Magical realism in Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Magical realism is a literary genre in which fantastical things are treated not just as possible, but also realistic. It tries to tell its stories from the perspective of people who live in our world and experience a different reality from the one we call objective. As a tool, magical realism can be used to explore the realities of characters or communities who are outside of the objective mainstream of our culture. It's not just South Americans, Indians, or African slaves who may offer these alternative views. Religious believers for whom the supernatural is always present and miracles are right around the corner, believers to whom angels really do appear and to whom God reveals Himself directly, they too inhabit magical realism in their world.
García Márquez developed the style of magical realism, a genre of writing that incorporates magical elements into an otherwise realistic story. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, while not as typical an example of magical realism as García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, does have some elements of the magical realist style.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is based on the true story of a murder that occurred in Sucre, Colombia, in 1951. The real names of García Márquez’s mother, Luisa Santiaga, his siblings, and his future wife Mercedes Barcha are used in the novel. The narrator, like García Márquez himself, is a journalist who interviews his subjects to gather the facts. Amid the facts of this murder case are elements of the fantastic—prophetic dreams, bad omens, and eerie coincidences that cannot be explained.
Instances of magical realism in the novel: 1. In the first chapter, Santiago’s mother recalls a dream her son had the night before he was killed. He dreamt he was walking through a grove of trees when he found he was spattered with bird droppings. She interprets this as an auspicious dream about trees, but later realizes it is an ominous dream about birds.

2. Another instance of magical realism in the first chapter is when Victoria Guzman disembowels the rabbits. She takes out the entrails of the rabbits and feeds it to dogs. Santiago is disturbed by this and implores her to imagine it like a person. Later in the story, we see him lying dead exactly like the rabbit Victoria killed.

3. Divina Flor, daughter of Victoria Guzman sees a vision of Santiago, dressed in white and carrying a bouquet of flowers. The vision is so realistic that she believes he has actually entered the house; however, it is soon clear that the hallucination foreshadowed Santiago’s death.

4. Santiago saw another dream in which he sees fate allowing him to have a painful and lonely death. This interpretation is there because not hitting the almond trees means nobody will be there to help him.
‘The week before, he’d dreamed that he was alone in a tinfoil airplane and flying through the almond trees without bumping into anything.’

5. To Clotilde, Santiago "looked like a ghost" that very morning of his murder. The idea of a man already looking dead certainly invokes a deep, supernatural and enigmatic feeling.

6. Widower Xius
* In his dream, he saw a phosphorescent bird fluttering over his former home. He interpreted it as his wife’s soul trying to rightfully gain whatever was hers. He eventually died out of sadness.

7. "We'd been together at Maria Alejandrina Cervantes' house until after three, when she herself sent the musicians away and turned out the lights in the dancing courtyard so that her pleasurable mulatto girls could get some rest…Maria Alejandrina Cervantes was the most elegant and the most tender woman I have ever known, and the most serviceable in bed, but she was also the strictest. She'd been born and reared here, and here she lived, in a house with open doors, with several rooms for rent and an enormous courtyard for dancing lit by lantern gourds bought in the Chinese bazaars of Paramaribo.”

This quote is a very good example of magical realism because Maria Alejandrina Cervantes is a whore, but the description of her persona and her home does not seem to condemn her or her girls for their profession, which comes as a surprise in a culture that censors women's sexuality so strictly. In the novel, Maria is not depicted as a shameful woman with a dirty profession, but as a beautiful woman who taught all the men of the community about sex. It seems that women in this Colombian culture can either accept the strict social codes governing their sexuality, or they can completely discard them; no in-between is presented.

8. Angela Vicario’s name- Angela’s first name is derived from the word Angel. And the last name is derived from the word Vicar. Ironically, Angela fails to act religiously throughout the novel. Also, she is nowhere close to being angelic as she caused a brutal death of an innocent man.

Criticism- A lot of critics question the validity of the term at all, maintaining that it is used irresponsibly to describe any work that is not ultra-realistic and that this usage leads to the stereotyping of minority writers. Finally, some critics maintain that the term magic realism is irrelevant given the new category of postmodernism, in which the narrative stream typically continues uninterrupted despite elements similar to those that appear in magic realism. Critics also say that magical realism elements distract the reader.
Support- Since the book is a chronicle, magical realism works in favour of creating a sense of mystery. It helps in shaping up the tragic death of Santiago Nasar, the inevitability of fate taking over the character. It also brings out the supernatural beliefs of people of the Latin American community.

Sudisha Misra