Many people return to their past or their rituals when problems arise. However, a majority of those people, once their troubles have passed, return to the emptiness of the life they lived before, unchanged. Those who do this usually relive this cycle over and over again for the rest of their lives. Because this is a very common phenomenon, it is a very relatable subject in novels, yet how can one actually learn from these events? To find true meaning in novels, one most look deeper than the surface of the pages to decipher the author’s message. It is as if the author’s are trying to send secret messages that only a thorough reader can uncover. This is especially prevalent in Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Its description and depiction …show more content…
The themes of this work can not be found only in the plot, but also with a background knowledge of the times and the culture. Marquez lets the reader into the darkness of the time he lived and place he lived in, characterized by violence, ineffectual leadership, and failure of duty. Marquez shows the circles South America went through in the microcosm of the society in the book. He shows a world that destroyed the people involved, and is in some cases still destroying people. Through all of the circles and the cycles of this work, Marquez is reminding every reader not to only be a looker on, but to actually do something with the small opportunities one encounters everyday. He is warning the reader to never repeat the dark cycles of the past. Don’t let your culture and your background hold you back or be a crutch to lean on, but use it to make the world around you a better place. Do not let the world around you fall apart because of your own pride. Or the world will end up the same as poor, young Santiago Nasar. “Then he went into his house through the back door that had been open since six and fell on his face in the kitchen”