chronicles of a death foretold
Candace Bryant
Professor Majsak
Writing & Literature
October 22, 2014
Magical Realism in Chronicles of a Death Foretold Magical realism is a style of fiction writing in which an author uses magical or improbable events intermingled into a realistic atmosphere to skew the readers sense of reality. Many novelists who use this style do it in order to enhance the depth of the readers understanding of the material. In this style of writing, the author presents extraordinary events as ordinary occurrences, deceiving the reader into accepting these supernatural events as normal. This literary genre is very popular amongst cultures in which the metaphysical is typically accepted. It is particularly popular in Latin American fiction. The book Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses magical realism to aid in the development of its storyline and main characters.
Throughout Chronicles of a Death Foretold, Marquez uses many aspects of traditional magical realism as a main component of the text. The narrator tells the story in a non-chronological order, contrasting sharply with the book’s title, which implies the storyline is in a chronological sequence. The use of the warped timeline is a prime example of magical realism in this text because Marquez blends the line between past and present. The distorted timeline forces the reader to try to distinguish the characters’ perception from reality based on their individual viewpoints. The ambiguity of the timeline also reflects in the characters credibility, as they often have varying and contradictory recollection of the events as they transpired that day. Their conflicting accounts
Many people coincided in recalling that it was a radiant morning with a sea breeze coming in through the banana groves, as was to be expected in a fine February of that period. But most agreed that the weather was funereal, with a cloudy, low sky and the thick smell of still waters… (Marquez 4) combined with the time passage
Professor Majsak
Writing & Literature
October 22, 2014
Magical Realism in Chronicles of a Death Foretold Magical realism is a style of fiction writing in which an author uses magical or improbable events intermingled into a realistic atmosphere to skew the readers sense of reality. Many novelists who use this style do it in order to enhance the depth of the readers understanding of the material. In this style of writing, the author presents extraordinary events as ordinary occurrences, deceiving the reader into accepting these supernatural events as normal. This literary genre is very popular amongst cultures in which the metaphysical is typically accepted. It is particularly popular in Latin American fiction. The book Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses magical realism to aid in the development of its storyline and main characters.
Throughout Chronicles of a Death Foretold, Marquez uses many aspects of traditional magical realism as a main component of the text. The narrator tells the story in a non-chronological order, contrasting sharply with the book’s title, which implies the storyline is in a chronological sequence. The use of the warped timeline is a prime example of magical realism in this text because Marquez blends the line between past and present. The distorted timeline forces the reader to try to distinguish the characters’ perception from reality based on their individual viewpoints. The ambiguity of the timeline also reflects in the characters credibility, as they often have varying and contradictory recollection of the events as they transpired that day. Their conflicting accounts
Many people coincided in recalling that it was a radiant morning with a sea breeze coming in through the banana groves, as was to be expected in a fine February of that period. But most agreed that the weather was funereal, with a cloudy, low sky and the thick smell of still waters… (Marquez 4) combined with the time passage