Death Foretold

The setting of the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold plays a crucial role in the novel as the setting enables the author, Gabriel Marquez, to manipulate the events which will occur, and is the fundamental reason the characters are depicted in a particular way. The setting of the story takes place in a small coastal town in Columbia. Throughout the novel, Marquez uses elements significant to the novel that pertain to the country such as: the weather, location, culture, and status. These elements are the base for which Marquez develops the novel. If the location of the setting were to change and the setting occurs in France, the culture and the location would not be as critical or pertain to the novel the same way a small town in Columbia would.

The town is located on the coast of Columbia “ limitless paradise of the marshes covered with purple anemones… neat horizon of the Caribbean and the tourist ships from Cartagena de Indias” (Marquez 35), limiting the availability of the resources as the only means of transportation to the exterior of the city is by river “ It (Santiago’s house) had been built in the days when the river was so usable that many seagoing barges and even a few tall ships made their way up there through the marshes of the estuary”(Marquez 10). The town is not industrialized or advanced “ he (Bayardo) spoke of the urgency for building a railroad into the interior so that we could keep ahead of the river’s fickle ways” (Marquez 26), hindering the people, as the town does not have access to a variety of supplies and is isolated. When Santiago is murdered, he is not taken to a hospital, or receives professional medical assistance “they only had few instruments for minor surgery available and the rest were craftsmen’s tools” (Marquez 75), the setting in the novel prevents the town form obtaining adequate equipment and facilities. Thus, Marquez uses the disadvantages to show how small and insignificant the town is portrayed to be “nor did they have the slightest idea of what he had come to do in a mislaid town” (87). The arrival of the bishop in the town consists of so much excitement, it is a big deal, yet “the bishop didn’t get off his boat” (16), signifying, the bishop does not value the town or find the town significance as the town is in a obscure