According to the World Book Encyclopedia, literature means, “the writings of a period, language, or country, especially those kept alive by their beauty or style of thought.” Marquez’s novels and stories are based on fiction, where he uses his imagination to create a piece of work. Chronicle of a Death Foretold is considered to be a literary work because it includes many of the elements of literature, like characters, plot, theme, style, and setting.
A good writer, such as Marquez, tries to balance all these elements to create a unified work of art. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, there are many major and minor characters. Santiago Nasar, the narrator, and the Vicario brother can be considered to be either the protagonist or the antagonist. In the novel, each character stands out because of the detailed description that Marquez gives them. The story has a plot where the author writes about what happens to the characters in the novel in a chronological way. This piece of work is written in a way where there is foreshadowing, flashbacks, and events that currently occurring within the town. In his novel, there are many different types of themes present such as honor, religion, and love. The traditions and customs of the town are so important in this text that the main point of the story, which is to investigate exactly why Santiago was killed, at the end becomes vague and unclear. The style of Marquez’s writing is also very important. Marquez has used a unique style of writing, for instance how he chronically narrates the events in a way where there is always change in time, to try to depict his main themes. His novel encourages the readers to keep on reading his text even though from the first page of the book, the author tells us that Santiago has been murdered.
Nonetheless, Chronicle of a Death Foretold is not only literature. To many, it is also considered to be a journalistic piece of work. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, journalism is, “the profession of informing others about events in the community, the nation, and the world.” From the beginning of the novel, the readers know that Santiago Nasar has been killed, but the only thing that they do not know for sure is when, how, and why. Marquez is able to gather bits and pieces of information together to construct a novel in a journalistic form by using his chronicle style of writing to narrate the events occurring in the town. The narrator of the novel is investigating a murder that took place some twenty years ago in order to ascertain how such a thing really could have happened and why in the end no one stopped the murder.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold demonstrates Marquez’s skills as a journalist rather than as a novelist. In a strange way, real life is replicated in the novel. This is because the narrator is suppose to inform the readers about what is occurring in the town, but instead, it is the novel that reports to the readers the narrator’s return to the Colombian town to resolve the details of a murder twenty years after it had taken place. In an interview that Marquez once had with Juan Forero, Marquez said that he became a good journalistic by reading literature and that journalism, in return, helped him maintain contact with reality, which he considers essential to writing good literature. Even though the author was planning to temporarily abandon literature for journalism, in Chronicle of a Death Foretold he uses both these elements. He found a way to “mingle the real and the fictional” together in his novel thus making it to some degree… both motivating and captivating.
Rabassa, Gregory. Garcia Marquez’s New Book: Literature or Journalism? World Literature Today, University of Oklahoma Press, Vol. 56, No. 1, Winter 1982, pp. 48-51.