Climax

The Hungarian composer Bela Bartok fascinates Garcia Marquez and so the author constructed his novel along this composer's line. For example, he configured his climax so it would land five-sevenths of the way through the book - when the strikers are massacred - just as Bartok would have done in a musical composition. From this point on it is denouement and decay until the waters come to wash the earth clean. Also, in similar ways to a musical composition, many characters have a motif or theme which accompanies their presence, such as Mauricio Babilonia's butterflies.

Foreshadowing

The novel opens with the suggestion that the Colonel Aureliano will, at some point, face the firing squad. This is a technique called foreshadowing and it is used throughout the hook to emphasize the simultaneity and inevitability of events. The example of Colonel Aureliano's firing squad is also used as a memory...