Chronicle of a Death Foretold (3-24)

You cut right to the heart of Marquez’s novel this morning by likening it to a murder mystery and noticing the contradictory facts. On one level, Marquez parodies the murder mystery form. His narrator has come back to his hometown to uncover the truth surrounding the murder of Santiago Nasar. The irony, of course, is that everyone knows who killed him; indeed, everyone knew who was going to kill him before the crime took place.

The narrator also returns intent on weighing the events objectively and recreating in his mind the conditions of that day. From the get-go, though, something seems wrong. We’re told that Nasar passed many people on the way to his death that day, “and he remarked to all of them in a casual way that it was a very beautiful day” (4). Furthermore, “many people coincided in recalling that it was a radiant morning” (4). All seems well until the narrator tells us that most of the people he talks to “agreed the weather was funereal,” bleak and cloudy (4). Your insight into these contradictions is very good. Remember, too, that the narrator’s purpose is to piece together an accurate depiction of the events.

One hint for tonight’s reading: pay close attention to the description of Bayardo San Roman and think of literary archetypes that he might resemble.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Chapters 17-18

The blog is back.

There is a lot to talk about in Chapters 17-18 with Tea Cake beating Janie and the traumatic event of the hurricane. Tea Cake’s abuse of Janie, and the admiration he gains from his friends, makes Tea Cake a more complicated character than we thought. A number of you realized that, though Janie loves Tea Cake in a more mature and complete way than she did Joe Starks, there are disturbing parallels between Tea Cake and Jody. These parallels are worth looking at more closely to discover just how they are the same and, more importantly, how they are different.

You are also beginning to see the religious significance with which Janie understands her relationship with Tea Cake. Our discussion about the essay question revealed that Janie experiences the light of God in her relationship with Janie. This inner light also relates to the African creation myth she muses about. God’s love allows her love, her spark, to shine and find Tea Cake’s spark. Janie alludes to this revelation of light in Chapter 18 when she and Tea Cake shelter from the storm. She tells him that before she met him he “wuz fumblin’ round and God opened de door” to let the light in (157). Light in the transfiguration reveals God’s presence and God’s love through Jesus. By God showing Janie the light of love by opening the door to her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie discovers more than the love of her life. Tea Cake is an expression of African American culture steeped in a history of forced labor and the expression of the humans spirit through a rich tradition of community and music.

Interestingly, a number of you connected God’s illumination of Janie’s love to the purchase of the streetlamp earlier in the book. Joe buys the town and artificial light to avoid “scufflin’ over all dese stumps and roots in the dark” (44). You noted that Joe’s attempt to cast light reveals the god-like position he wants to claim in the town. You also noted that Joe’s light is artificial, not the natural (or supernatural) light of God. The knowledge that Joe’s light creates, therefore, is human knowledge and fallible.

You also noted that the obstacles Joe’s light reveals are human made obstacles: stumps, the remnants of trees after humans have cut them down. However, you didn’t note how Joe wants to illuminate the path not to show the way but to avoid the stumps (past human actions) and roots, symbolizing where the people came from. It is perhaps understandable that Joe would like to avoid his roots, as his ancestors were likely enslaved Africans. Avoiding the past allows him to adopt the trappings of success in white culture. However, by lighting the roots and teaching Janie to avoid tripping over them, Joe also avoids the strength of community and cultural expression of his roots.

Joe illuminates roots in order for Janie to avoid them; God opens the door to the light that leads Janie to her roots.