In the mystic fiction novel, A Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Márquez, the setting is a Colombian town where the beliefs of the people are taken very seriously. The story is set to unfold the questionable events that cause the murder of Santiago Nasar. Angela Vicario, the newly married, wife of Bayardo San Roman, was seen impure on her wedding night, and causes questions of the guilt in the person who she had been with before her husband. Gabriel Marquez uses the suspense and questionable choices of the characters to put doubt in the the people of the Columbian community so the predicaments shown in the story can be seen more enticing.
The figures with the majority of the power in the town, highly affect the answers to the problems that happen throughout the novel, because of the lack of concern with the accusations and hints to the possible murder. The people are always following their orders and doing what they are told with no intent on understanding the why in the situation. In the third chapter, a character with enough power in the community to stop the murder, ignored the shown accusations and hadn’t prevented it, said, “it wasn’t any business of mine but something for the civil authorities.” (Marquez 42)
This quote gives a clear understanding that even if Father Amador was part of the people in charge of the community, he still didn’t do anything to help Santiago Nasar, and had not brought up the problem to any other people who were in higher authority. No action in stopping the twins, or finding the truth was even taken by the people. The day after, the accusations of the possible upcoming murder of Santiago was already known by the whole town, and because no one had any reason to believe that he wasn’t guilty, the people went on with their daily lives and hadn’t tried to warn anyone of this “simple” issue.
The twins started the plan even though everyone said that “the twins would never kill anyone” (Marquez 46) Because of the previous knowledge of the twins being good and not evil, the assumptions of their murder plan was seen as a joke. This quote gives an understanding of the “why” in the reasoning of the people not trying to help santiago, because of their lack of knowledge of who the twins really were. After everything Santiago was killed in his home after being stabbed multiple times. The narrator tells that “the body had been exposed to the public”(Marquez 33)
The people had acted like they hadn’t had any word of the possible murder ever been brought up, and were “shocked” to find out that someone would murder him, let alone the twins, who would never hurt anyone. After the murder is played out and the whole town is familiar with it, the blame is put on Santiago, saying he was just being punished for his wrongdoings and that was that. As the narrator explains the events that are happening after this crime he talks about how, “for years the town couldn’t talk about anything else,” because of the rareness of something like that to have happened in the town.(Marquez 57)
Understanding they could’ve prevented all of this in the first place, the people in charge had been put in an unusual position, because the trust and obedience with the people had vanished. Their days began to consist of “anxiety” because of measures that were not taken to help a citizen of their own town and a neighbor to the people in it.(Marquez 68) The people ignored the murder because they knew that they had all the resources to possibly help or stop it from even happening in the first place. They had said that they wouldn’t have stopped anything because of the only evidence being the talk of the town and it could have not been true. He says that “ the investigations magistrate came upon the town that was an open wound.”(Marquez 59)
The murder case was now closing and no new information that could prove Santiago was innocent, was being searched for.. The people agreed to the end of the searching because their guilt was being brought out for the years the case was still being discussed, and they had been ready to give up and move on with their lives.
As many events had taken place before the murder and following, the unknown truth of if Santiago’s murder was a mistake had been questioned by his friends, when a note that read “Give me prejudice and i will move the world.” (Marquez 59). The previous thought of his guilt and unawareness to his own murder was not the truth. The note showed he had known what was going to happen to him and that he was ready for the fate he was going to see.
The narrator tells that Santiago had known Bayardo San Roman better than anyone, which can show that he knew too much about him so he had to be taken out of the picture completely. This shows that the perspective changes that gave many people new questions to be asked of “the image of innocence” brought up by this note. (Marquez 70) Understanding that the events that had happened before his “murder” could have been false information, caused a new story to unfold on the newfound incense in this absurd case.
The guilt of Santiago Nasar was easy to believe because his “money had made him untouchable.” (Marquez 73) He was an awful person who wasn’t liked by anyone, or at least that was the excuse to justify his murder by his fellow friends Gabriel Marquez uses the mystery of the preventful murder to give an individual perspective to the reader and let the opinions given, to encourage the plot. There was almost no knowledge of the narrator of the story. But without this unknown figure giving new information to the events that had happened, the further questioning of the innocence of Santiago Nasar wouldn’t have carried out. The narrator questions the people in the community, and gives the murder a new ending because now they know who was innocent and who was actually the one at fault.
