Commentary on Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay

Chronicles of a Death Foretold written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells the story behind a murder that occurred within a community. Santiago Nasar, a wealthy ranch owner, was murdered for dishonoring Angela Vicario, a girl who comes from a poor family. Throughout the entire story, we get peoples ideas and perspectives about the impending murder and by the end of the story, the Vicario twins are not the only murderers; rather, the entire community becomes murderers as well because of their carelessness and failure to attempt to stop the impending murder.

The author begins his story by telling us that Santiago Nasar was going to be killed. By opening up the book this way, it draws the reader in and the readers begin to ask themselves questions. Marquez doesnt want to dive straight into showing us the murder because he wants us to learn about how it came to happen first and to introduce us to everyones point of view that was there that day before revealing the details of the murder itself. He doesnt just want us to get an investigatory view because it only allows us to see the murder through one person, whereas the way that the story is written allows us to see the murder through many different points of view. Towards the very end of the book, the author finally shows us the murder of Santiago Nasar taking place. It tells us that he was stabbed on his front porch and eventually collapsed and died in his house. Waiting until the end of the book to actually see the murder taking place allows the reader to fully complete the circle that he or she is going in throughout the entire book. In order to fully understand what is happening, one must wait until the end, when all the pieces of the story fit together, to finally be able to understand all the questions that the reader has from the beginning of the book when we were first told of the looming murder. In holding off until the end of the book, the author intensifies the climax of the story. Everyone is waiting for the murder to actually take place and when it finally does, the book ends. Therefore the author is able to leave the reader with a sense of satisfaction and shock; satisfied to know that the murder had finally been committed, yet shocked to see that despite all the rumors about the murder, the Vicario twins were still able to carry out their plan to kill Santiago.

Although news of the impending murder spread very quickly, the community still fails to save the life of the one being threatened. The murder could not have been avoided because of the way that the community was. The Colonial made one attempt to actually stop the Vicario twins from killing Santiago but that was it. The Sheriff made no effort to help out and stop the twins. They had a good name in the community so not many people believed that anything would happen. They so strongly wanted to believe that the twins wouldnt do anything so the people of the town didnt pay much attention. They made attempts to warn Santiago but not directly. The people in the community passed the news from person to person but Santiago never heard it until just minutes before his death.

Santiago Nasar was murdered but he didnt really know why. Angela Vicario accused him of being the one that took her virginity but no one ever really finds out if, indeed, he was really the one who did. He was murdered by two brothers avenging a crime he may or may not have committed and the act was only carried out because of the folly of a community to do nothing to prevent a crime from taking place.