The Use of Magical Realism in Gabriel-Garcia Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Gabriel-Garcia Marquez is an author known for the use of Magical Realism in his novels. Throughout the novel “Chronicle of a death foretold”, the novelist Gabriel-Garcia Marquez uses magical realism as a genre frequently. Magical Realism is defined as being the juxtaposition of realism with fantastic, mythic and magical/supernatural elements. Marquez reflects magical realism by exploring both natural and supernatural worlds and illustrating traces of the culture the characters have, which is Latin American.
The magical elements that are present within the novel are: superstitions, exaggerations, dreams that come true and the coincidental bizarre situations. Exploring the use of magical realism will give an insight to the characters’ personality, thoughts and actions. On top of that, it will also give an insight to what the author’s thoughts are. Therefore, the thesis question will be answered and analyzed “The Use of Magical Realism in Gabriel-Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold”.
Gabriel-Garcia Marquez uses magical realism in Chronicle of a Death Foretold to illustrate the narrative in prose and verse or details about character that are not relevant. In the opening of the novel, the narrator discusses the dream that Santiago Nasar has right before his death. The narrator states “He’d dreamed he was going through a grove of timber trees where a gentle drizzle was falling, and for an instant he was happy in his dream, but when he awoke he felt completely spattered with bird shit”[1]. This cynical detail does not support the style of narrative of investigative journalism.