The Best of all possible worlds...

Pangloss has the ability to justify anything. We have noses to wear spectacles. Pants exist so we must have legs. If we didn't  have syphilis in Europe, we wouldn't have chocolate either. To him, the world is a simple relation of cause and effect and it all happens because that is how God created the world. Is everything really that simple? Is our world and the universe based on the simple laws of cause and effect? What about free will? How much control do humans really have over our lives? Or, is everything already planned out for us and we are just acting as it was ordained? Please discuss.

You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it.

Candide was so revolutionary for its time as Voltaire was brave enough to poke fun at absolutely everything-artistocracy, religion, the military, sex, relationships, education; pretty much everything. Satire used to be used to call attention to social wrongs, and bring about change. Do we still use satire in this way today? What subjects are the object of satire in the 21st century? Does our modern satire serve a greater purpose? Comment.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction...

Post-Modernism was a reaction and a rejection of all of the movements and ideas that came before. The play we are about  to read, Hernani, is a Romantic play. Romanticism was a reaction and rejection of the rigid ideals of Classicism. It seems, especially in the last 100 years or so, that everything is a reaction and rejection of something else. No one is satisfied. Everyone pushes boundaries. Is this a good thing? Should everything be challenged and tested? Should all aspects of life be constantly evolving? Or is there ever a time when things should just "stand still"? Your thoughts....

A Chronicle of A Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Now that we have come to the end of Marquez's convoluted tale that is A Chronicle of A Death Foretold, what is your opinion of the novel? What have you learned from it? Has it challenged you in any way? Do you feel it has improved your reading/analysis ability? How will you take what you have learned from this novel and apply it to other works you will read? Feel free to comment on any aspect of the novel you choose and don't be afraid to make your opinions known.

There was never a death more foretold...

By the end of Marquez' Chronicle of a Death Foretold, we realize everyone knew about the murder plot of Santiago Nasar and did nothing to stop it. During the murder, no one lifted a finger to stop it or help out Santiago. Why? What does it say about the town, the people in it and Santiago himself that no one stopped his brutal murder? What commentary about society in general was Marquez trying to make?

We dance round in a ring and suppose, While the secret sits in the middle and knows”-Robert Frost

All throughout Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, secrets abound. The catalytic moment of the novel, the death of Santiago Nasar, is caused by Angela Vicario allegedly revealing the secret identity of the man who took her virginity. However, this information was never, ever confirmed. Everyone in the novel possesses secrets; some minor and silly others extremely important that have far reaching effects on the people and actions of the novel. Can secrets still do damage if no one knows them? Do secrets always come out eventually? Talk about how secrets affect the people and the action in the novel, but also discuss whether secrets even exist in our modern world.

"...trying to put the broken mirror of memory back together from so many scattered shards..."

The narrator of A Chronicle of A Death Foretold returns to the scene of Santiago Nasar's murder many years later to piece together clues. The villagers rely on their memories of the day's tragic events and of the many himself. What happens to memories as we age? Are memories ever reliable? How might memories distort reality, much like a mirror would do? Use examples from real life as well as from the novel.