult of machismo.

9. Do an abstract drawing or painting of the novel. Select colours which conform to those Márquez
himself indicates, and in amounts that approximate the frequency with which they appear in the book.
OR do a surrealistic rendering of an aspect of Chronicle of a Death Foretold or one which expresses the
entirety of the novel. Examine the work of the painters Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Joan Miro, Pablo
Picasso, or others who employ surrealism in their canvasses.

10. Research the Supreme Court’s decisions in the area of obscenity and censorship in literature.
Prepare a legal argument in which you defend the language of Chronicle of a Death Foretold as a
legitimate expression of the conditions and characters portrayed in the novel. Present your case to the
class.

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