The Cyclical Nature
Christine Markiewicz
World Lit Paper 1
5/20/09
Statement of Intent: In this paper I am going to explore the cyclical nature of the narrative in The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende and in Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In House of the Spirits Isabel Alende used the cyclical nature of the narrative to tell the story of a strong lineage of women through significant events in their lives. In Chronical of a Death Foretold Gabriel Carcia Marquez used the cyclical nature of the narrative to emphasize on the innocence on Santiago Nazar, and uses it to subtly proclaim his guilt. I will explore how both narrators incorporated a cyclical nature in their narrative as told by a distant narrator to tell the story and the effect that it had on the reader.
In House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende uses a distant narrator to tell a series of events that occurred to a lineage of women. The narrator turns out to be Alba, the youngest women in the lineage. The story is told through Alba’s interpretation of Claras journals. Since Clara never used dates and organized them by event any given event could have occurred before another. However there was some order since the narrative followed a lineage of women, but proved to be cyclical in nature when characters emoted traits of another previous character and the last and same line were identical. The cyclical nature of the story is subtle but present throughout the novel and towards the end of the novel when Alba announces that she “must break this terrible chain” (Allende, page 432) of events and not continue in this cycle. The cycle definitely makes Alba’s decision to break it more impacting upon the reader. It helps us feel the emotion that Alba emotes through her writing in the last few pages. It helps us feel and understand her need to live peacefully, waiting for her love and the birth of her daughter. It shows the reader the inner strength that Alba posseses and the potential inner strength that everyone has.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold Marquez uses a more obvious cycle that was present in House of the Spirits. Marquez uses each chapter to retell the story, each time from a different perspective, in order to aid the reader feel the emotions that the town was feeling upon a surface reading. However upon examination the reader can conclude that the chronicle is his confession. The cycle of the storytelling reveals that his name is “Santiaga” (Marquez, page 24). It also revealed that Angela “found [the name she gave] at first sight among the many, many easily confused names” (Marquez, page 47). However for this to be true one must assume that she would not give the name of her true lover because of the bond that they share. Bayardo’s return to Angela 27 years later reminded the narrator of the guilt he felt for the death of his friend (as suggested throughout the text) which caused him to write a “chronicle” of the events that happened in order to clear his conscience. This shows the weakness that this man posseses and the potential for weakness in everyone.
Both authors chose to use a cyclical nature in the narration style but to different conclusions. In House of the Spirits Alba rose above the trials that had been set before her. She embraced what had occurred and decided not to take revenge on those who had done wrong and that showed the strength that a human being can posses. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold the narrator also embraced what occurred however it did not make him a stronger person. He choose to take the easy way out of the situation he was in and not take responsibility for his actions, and that showed the weakness that a human being can posses. Both narratives showed the reader the possibilities that life can present to a person and neither could have been achieved with a chronological narrative. The cyclical nature of the texts allowed for a stronger message to be conveyed to the reader through the texts.
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. 1928. Trans. Gregory
Rabassa. New York: Random House, Inc., 1983.
Allende, Isabel. The House Of The Spirits. 1985. Ed. Plaza&James Editores.
Trans. Magda Bogin. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
what an adventure
so christmas break is almost over. =[ so i thought i'd reflect. you know so later i can remember what i did. so first it started with the flight. we left anchorage fine, got to seattle had to runnnn to the plane to catch it. there was a storm coming in with severe crosswind so we couldnt really fly off. we were on the plane for 5 hours then they decided to let us off and whatnot. so we went to eat. and we got back and they still couldnt fly off, but they were telling us that we might still make it. so we waited for 20 hours. and then they told us oh oops, the flight wont make it. so we had to leave and the line to reschedule flights would have taken 10 hours wait from the back...which is where we were but momma has MVP heeells yeah. so we called the ticketing people, rescheduled our flight to California....dont remember where but somewhere in southern california. we got on the plane and right as they finished deicing our plane the entire airport ran out of deicing fluid so we took off in a 5 minute slot where the wind was right and it was perfect. so we flew to California, drove here to Arizona and spent the holidays. if we hadnt made that flight we would have spent 4 days in seattle. then adam, alan, and sonja and their families came, a few days after christmas. i love them all. however adam and alan got on my nerves like no other. so i was happy when they left on new years. my family and sonjas family went to church for new years. me, her and my brother were the only "kids" there. it was all adults. really boring stuff. but we sucked helium and ran around like crazy so it was fun. but a waste of looking cute. haha. so sonja left on new years day. really sad. made me cry, not really but it was sad. OOOH and before she left the night before new years eve there was this drug thing. oh no we didnt do drugs but like at the club house...well if you wanna know then ask. we also went shopping several times. and now we have like 2 days left and were just going to chill in the sunshine. absorb the sun before we go back to ak where it's like -17 F. really pleasant weather. not. but whatever.... well i'll write soon
much love.
me
much love.
me
Sunday, December 14, 2008
mmmm
so i havent written in such a long time. so i thought that i'd stop by and say something...probably alot but whatever. me and my friends were talking and i mean whats the point of a blog? so you can tell people about your life? it's so egocentric. then we figured that when were old and wrinkly we can come back and read what we wrote. read what we thought was important, read what we felt. you know?? i dunno. i mean even now im going back on some of my posts from earlier this year and i mean seriously?? i dont know why i wasted so much energy on this, so much time and emotions on some of these things. kinda silly. ok so whats been goin on in my life?? not too much actually. I timed a ddf meet at west a few weeks ago. that was alot of fun. i met some crazy cool people and i had alot of fun. we finally finished our IB project. the picture one?? oh wait i havent said anything about that yet. ok well we took on a mini-grant project like an anti-drinking campaign. we did a poster campaign but on the desktops of the computer, our message was that if you go drinking one night then the next you wont be there for the people who need you. and we depicted different situations as if one person was missing. it came out really good. hmmmm. then we have finals soon. urrrg. i havent really been studying, which i probably should do because i really need to bring up some of my grades. hmmmm. oh wow. i just heard the funniest thing on the radio. it's like 10 ways to keep a healthy level of insanity. good stuff. there were things like put a garbage can on your desk and label it IN. Page yourself over the intercom and dont disguise your voice. change the coffee at the office to decaff until people get over the cafeine addiction, then change it back to espresso. and sit in your car in a corner somewhere but that your still visible to traffic and point a hairdryer at cars and see if they slow down. haha and #1 maintain a good sense of humor. i think thats so important. keeping a good sense of humor. i mean there are so many grouches out there and they dont realize how much they're missing from life from being grouchy. anywhoo. hmm anything else? i dunno, christmas break starts in 5 days. im really excited! were going to arizona for the holidays. im really excited i love arizona. it's so pretty! well i gotta get goin. gotta finish some homework before company comes over. well much love to friends, much love to people who care. much love to our troops, best wishes to everyone.
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