Socratic Seminar - This Friday (4/15) and next Tuesday (4/19)

All,

Here are the questions for this Friday/Next Tuesday's Socratic Seminar:

1. What is the symbolic significance of Barrabas and his death? How does he manifest Allende's intentions in the novel?

2. How is Alba an example of hybridity? Explain.

3. How does the situation of Clara's death create a problematic binary or conflict?

4. What's significant about Allende's description of the house in ch. 10?

5. Why do we get a sense of the absurd surrounding Nicolas and the protests?

6. Why can't "marxism succeed" in this country (ch. 10)?

7. Does Allende shift one's perception of prostitution? How so?

8. Why is ch. 11 called "The Awakening"?

9. Describe the propaganda encountered in this chapter; what are these images attempting to convey?

The Chronicle of a Death Foretold

The title “The Chronicle of a Death Foretold” can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. A chronicle is defined as a series of events; clearly this does not connect with the concept of death seeing as a death would end the chronicle. Also the concept of foretelling switches around chronology; this does not work with a chronicle because a chronicle is chronological. One way to interpret this title is to see it as the chronicle of how a death is being foretold, or a story about how someone’s death is predicted. Another way to view it is as a chronicle of the past events about a person who has already died. The final way to see it is as a chronicle of how a death happened which was already foretold. Because this title is so abstract it reflects that the story itself also will be interpreted in a number of ways by the characters in the novel.

Chronicles of a death foretold

at first glance the title of the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez almost makes sense. Its the story of death that occurred that was foretold. But on deeper analysis, when one starts to break down each words meaning, the title begins to contradict itself. this is done through the word choice. first of all the word chronicle entail a story that had already happened was a series of events, while the foretelling is meaning that it was already seen in the future. the most significant word in the contradiction of the title, however, is Death. Death in the context is singular, meaning in could not of had a chronicle. the title would almost make more sense with a different word ordering, such as the the chronicles of the foretelling of a death (less catchy, but gets the point across clearly). conclusively, the title of the novel suggests that the "death" has yet to occur...

how Chronical of a death fortold is illogical

The title of Gabriel Garcia's novel seems to be illogical. A chronicle is detailed narrative record or report of ordered events, and to foretell is to tell of or indicate beforehand, or to predict. A chronicle is an ordered set of events leading up to a result, to foretell of what a chronicle leads up to skips the order in which the chronicle goes. knowing the result before it actually happens interferes with the order.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

The "flaw" in this title is obvious at a first glance. The two words "chronicle" and "foretold" do not make sense in this context. This is why i am suspicious of any flaw in the first place. If indeed there is a flaw in the title , it was intentionally placed there by the author. Maybe the book is the chronicle of the foretelling of the death instead of a recount of the death itself . In this case the title would not be flawed at all. The title does not really clue the reader into whether this death has taken place or not but if this book is a chronicle of the foretelling of the death then it is probably safe to assume that the person has not died yet.

Chronicle of a death foretold

The title chronicle of a death foretold doesnt make any sense because its to opposite ideas in the same sentence making it an oxymoron. chronicle means in a specific order so for example days it goes " monday, tuesday wednesday..etc" . while the word foretold is the prediction of future events that are going to happen. and death meaning end so translated the title doesn't work because its the order of a end that already happened. this is a contradictory of itself because you cant have a foretelling of a chronicle. none of the words in the title agree with each other.

A Turn of Phrase

The problem with the title of this book is that it is an oxymoron. A chronicle is a series that come in a specific order (such as 1, 2, 3, 4...) and can not be altered and still make sense (2,78,6,100...). By saying the death is fore told, it is skipping ahead, taking information, and then bringing it back to an earlier point and continuing on (for example going to 1, 2, 77 [being the death in this example], 3, 4, 5...). It is an oxymoron because it breaks the idea of staying in chronological order. Another flaw within this title is that death is one single moment in time, and there isn't any way you can chronologically record a single moment, because its only one one moment where a chronicle is multiple moments in a certain order.

"Chronicle of a Death Foretold"- Estrella

The word 'chronicle' means a description of past events.  The word 'foretold' is the prediction or the known outcome of something.  With 'chronicle' you have the past, but with 'foretold' you have the future.  The two words do not agree with each other in the title. By the title incorporating 'death', as in a death has already occurred, you can not have a fortelling. You can have a chronicle though based off the events leading to or already happened to cause the death. You also can have a foretelling of a death, but not a 'chronicle of a death foretold.'  The two words, 'chronicle and foretold' do not agree with each other when the word 'death'  is the word in between.  I do agree though, that in order to have a future; "a foretelling", you need  a past; "a chronicle."

Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

The problem with the title The Chronicle Of A Death Foretold is that the novel doesn't actually follow any chronological sequence. The reason Gabriel Garcia Marquez chose this title is because it is an account of a murder. When a traumatic incident occurs, each witness to that event sees the occurrence in different ways. This means that there is no eye witness story that is identical to the next. By naming this story a "chronicle", Marquez is telling the sequences in the order that they occurred to the witness.

Logic in CoDF

The flaw with the logic of the title "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" is that it creates a sort of contradiction of tenses. While "chronicle" implys a list of events in the past, foretold implys that the death has not yet happened. However, the story follows with the title, regardless of logical error. The reason for this is that the author places the events in the story as they are happening in the present. Thus, although the story did in fact happen 27 years earlier, the death in the novel's time line, has yet to happen.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Marquez allows for multiple interpretations of his title "Chronicle of a Death Foretold." If one isolates the first few pages of this novel, hence assuming the perception that Marquez's novel is a chronicle of a fated death, then the title contradicts itself in that the first page begins at the end. A chronicle must document events in precise chronological order, a rule that Marquez ignores in the first sentence of his novel. Before even opening the cover, however, the title appears inherently amiss. The first word, 'chronicle', defies the final 'foretold'. If the reader is to know that an event is fated, they must know this from the start of a novel, before the commencing the plot that will explain the event. Because a chronicle is restricted to time's logical progression, a book is not a chronicle if it begins with the ultimate conclusion of a tale.

Logical flaw in CODF -Toby

The word "chronicle," by definition, suggests to the reader that the story is an account of a series of events that has already happened. Despite this, the word "foretold" is also included in the title. By definition, the use of this word suggests to the reader that the events in the novel had yet to be written when they were written about in the novel. This creates contradiction. From the perspective of a chronological flow of time, the title in logically flawed. Something cannot be foretold if it has already happened. This contradiction in the title, in turn, suggests to the reader that the story will be an anachronism.

Now, what intent would Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author, have through creating this contradiction in the title of the novel? Marquez creates antithesis in the title to portray the scope of the ideas and events in the novel.

-Toby

Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

Garcia Marquez's, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, centers around a murder investigation that takes place 27 years subsequent to the death of Santiago Nasar. The title disregards logic in the juxtaposition of "chronicle" and "foretold". Chronicle implies that events will be presented in the order in which they occured whereas foretold implies that these events will be revealed prior to their occurrence within the story. However, since this is a Latin American Boom author the title makes perfect sense as Boom authors avoid following an established form and aim to evoke a feeling of great confusion in the reader.

RE: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

A chronicle is a telling of events or a story in a chronological order. Chronological means in order of time. In the first few pages of the novel it is discovered that a man has returned to a town where a murder had happened 27 years in the past. This word is already in defiance of itself by starting 27 years after the matter as apposed to from the beginning. It seems as though it would be best to start at the end rather than the start, though confusing, this backwards method can help to unravel mysteries hidden to a chronological eye. Marquez did this to imbue the mysterious attributes of the story into the title and confuse the reader as much as the protagonist.

Colombians are just tricky

Gabriel Garcia Marquez manages to arrange the title Chronicle of a Death Foretold to interest the reader. I believe Marquez does this to argue the way the future works. The future only appears if a series of events occurs in a certain amount of time, which is known as a Chronicle. Foretelling is already predicting the future, so the title Chronicle of a Death Foretold defies the principles of how the words chronicle and foretold work. Marquez, due to his knowledge of the importance of a title of a novel, keeps interest in the reader until the end of the novel. Marquez's title is not wrong; he's just doing his job. That is why I think Marquez chose these particular words in the title.

Response: "What is wrong with the title 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold'?"

At first glance, the title "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" seems to be contradictory, as the word chronicle generally refers to a chronological account of an event which already happened, while 'foretold' seems to suggest that the event hasn't happened yet as the word refers to the predicting of the future. However, the title could easily be interpreted as meaning a chronicle of how a death was foretold or, alternately, a chronicle of a death which had been foretold. If this is to be the case, the confusion presented through the title is merely a result of lack of clarification, as either possibility named above is logically sound on its own. However, in the context of the book itself there is still an issue with either interpretation, as the events within the book are not presented in chronological order. 'Chronicle' can sometimes be used less formally to simply mean a detailed record of events, though, so the issue is a minor one.

Despite the fact that the contradictions present in the title can be cleared up by simply using a different interpretation, there is still the issue of why such an easily misinterpreted and confusing title was chosen in the first place. Most likely, this was used to generate interest in the book, as the contradictory title catches one's eye and makes one curious about what the title could possibly mean and what the book could be about. In addition, the title is quite in line with the apparent nature of literature from the Latin American Boom, as the deconstruction of traditional narratives, which often involves messing with chronological order, is a common theme.