Reading Guide: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel García Márquez

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Publishing Data

Written in 1981; technically a novella though it is generally published alone

First published in English in the maiden issue of Vanity Fair

Selected as the main offering of the Book-of-the-Month Club

Preview

This novella is a masterly reconstruction of a murder, a fictionalized journalistic investigation embellished with stylistic devices common in García Márquez’s fiction.

The novel presents eyewitness accounts that ultimately prove unreliable within shifting time sequences and a surrealistic atmosphere.

Background

The story centers on a murder that had occurred 27 years earlier and that reportedly involved people with whom García Márquez was actually acquainted.

On Jan 22, 1951, in Sucre, Colombia, Cayetano Gentile Chimento, 22, a medical student and the heir to the town’s largest fortune, was butchered with a machete for reportedly deflowering a woman named Margarita who had been returned to her family on her wedding night by her groom Miguel Reyes Palencia.

Victor and Joaquin Chica Sales, the bride’s brothers, spent only a few years in prison for what was regarded as a crime of honor.

The real husband tried unsuccessfully to get the marriage annulled in Colombia; remarried to Enriqueta Obregon in more liberal Costa Rica he had 12 children and became an insurance agent in Barranquilla.

The real rejected wife continues to live alone.

The publication of this novel had a number of extraliterary effects:

in 1981 a Colombian edition of the novel drew a swarm of journalists to Sucre to interview possible witnesses to the event

a Bogota weekly Al Dia was sued for 20 million pesos by one of the men jailed for the murder

a Colombian judge called García Márquez in Mexico City to ask what he knew about the case.

Discussion Guide

This work can be seen as a mystery novel in reverse. What effect does the novel's movement from the present to the past have on your perception of the events of Santiago's death?

The narrator is a journalist. How is the way the story is told differ from the way it might be told by a narrator with a different occupation? What is the narrator's agenda in telling this story? What is the narrator's relationship to the town and the principles in the story?

Why do the Vicario brothers murder Santiago Nasar? In what way are they justified in killing him?

Characterize Santiago. What is his role in the town?

Characterize Angela Vicario. How does she feel about marrying Bayardo?

Characterize Bayardo. Why does he want to marry Angela? How does he react to his discovery that Angela is not a virgin? Why does he have this reaction?

Many townspeople are aware that the Vicario brothers intend to kill Santiago. Why doesn't anyone try to stop the murder?

How complicit is the town in the murder?

Do the Vicario brothers really want to kill Santiago? Why or why not?

What is this story saying about the nature of machismo?

There are many magical and fantastical elements in the story. What effects do the following elements have on your assessment of the story?

dreams and premonitions

the weather

odors, especially the odor of blood

There are many unanswered questions in this story:

Who really violated Angela?

Did Victoria Guzman and her daughter know of the assassination plan or not?

Did the narrator's sister Margo know of the plot?

What was the weather really like that day?

Why does Santiago go home without a rifle even though he has been warned about the Vicario brothers?

Describe Angela's life in the aftermath of the murder? Why does she behave the way that she does?

This is a murder that should not have happened. What kind of culture and what kind of people allow a murder like Santiago's to happen?

Further Exploration

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