SEMESTER VI
Paper: CC 14
TOPIC: CRIME AND COMPLICITY – THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE
TOWNSPEOPLE IN SANTIAGO’S MURDER
(Tutorial Exam, 2025)
CU Roll No: 222224-21-0016
CU Reg. No: 224-1111-0255-22
Name: Rohan Mojumder
College Roll: 2330
Date of Submission: 13.05.25
Ironically, Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a non-linear narrative
that contradicts its title. The work is not a conventional chronicle: certain key events are
obscured, and its unnamed first-person narrator does not reveal what has happened
chronologically. Instead, Márquez utilizes a journalistic, investigative style to relay the facts
surrounding Santiago’s murder, incorporating his signature magical realism so that strange,
surreal details highlight ordinary events. By focussing on the events building up to the ultimate
murder and taking an unconventional route when it comes to the choice of narrative, the author
clearly places his emphasis on the manner, and the circumstances which ‘allowed’ the murder
to happen rather than the mere occurrence of the murder. The narrative is embedded with
mystery and foreshadowing, but that mystery is more concerned with the ‘why’and ‘how’ rather
than the ‘what’. Marquez wants his readers to hold the residents of the small, unnamed town
on the northern coast of Columbia, accountable. He ensures enough space and freedom for his
readers to ponder on the collective involvement of the town in the murder of Santiago Nasar,
alongside the themes of prejudice and hatred rooted in the blood of the people in the
community.
Marquez's tale of a bride who was returned because she was not a virgin and the brutal murder
of an innocent man by her brothers because she accused him reveals the violence that is
legitimized by oppressive social norms mandating defence of honour. Social norms made for
the larger benefit (real or perceived) of the society are often observed unquestioningly and their
consequences, however brutal or unjust, are accepted as a matter of fate. This invariably causes
the dehumanizing of those whom the norms hold as accountable for disrupting the social fabric,
and leads to the chief function of the norm becoming maintenance of power hierarchies rather
than social welfare or justice. This dehumanization or objectification of the subjects of the
social norms also makes the violence more palatable, and the arbitrariness in the imposition of
the norms becomes irrelevant so long as someone is held accountable. In Chronicle, Santiago
Nasar was the convenient scapegoat who helped mask the violence of the community and of
the norms it believed in, from its own eyes. He became a dead man from the moment Angela
Vicario (the bride) pronounced him as guilty. His murder, though seen by the community as
sad, was nonetheless regarded as necessary, because it was an effective enforcement of a social
norm which assured them of the larger well-being and security of the community.
What made his conviction even easier was the prevailing stereotype that all Turks were
lecherous playboys. That the accused was innocent was a question that no one even asked. This
infliction of violence only because it can or must be inflicted reveals the 'fateful' nature of
norms.
The multiplicity of perspectives, which often goes unacknowledged by legal systems, is
brought out dramatically in Chronicle through the differences in the versions of the various
witnesses interviewed by the narrator. No two of them could agree on what day of the week
Santiago had been murdered, or what the weather had been like on that day. The dominant
discourse or collective memory often down plays individual injustices. Any claims to an
objective/authoritative/ comprehensive account of the past, therefore, need to be looked at with
scepticism. Since 'what really happened' depends as much on who is telling as on who-wants-
to-know, a complete picture of reality is near-impossible to construct. The volatility of memory
is expressed by Chronicle's narrator as: "I had a very confused memory of the festival before I
decided to rescue it piece by piece from the memory of others." He is conscious of the limits
of his recollection, but that does not stop him from attempting to write a chronicle of Santiago's
death. This is where the importance of chronicles as witnesses to injustice comes to the fore.
Chronicle gives meaning to Santiago's senseless death, since his end begins the process of
artistic creation and results in a novel that would ensure that the hardship and injustice suffered
by him does not go unexpressed. The townspeople in the story are complicit in the death of the
protagonist by not taking any action to prevent it, even though they are aware of his fate. Their
inaction causes them to feel guilty about their role in the tragedy, leading to inner turmoil and
turmoil in their relationships with each other. This issue of the townspeople’s silent collusion
in Chronicle of a Death Foretold further emphasizes the importance of standing together as a
community and at times speaking up, to avoid such horrendous outcomes. The much-discussed
issue of the townspeople’s complicity strikes some key points about personal responsibility and
how inaction can result in such tragedies.
The novel is replete with premonitions, dreams, and bad omens that escape the characters’
perception or sense of reason. The narrator’s assertion that “there had never been a death more
foretold” encapsulates the seemingly predetermined nature of events, which are further
emphasised through the magical realist language of dreams and premonitions. We are told that
Plácida Linero, an interpreter of people’s dreams, never forgave herself for having mixed up
the magnificent augury of trees with the unlucky one of birds”. It is also claimed that Santiago
has inherited this sixth sense from his mother, yet is blind to the implications of his “palate”
tasting like the “sediment of copper”. Similarly, the narrator’s own mother fails to predict the
murder despite her “powers of divination,” and many others miss possible omens such as the
“baptistery smell”, Santiago’s own “frozen and stony” hand or the rabbit’s guts being thrown
to the dogs. One could argue that the futile pursuit to give events a “rational explanation”
suggests that the town is not guilty, but rather a victim to a set of impossible coincidences.
However, the inability to read premonitions more likely symbolises the townspeople’s
complete blindness to the consequences of their traditions.
Technically, the crime is committed by the Vicario brothers, but when we place the outcome in
a much deeper and larger context, it is the society that has failed Santiago Nasar. Some of it
might be due to lack of awareness, or belittling the possibility of such an incident. Even Angela
Vicario falsely blamed Santiago because she never imagined someone would dare to challenge
the man. The community’s carelessness towards the situation perhaps is based on their
prejudice and their indifference. Some of the information we have regarding the conversations
between the Vicario brothers and the market people is enough evidence for that matter. Behind
the murder is a shared communal sentiment, that is as much involved in the act, as the brothers.
The final stab maybe offered by the duo, but every character mentioned in the novel, in their
own way, with intention or without, helped in the killing of Santiago. His death was a
conspiracy, that the society as a whole took part in, a society that as a whole failed the town’s
morality and law, and in this case, an innocent Arab.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• García Márquez, Gabriel. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Translated by Gregory
Rabassa, Penguin Books, Harlow, 2003.
• Zamora, Lois Parkinson. “End and Endings in García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death
Foretold.” Latin American Literary Review, vol. 13, no. 25, pp. 104–117. Pennsylvania,
1985.
• Newman, Dwight. “Existentialism and Law: Towards a Reinvigorated Law and
Literature Analysis.” Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 101–117.
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, 2007.
• Goodman, Ryan. "Beyond the Enforcement Principle: Sodomy Laws, Social Norms,
and Social Panoptics." California Law Review, vol. 89, no. 3, pp. 643–740. California,
2001.
ONLINE RESOURCES
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
analysis-townspeople-s-complicity
• [Link]
chronicle-of-a-death-foretold
