Latin American culture is one strongly based on magical realism and the use of divine
powers. One of these powers is the use of seeing the future. In the books, Chronicle of a
Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The House of the Spirits by Isabel
Allende, the literary device of foreshadowing, or future telling in a sense, is very evident.
Both these authors use this tool to develop plot, characters, and ultimately their message.
When given the ability to construct the future, as an author is when creating a story, they
are given the ability to hint towards the future. Both stories use this tool to its utmost
ability. The novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold is about a young man, Santiago Nasar,
who is murdered in a small town in Colombia around the mid 1900’s. This story is a
rollercoaster of emotion relaying from person to person and giving a somewhat reporterlike insight into the death of this man. The novel The House of the Spirits is a story about
a thriving family in central Chile during the 1900’s and their trials and tribulations as
they develop and mature as society changes. The House of the Spirits and Chronicle of a
Death Foretold are both stories that embody the use of foreshadowing to develop
characters, plot, and theme.
The story Chronicle of a Death Foretold revolves around foreshadowing to help
develop its effect as a novel. The story itself revolves around the death of Santiago Nasar
whose mortal end is foreshadowed in the opening sentence of the book when Marquez
states, “On the day they where going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at fiverthirty…”(Marquez 1).Right from the start of the book, the reader sees that Marquez’s
uses foreshadowing to help further his novel. This sentence alone gives the reader the
main conflict in the story, Santiago’s murder, and it helps develop Nasar into a character
whose impact is going to be clearly felt. A little further along in the book, the reader is
told the cause of the death as well. Marquez tells the reader that Santiago will die because
of the front door to his house, as he calls it, “The fatal door”(Marquez 11). Without
having any other information about anything in the novel, the reader is already treated to
the climax. This use of foreshadowing is unique to Marquez in that he can, in a sense,
spoil his story in the first couple of words yet entices the readers so much that they keep
reading. This use of foreshadowing helps develop the story, not kill it.
Another potent way that Marquez uses foreshadowing to further his story is when he
foreshadows Pedro and Pablo Vicario as the murderers of Santiago. Marquez introduces
the murderers by saying, “…where the two were who were waiting for Santiago Nasar in
order to kill him”(Marquez 16). When investigating a murder, the first thing to do is
identify a killer. Marquez leaves the reader little room to imagination or wonder in
introducing us to Pablo and Pedro right as Santiago leaves his house. This helps develop
Pedro and Pablo as characters because the reader gets a glimpse that the brothers don’t
necessarily want to kill Santiago. This is because if they were really keen on it, they
would have done it the second Santiago left his house. The reader sees that the twins are
still contemplating and putting off the killing. This helps further the plot in that this
foreshadowing leaves no mystery to the murder. The reader now knows what the major
conflict is and who causes it and the story is only beginning.
The last real mystery left to the reader in the murder of Santiago is the motive of the
killers. Marquez however foreshadows this straight from the start of the story. Marquez
does a great job by not being too straight with it, but the reader definitely gets a feeling
that Santiago Nasar is a young and reckless man especially sexually. The reader sees this
early in the novel when Marquez states, “ ‘He grabbed my whole pussy’ Dvina Flora told
me. ‘it was what he always did when he caught me alone in some corner of the house…”
(page?). This quote shows the reader that Santiago is careless and sexually driven. This
hints to the reader that his careless sexual encounters will bring him down. The use of
foreshadowing in the book Chronicle of a Death Foretold helps to further characters and
the overall plot of the book. Marquez masterfully displays his art of foreshadowing in this
novel, and creates a wonderful story in doing so.
The novel The House of the Spirits is a great story threading together clashes of new
and old cultures along with a unique writing style which uses foreshadowing as its solid
base. Author Isabelle Allende is a true artist and one of her most prominent colors is the
use of foreshadowing. She ties this literary device in throughout her novel almost teasing
the reader to carry on. Allende uses foreshadowing in a different sense than Marquez. She
ties her foreshadowing in as if it means absolutely nothing and this makes the reader just
keeps going and not pause to think. However Allende’s use of foreshadowing is very
easy to notice when close attention is paid to the text. A great example of foreshadowing
in the novel is when Allende foreshadows the rise of Estban Garcia and his rein of terror.
Allende foreshadows this by stating, “… Blanca arrived and shoved him away, never
suspecting that this evil, dark-skinned creature was her nephew and that he would one
day be the instrument of a tragedy that would befall her family”(Allende 190). This quote
is slipped in to a sentence as if it is nothing special. However it is essential to the novel
because Estban Garcia does end up ruining the lives of this prestigious family forever.
This helps further the story in that now the reader has a hint on how the story will
eventually turn out.
Another way that Allende uses foreshadowing to further her novel is when she uses
it to predict and foreshadow death and destruction. The strongest example of this is when
Clara predicts her sister’s death. Allende foreshadows this by saying, “Clara announced
that there would soon be another death in the Del Valle Family”(Allende 25). Allende
uses quotes like this to keep the reader’s attention yet does not tell the whole story.
Leaving a mystery for the reader to solve before it happens, she almost taunts the reader
to be an investigator and solve the crime before it happens.
The most prominent examples of foreshadowing in this novel can be seen as Allende
foreshadows change. This happens throughout the novel, starting with the opening
passage in which Allende foreshadows this element of change. Most of the change
foreshadowed throughout the book is about the government. The book revolves around
an axis of government and throughout the novel the reader is shown glimpses of the
foreshadowing of change in the government. A very clear example of this is at the
beginning of the book when Allende opens the novel with a negative diction referring to
the role of the church in this Latin American society. It is clear that the author is writing
from the future reflecting on the past. Therefore this negative diction and the negative
pictures Allende paints give the reader a sense that there was tremendous distaste towards
this regime of religion. This then gives the reader a hint that the powers of this culture are
due for change. Allende specifically shows that there will soon be change by mentioning,
“Carried away by conventional zeal, the priest had all he could do to avoid openly
disobeying the instructions of his ecclesiastic superiors, who, shaken by the winds of
modernism…”(Allende 2). Allende opens the book with statements like, “shaken by the
winds of modernism” to foreshadow that the powers of the country were losing their
grasp on the culture to the tides of change. The novel House of the Spirits epitomizes the
great use of foreshadowing by Isabel Allende.
The two novels The House of the Spirits and Chronicle of a Death Foretold are both
great stories which are built on the strong foundation of foreshadowing. This is clearly
seen throughout both stories consistently and masterfully by Marquez and Allende. Both
of these books would not have the same effect without this element. The authors use it to
further their ideas and stories and also use it constantly to hold the readers attention. The
fact that both writers were at one point reporters is truly reflected by their uses of
foreshadowing. This is because they use foreshadowing to keep people guessing and in a
way, to try to get people to solve the happenings before they actually occur. Both
authors, Isabel Allende and Garcia Marquez, are truly masters of the art that is
foreshadowing, and the two novels exemplify their skills to the fullest.