Category: Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

Principles are an imperative component of any community. They mould the identity of a culture and help to shape the identity of each individual in that society. Sometimes these deeply ingrained values have a great amount of power. Gabriel García Márquez shows the power of the value of honor in his book, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In García Márquez’s writing, the theme of honor has a great influence on most of the characters and its plot.

Honor was a key element leading to the murder of Santiago Nasar. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the theme of honor is one that presents itself throughout the novel by having a significant role in the plot. The writer portrays an unnamed small town in Colombia where the most vicious crimes can be committed in the name of honor. In the book Angela Vicario, a young bride, is returned to her family for not having her virginity intact. When her twin brothers find out about their sister’s dishonorable actions, they intend to murder the man who they believe did this, Santiago Nasar. This event shapes the plot of the book as the book is surrounded around this main event, this event devises the following sequences of events to take place which ultimately causes Santiago Nasar to get brutally butchered by the twins and it it is portrayed as the reason for Santiago Nasar’s unfortunate homicide. This series of events shows any steps could be taken to preserve someone’s honor in this unnamed town and Santiago was portrayed as a victim of this all of the characters in the novel are influenced by this powerful construction of honor. The defense of this ideal is directly responsible for Santiago Nasar’s murder. The Vicario brothers kill Santiago in order to restore the honor of their sister, the Vicario siblings slaughter Santiago so as to reestablish the respect of their sister, as indicated by her siblings, so as to demonstrate her innocence and clear the name of the family.

‘I felt that I was the one who was going to die,’ my sister said. ‘But no matter how much they tossed the story back and forth, no one could explain to me how poor Santiago Nasar ended up being involved in such a mix-up.’ The only thing they knew for sure was that Angela Vicario’s brothers were waiting for him to kill him.

Throughout the novel, many characters demonstrate the pressure honor holds as a value in the town’s culture by failing to inform Santiago Nasar of Pedro and Pablo Vicario’s plan., this shows their idea that honor must be sustained within a family. Though a few people in the community, like Clotilde Armenta and Yamil Shaium, try to prevent the death from occurring, most people turned a cold shoulder, because they believed that the severity of the crime deserved a cruel punishment. The fact that death was considered a reasonable retribution for the crime of taking a girl’s virginity indicates how awful it was to sleep with an unmarried woman; doing so ruined her chances of marrying well, and marriage was women’s one way to advance in the world.This fact is the driving factor of the plot of the book and is the heart of the plot which causes the death of Santiago in an indirect manner, and is a clear example of how the usage of honor is the driving contributor to the events of the plot.

Honor is what drove the people to undermine the murder and show the prevailment of injustice in the town. As I mentioned earlier this was a main indicator that nobody in the novel prevents the murder of Santiago Nasar, but instead they condemn him to death for his immoral deed. This fundamental moral trait which is vital to keeping society on the path of righteousness is portrayed to be what the plot is dependent on. Furthermore, the Vicario twins are given a reprieve after three years. When the twin brothers proceed to speak to the priest, they say that they have committed murder, but that there is no crime. In court, “the lawyer stood by the thesis of homicide in legitimate defense of honor” (Garcia Marquez 55). It is shown the confession of the brothers to Father Carmen Amador subsequently after the murder of Santiago. The conversation goes as follows:

‘We killed him openly,’ Pedro Vicario said, ‘But we’re innocent. ‘Perhaps before God,’ said Father Amador. ‘Before God and before men,’ Pablo Vicario said. ‘It was a matter of honor’” (Garcia Márquez 39). In this quotation, the brothers confess to the reverend of what they have done and why they have committed the crime. They give their claim in a way to show that they only did what they did because Santiago took the decency of their sister therefore taking away and staining her and her family’s honour and name. The fact that the town upholds the murder as being legitimate that death was considered a reasonable retribution for the crime was driving the plot. Honor plays a driving role to draw the reader that injustice was prevailing in the town and drove the plot forward.

Honor acted as an imposed burden on the characters of the book.In addition, in the case of Santiago’s fiancée, instead of warning her soon to be husband, she only thinks about herself and her own honor; “she went through a crisis of humiliation” (Garcia Marquez 133), ashamed, thinking that Santiago must marry Angela to uphold Angela’s and the Vicario family’s honor because he had taken her virginity. Clear example of how honor is what everything revolved around. Instead of thinking about Santiago, the fiance thinks about how her honor would be stained, despite that fact that that he is the love of her life she still wants to protect her name from stains and this is a heavy burden that not only lies on her shoulder but also on the majority of the townspeople.

Now they haven’t got anything to kill anybody with,’ he said. ‘That’s not why,’ said Clotilde Armenta. ‘It’s to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty that’s fallen on them’.

In this quotation Marquez lashed upon the absurdity of cultural and societal aspects of the town and talked about how many forgot the meaning of honor, here the character Clotilde Armenta implies it is easy to forget that Santiago and Angela are not the only victims here. Pablo and Pedro are also victims of honor codes, they distorted what religion preaches according to what suited them as per their convenience and their account of honor killing. The author is questioning importance of honor and can it it justify killing of a fellow man. Honor means a great deal to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The town and the townspeople is a reflection of the author’s feelings about one’s honor and it is what propels the plot bit by bit.

Maintaining honor codes was almost obligatory. Likewise, this feeling of obligation that comes from maintaining honor is supported by the pressure of those in the community who also uphold the value. Pablo’s wife, Prudencia Cotes, shows the pressures of maintaining the construct of honor codes the boys were under by saying, ‘I never would have married him if he hadn’t done what a man should do” ( Garcia Marquez 72), when referring to Santiago Nasar’s death. Honor is so deep rooted in the society Prudencia says she would marry Pablo only if he murders Santiago as one is is supposed to avenge the wrong doings to one’s honor. ‘I can imagine, my sons… honor doesn’t wait’ (Garcia Marquez 62) When a family’s honor had been stained as it had been in the Vicario brothers’ case, the males of that family were obligated to clear the family name. Not only does this propel the plot forward, this also talks about societal behaviour and how as mentioned earlier all societal events are based on two things Religious and Honor, and Marquez talks about how they discarded their religion and also considered it the most important factor in their lives. But however at same time gambling and alcohol flourish in the town, which are forbidden by the church, the religion appears to be just of namesake and is preached according to the convenience of people and is sold in the name of honor codes in the town.

Honor serves as a driving force for the plot and the main events which occur in this book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The author uses theme to drive this book forward and highlight societal flaws and aspects which causes key events of the book to take place. The usage of this theme also gives us an accurate cultural representation of the times the book was set in and in the manner it served them as a burden and it revolved around the characters and their lives and actions.

Culture is so powerful that it has the ability to push us around, influence our decisions, control our likes and dislikes, and so much more and many times we don’t even recognize it. It is embedded deep in the brains of the members of society, from upbringing, experiences, and other surrounding peers. But how susceptible are you to engage in physical violence, such as punches, kicking, hitting, and how does that connect back to our cultural mindset which often tends to lead our decision-making thoughts and processes? There are multiple factors that can trigger our requirement to fight someone or something. A big influence is our culture in which we are surrounded in. Our cultural environment can influence how likely we are to resort to physical violence when in such a situation, evident in chronicles of a death foretold when the Vicario twins decide to murder Santiago and when Purisima del Carmen beats her daughter, Angela Vicario.

The previously practiced cultural norms are the actions that stay with us and influence our choices when in any given situation. The Vicario twins murdered Santiago in order to protect their family’s honour, but one might wonder how they came to the conclusion that physical violence, in the form of murder, was the correct and most efficient way to eliminate the threat that seemed to have caused the problem. This action could be encouraged by the practices of earlier generations that are brought forward. Since the book was set in 1950 it can be inferred that revenge often took the form of physical action onto another person, it was part of the cultural norm to do so and therefore this attribute was what encouraged the Vicario twins to act in such a way. At the end of chapter two it is seen that the Vicario twins are on trial after the murder. They admit that they were the ones that took Santiago’s life, but they attempt to justify their recently committed sin. They believe, as men of the Vicario family, it is in fact their duty to protect the honour of their household. They found their justice through the form of physical revenge which Pedro Vicario insists is no sin if committed for the sake of honour. Pedro attests that: “‘We killed him openly,’ Pedro Vicario said, ‘but we’re innocent’ ‘Perhaps before God,’ said Father Amador. ‘Before God and before men,’ Pablo Vicario said. ‘It was a matter of honour’” (Marquez 49).

In the town of Sucre, it is celebrated to see a man taking revenge if their family’s honour has been questioned. Due to the already set cultural norms, the Vicario twins knew that it was their responsibility to uphold and defend their sister and family. After the arrest, the Vicario twins justified their actions by simply saying it was the duty of a man which they had no option but to fulfill. Despite the obvious punishment set for crimes such as this one there was still some confusion between the citizens about whether or not the actions of the brothers could have been justified or not. The culturally set mindset of the townsfolk supports the fact that the previous practices by older generations stick with later generations which leads us to take specific actions when having a choice. This is shown when the twins seemed to have decided without hesitation what they were going to do to Santiago displaying how this action of physical violence was common to them. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold the Vicario brothers are accustomed to this reoccurring process of previously set cultural norms and therefore easily resorted to murder as the most efficient and effective way to get their point across and take back their honour.

The act of physical violence is often seen to be everlasting, a strong way to engrave a thought into someone’s mind or thoughts. In the 20th century, the time period of this novel, physical violence was often used when a child was acting up and a parent needed to discipline him/her. It was seen as an efficient and effective way to keep the respect and fear as a parent. This way the child would remember the pain from the beating before thinking of committing the same mistake again. An example of this is evident in chapter two on the night after the wedding when Pura Vicario, Angela’s mother, is awakened by three knocks at her door. She answers to Bayardo San Roman and Angela only to find out that her daughter is not a virgin. For the next two hours Pura silently beats Angela. She brings Angela to the verge of death without even waking her husband, “Only Pura Vicario knew what she did during the next two hours, and she went to her grave with her secret: ‘The only thing I can remember is that she was holding me by the hair with one hand and beating me with the other’ … They found Angela Vicario lying face down on the dining room couch, her face all bruised” (Marquez 46, 47).

The act of beating your children was familiar to the adults in the time frame of this book. Back then we didn’t often worry or think about the activity we were engaged in because it was thought that the previous generations, our elders, were wiser than us therefore what they did and thought must have been right. There weren’t many objections whereas now we have opened up our thoughts on a more significant level. Pura was easily able to raise her hand in a violent manner against Angela because her cultural background possibly may have promoted this action. The things she was told, experienced, or saw as a child stuck with her throughout her life. This is many times referred to as the cultural bias most of us inhibit. Her past environment shaped her perspective which played a role when she was deciding what to do. Her daughter had lost her virginity before marriage, which was an unforgivable sin. Pura’s thought process involved those memories of her childhood in order to come to an action plan on how to deal with her disgraceful child. She used the same method her parents would have used in her action against her daughter in the novel because based on her previous experience the beatings her elders had used helped turn Pura into a righteous woman. Pura’s character displays how heavy the cultural bias can be and how much it can affect families through generations.

The physical act of violence can be influenced greatly by cultural norms. These norms are produced through the upbringings and experiences which are passed on through multiple generations as they are used. This is prevalent in the novel when the Vicario twins murder Santiago out of fear of losing their honour and when Pura Vicario beats her daughter so that Angela can stop bringing shame upon their name. It may seem like there have been great advancements from the earlier days in regards to the physical violence aspect, which there has, but it is still quite similar today. In today’s world there is still a need to create fear in order to keep a child away from doing wrong things. Such as creating detentions, or “time out” when a child might not be following the rules. Also, revenge is often sought, although not as gruesome as the murder of Santiago, when someone offends us. Such as defeating another specific player in a racing game if they bumped or threw your character off track in any part of the course. It may not be as straightforward to the eye, but culturally influenced physical violence could be found then, and can be found even now.

‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ is amusing to its name in light of the fact that the historical backdrop of the occasions that prompted the murder of Santiago Nasar and furthermore chronicles the social surroundings where the occasion occurred. In the novel, the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, reports through the depravity of the events that prevailed in Colombia during that time. Marquez utilizes the social foundation and morals as a clarification for the murder of Santiago Nasar. Along these lines, it is similarly critical to comprehend the ethics of the social surrounding to understand the murder of Santiago Nasar.

The title of the novel itself proposes that Nasar’s demise was inescapable and pre-arranged, viewed as a matter of the Latino social code of respect to be ‘honor killing’. It is generally trusted that the reason behind why respect is viewed as a driving force in an individual’s life is on the grounds that it decides how the remainder of the general public judges that individual’s trustworthiness, earnestness and uprightness. This demonstration of pre-marriage sex was viewed as a disfavor to the Vicario family and her siblings Pedro and Pablo Vicario felt that the best way to recover their family’s respect and pride was Nasar’s demise. Subsequently, in a way Marquez illustrates Colombian culture where societal values were viewed as more essential than the natural integrity of man.

Marquez has depicted that the whole town knew about what the Vicario siblings were doing. This demonstrates it was a general public where individuals were ardent to gossip about the homicide to one another, yet nobody conversed with or stopped the killers. The people comforted themselves with the excuse that matters of honors are inviolable dominance. They decide not to take any responsibility on the happening and left it to be settled by the people who were directly engaged with it. There were various occasions when the right activity could’ve prevented the murder. In a way, Marquez in an indirect way accuses every single character that was reluctant to make any move. This delineates how honor executions were permitted and adequate. Marquez likewise shows an absence of independence and closely-held convictions of individuals, rather than the ethical directions that prompted the chain of occasions.

The murder of Santiago Nasar prompted by the Vicario siblings and the outrageous annoyance appeared at Angela by her mom on finding reality about her girl’s abnormality shows how Angela had an obligation towards her family to stay untouched till she was married. Angela was requested to wed Bayardo on the grounds that he was well off and not on the grounds that she loved him and was least worried about what Angela needed.

Marquez depicts ladies as vulnerable animals inside Colombian culture who had no state or opportunity to express their supposition. Ladies were viewed as helpless and their goals were viewed as unimportant and paltry. Ladies did not appreciate any individual worth nor would they be able to direction a state in their own lives, subsequently they were compelled to pursue the dictations of the men in their parental home and later the spouse, when hitched. Marquez has depicted ladies as completely trained animals who have been instructed to live inside the limits of their homes and never to exceed the limits of their thin societal convictions.

Marquez additionally underlines on male pride and the sexuality of their characters in the novel. Besides, It is adequate for men to regard ladies as dispensable pleasures as opposed to important interests they feel glad for visiting Maria Cervantes’ brothel. They didn’t feel embarrassed about their activities as the general public supported male sexuality. It was good for men to visit whores to fulfill their wants yet it was terrible for a lady to take a sweetheart before marriage. At the point when Bayardo discovered that Angela wasn’t a virgin, she is rejected and sent back to her home on her wedding night.

The Latin American social order of the town was bound together with its basic establishments stemmed some place down in religion and certainty, which in like manner explains why the possibility of virginity was seen as one of such essential importance. The town’s close-by association with the Catholic religion explains why the conviction of a woman staying ‘virgin’ until marriage was considered so noteworthy. The norms of Catholicism did not pursue with what Angela did and without investigating her case, extraordinary moves were made against Santiago Nasar for the ‘bad behavior’ that he had submitted. The importance of the Church is altogether stressed upon by Marquez’s depiction of the overall population, in any case ironically regardless of the way that the story occurs in a town that is religious, religions seems to have lost a great deal of its regard. In the novel and this can be seen by the rich courses of action that the all-inclusive community of the town made upon the section of the Bishop. It seems like the Bishop does not regard religion, he doesn’t take the name of god or do anything remotely close supernatural or passionate, rather he keeps waving his hand forward and in reverse in an obliging way. In like manner through this event, Marquez finally reveals an overall population wherein moral frameworks, for instance, the law and religion radiate an impression of being unable to manage and confirm the citizens.

Marquez’s portrayal of Colombian culture is one in which he has depicted an outstandingly orthodox social structure where brutality wins and social conventions which have been gone down through ages are allowed to win. The story of Nasar must be sensibly attractive in an overall population, for instance, the Colombian culture. In any open-minded society, such a record of viciousness would not be sufficient or dependable. Hereafter, Marquez has had the alternative to get the epitome of the story similarly as the Colombian culture in the aggregate of its stilted detail in order to make the novel record the events that he has portrayed.

Bibliography

1. https://freebooksummary.com/role-of-religion-in-chronicle-of-a-death-foretold-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez-66310
2. https://www.gradesaver.com/chronicle-of-a-death-foretold
3. https://letsexploreliterature.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/lets-explore-chronicle-of-a-death-foretold-by-gabriel-garica-marquez/

The novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Marquez is set in a Hispanic town in Columbia during the 20th century. Santiago Nasar’s murder is conducted by the Vicario twins after their sister Angela Vicario pinpointed Santiago as the man who took her virginity before her marriage. Imagery such as predator and prey and surreal imagery evokes a pejorative stab at the inhumanity that accepts the honour-seeking in a society where male privilege and obligations of machismo are normalised. The violence inherent in such society is revealed through vivid descriptions of Santiago Nasar as a hapless victim, women as subjugated individuals, and the townspeople as accomplices to the murder. Marquez uses various imagery in dismantling firmly held religious beliefs and values by unmasking the hypocritical yet self- justified bias and violence against marginalised people such as women and Nasar.

This hypocrisy is apparent in the imagery used in the depiction of women. This imagery reveals a sexually repressed Catholic society, which is deeply concerned with the regulation of female desire while venerating prostitutes as holy figures. The narrator first describes how Angela Vicario’s “brothers were brought up to be men” and “the girls [sisters] had been reared to get married” (Marquez 30). The verb “reared” is associated with animals, but by utilising it for the daughters, the resulting animal imagery immediately emphasises how daughters are inferior to the brothers. These paired phrases and sentence structure increase the expectation of similar fates for sons and daughters, but instead of being “reared” to be women, daughters simply “get married”, which emphasises the idea that marriage becomes a woman’s entire identity. This implicitly highlights how women themselves internalise and normalise the cultural norms of patriarchal society. Contrastingly, prostitutes are portrayed using divine religious imagery. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator describes his recovery from wedding night in Maria Cervantes’s “house of mercies” as he wakes in her “apostolic lap” (30). The religious imagery reinforced by the adjective “apostolic” portrays her as a messianic figure who helps the “recovering” of the narrator in her “house of mercies”, depicting the brothel as a place that absolves sins. The holy depiction of a prostitute’s sexual services in a Catholic town reveals the dichotomy in female representation, which traps women in roles that are either subservient or promiscuous, which lends more freedom to men while regulating the women. By revealing society’s double standards for women through contrasting imagery, the author highlights the deep-rooted hypocrisy embedded in the way women are perceived.

Marquez also uses imagery to portray the relationship between the sexes as one between predator and prey. This mirrors the patriarchal frame of thought that dominates the Catholic church and demands a different set of behaviour from its male and female disciples. For example, Santiago Nasar’s servant Divina Flor comes to take an empty mug from him, he grabs her by the wrist and tells her, “The time has come for you to be tamed” (8). The phrase “tamed” is connotative of entrapping and subduing a wild animal, creating the image of Santiago trying to gain full control of her by forcing submission as one would domesticate an animal. The phrase the “time has come” normalises and legitimises the sexual objectification of Divina Flor, which suggests the unchanging power dynamic between Divina Flor as a powerless younger woman and Santiago Nasar as a powerful man. Another instance is the way Divina Flor herself recalls how she “couldn’t avoid the butcher hawk hand again” as he grabs her “whole pussy” (12). A hawk in itself is a predator, but in conjunction with the “butcher” that adds the connotation of violence to Nasar’s hand, Marquez highlights how Nasar is able to exert overwhelming authority using only his single hand. The supposed regularity and inevitability of this predator-like power reinforces the idea that women, especially subordinates like Divina Flor, are the prey. This imagery also reflects the hypocrisy in patriarchal social norms which normalises sexual predatory behaviour of men while demanding submission and chastity from women.

Santiago Nasar’s murder is another example that reveals the hypocrisy rooted in a religious code of conduct that justifies violence for the sake of honour. Details of the murder are rich in romanticised and surreal imagery. The killing begins as Pedro Vicario “pulled out his knife with his slaughter’s iron wrist” (119). The “iron wrist” adds a sense of automatic, mechanical and unhesitant movement to Pedro’s actions. The imagery takes on a surreal and distorted vision during the murder when the twins’ knife does not show any blood but “kept coming out clean”, absolving and sanitising the twins of the horrific slaughter (119). Furthermore, Marquez adds a romantic tone to his depiction of murder. For instance, their actions are presented in strangely beautiful and lyrical language as they knife Santiago with “easy stabs”, as if they are “floating in the dazzling backwater” (120). The tranquillity of the “floating” motion with smooth edges, creates an image of their minds being separated from their physical bodies in a dreamy unconsciousness, which seems to bewilder the twins themselves. The oxymoronic phrase “dazzling backwater” describes this ambiguous state of their minds, emphasising the detachment and dissociation of their action from any sense of awareness, remorse, or fear. This meandering “backwater” is “dazzling” creates a dreamy and poetic atmosphere imbued with glistening light that hazes one’s conscious view. This absurdly unrealistic and romanticised imagery stays true to magical realism, creating an uneasy contrast to the violence of the murder.

Moreover, it glorifies the killing and highlights the hypocritical behaviour of a community dedicated to the Catholic faith. The lofty ideals and rigid rules expected from a Catholic community dissipate in an exaggerated manner. Phrases like “easy” and “floating” connote an image of the twins untethered from the weight of guilt. Such adjectives imply fluidity, ease and carefreeness, eliciting a feeling of nonchalance, as exemplified by the apathetic reactions of the townspeople who were aware of the impending murder. This surreal imagery epitomises how Marquez explores the truth of Nasar’s death and how the town’s acceptance of their collective crime distorts and dilutes it in an attempt to illustrate how truth is unreliable like a fantasy even in a moment where it is most evident – when a life is brutally and forcefully taken.

It is a hyperbolic embellishment of the code of honour, serving as a mockery of the honour. The imagery used to depict Nasar’s autopsy also lays bare the violence inherent in the moral code which led to his death. The autopsy is conducted by an authority of the Catholic church, reinforcing the idea that honour justifies even the most gratuitous and grotesque violence. Father Amador commences the autopsy with hardly the appropriate knowledge and tools, yet his report is acknowledged in great detail despite these details having “no legal standing”, because it lacks logical justification but only highly superficial and sensuous description of Nasar’s death, almost like a performance (75). This lack of justification of the autopsy is heightened by the vivid and brutal imagery of Father Amador rummaging through Nasar’s flesh, reducing him to nothing but meat, which is reminiscent of the “easy stab” of the twins. This serves as a significant contrast to the seemingly professional language used by Father Amador, once again revealing the hypocrisy of a society controlled by a rigid set of values.

The autopsy is presented as a serious clinical procedure reflected by the medical jargon used by Father Amador such as “thoracic cavity” and “perforations” (75). Marquez, however, utilises vivid imagery to compare it to a “massacre”, which portrays Santiago as a mass of dead victims and adds hyperbolic weight to his death, emphasising the senseless brutality of the autopsy. Santiago after the autopsy has “half of the cranium […] destroyed”, which is a result of purposeless violence during the procedure itself (76). At the end of the autopsy, Father Amador reports that Santiago had a “bright future”, which is irrelevant to an autopsy but also a jarring and ironic contrast to the depiction of the dead body as an “empty shell” (76; 77). The use of “empty shell” signifies how Santiago Nasar is both physically empty as he is a lifeless body without any intestines and also spiritually taken away his identity. The grotesque violence inflicted on the body is entirely exaggerated to provide a dehumanising effect, which once again highlights the arbitrary quality of moral codes in the society that lead to Nasar’s death.

Marquez’s treatment of truth reflects the absurd and arbitrary manner with which social norms are enforced on different groups of people. This constant use of imagery that contradicts a claim or a norm reveals how the town is full of hypocrisy, which makes truth completely lose its credence. Marquez thus exhibits the randomness, falsehood and inhumanity evident in any defined social structure to provoke a revaluation of blind faith in religion. Imagery uncovers the corrupt and self-righteous nature of authority, which targets the weak and vulnerable of a society.

Work(s) Cited

1. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. London: Penguin, 2014. Print.

Magical realism is the writing style with magic or the supernatural presented in the real world. This specific writing style is most commonly used in Latin American literature to make the reader “question what is ‘real,’ and how we can tell.” (Oprah) The two novels, Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, both have aspects of magical realism woven into the novels, but use different techniques to approach the magical realism aspect. Both novels use the characters’ actions and their descriptions of what is happening in the novel to make the reader know that it’s all fiction. However, these novels have different central ideas. A couple of themes showed in Chronicle of a Death Foretold are lies and reputation while The Stories of Eva Luna presents themes of absolute power and absolute poverty.

Throughout both novels, the authors use the characters’ actions as a way to include magical realism in their novel. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez describes Pedro’s sickness in the jail by writing, “The pain in his groin had reached his throat, his urine was shut off, and he suffered the frightful certainty that he wouldn’t sleep ever again for the rest of his life. ‘I was awake for eleven months,’ he told me, and I knew him well enough to know that it was true.” (47) Pedro saying that he was awake for eleven months is a sign of magical realism in use because it is very unlikely that anyone can stay awake for eleven months straight. Marquez used this exaggerated commentary to describe how much pain Pedro was in during this time but also makes the reader wonder if this part of the story was actually true or not. The Stories of Eva Luna uses the same technique in the short story, The Judge’s Wife. The story starts off with “Nicolás Vidal always knew that he would lose his life for a woman. He was predicted on the day of his birth and confirmed by the owner of the store on the only occasion when he allowed him to see his fortune in the coffee shop…” (72) At the beginning, Allende shows the readers what the magical realism in this story will be; this being that Vidal was predicted to die for a woman which is unrealistic. She uses the realism part of a fortune-teller telling his future with the magical aspect of being right about Vidal losing his life for a woman which makes the short story a little bit believable. Although both novels use the characters as aspects of magical realism, the novels use magical realism to present different themes.

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez presents themes of lies and deceit and reputation. The theme of lies and deceit are shown through the novel’s investigative writing style of finding out how Santigo died. As the narrator interviews the townspeople, a few of them lie, one of them being Angela Vicario. The narrator writes, “The most current version, perhaps because it was the most perverse, was that Angela Vicario was protecting someone who really loved her and she had chosen Santiago Nasar’s name because she thought her brothers would never dare go up against him.” (53) When Angela’s husband finds out that she is not a virgin, she tells her brothers that Santiago is the one that took her virginity which they end up killing him for that. The deceit of one young girl turned into a chain reaction of lies that ended with Santiago being murdered. Each of the little lies seemed unlikely to hurt him, but when the town spread those little lies around, it became a fatal thing.

Latin America became existent in the 19th century. The region consists of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Guatemala, etc.… (Sawe 2016). Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6th, 1927 in Aracatuba, Colombia and died on April 17th, 2014 in Mexico City. Marquez is considered one of the greatest Colombian novelists of the 20th century (Echevarria 2019). While Julia Alverez who was born March 27th, 1950 in New York city was raised in the Dominican Republic. However, she and her family had to relocate to Brooklyn, New York because of the threat against their lives by Rafael Trujillo (Biography 2019). In “Chronicle of a death foretold” Gabriel Marquez wrote his novella in reverse chronological order. He begins the novella with the death of the protagonist Santiago Nasar and then the cause of his is slowly revealed (Marquez 1981). Marquez also wrote a short story entitled “Death Constant beyond love” which is also written in reverse chronological order(Marquez 1970) In comparison to Gabriel Marquez’s novella “Chronicle of a death foretold” and “Death constant beyond love”, Julia Alvarez’s book (1991)“How the Garcia girls lost their Accents” share a similar writing style. In “How the Garcia girls lost their Accents” the book starts when Yo visits the Dominican Republic after being away for years. Things have certainly changed for the family and their appearance and personality change (pg 1). Though there are similarities between Gabriel Marques and Julia Alvarez’s writing styles such as Magical realism, the use of imagery, symbols, etc.… Julia Alvarez’s stories focus more on the crisis of identity and Discrimination, while Gabriel Marquez conveys themes such as death and violence.

In Gabriel Marquez’s novella “Chronicle of a death foretold” violence in the center. Santiago Nasar is at the cruel faith of the Vicario twins. Death and Violence are seen in the very first paragraph of the story. “on the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on.” (pg. 1). The reader knows that Santiago is going to die but doesn’t know how or why. Another part of the story that depicts violence is when Santiago sexually harasses Divina flor. She states in an interview done by the investigator: “It was what he always did when he caught me alone in some corner of the house, but that day I didn’t feel the usual surprise but an awful urge to cry.” (pg. 4). Although Santiago didn’t deserve such a violent death, he wasn’t a good person. When the Vicario family learned that Angela wasn’t a virgin her mother, Purisima del Carmen punished her mercilessly. (pg. 16). The Vicario family was very religious and superstitious, Angela causes embarrassment to fall upon the entire family. Seemingly there was no other way to redeem the honor of the family. The Vicario twins felt that the only way they would have to avenge their family was by killing the man who was responsible for the action. Unfortunately, Santiago Nasar was the one who Angela accused. (pg. 16).

“Death Constant beyond Love” is another story by Gabriel Marques that portrays death as a prominent subject. This short story begins like “Chronicle of a death foretold”. It starts by informing the reader that the senator Onésimo Sánchez will die in six months and eleven days. The only difference between Santiago and Senator Onesimo is that the senator knows that he is going to die in six months and eleven days. “He was married to a radiant German woman who had given him five children and they were all happy in their home, he the happiest of all until they told him, three months before, that he would be dead forever by next Christmas.”(pg. 200) Although the senator knew that he was going to die he couldn’t stop his fate. Death completely changed the perspective of the senator. He no longer felt sorry for the poor because in his mind he was the one that ran out of luck (pg. 201). When Laura was sent by her father Nelson Farina to lay with the senator in exchange for immunity. This time the senator approved by thinking to himself: “Remember, he remembered, whether it’s you or someone else, it won’t be long before you’ll be dead and it won’t be long before your name won’t even be left.” Because of death, the senator decided that dignity is for people that have everything to lose. Since he was six months and eleven days away from his inevitable fate, he got involved with an eighteen-year-old girl which was against the rules. In the end, it disgraced Laura and her family (pg. 206).

Julia Alvarez mainly focuses on identity and racism. In the novel “How the Garcia Girls lost their accents” Julia Alvarez writes her stories in reverse chronological order. She begins the story with Yolanda who has returned to the island after five years (pg. 1). Throughout the story, these four girls struggle to develop an identity. Because they were immigrants they wanted to fit into the American culture. According to Luis (2000) “Like Yolanda, many immigrant children become extremely confused in the process of finding their own identities. Yolanda implies that she wanted to be like the American teens who smoked, had sex and drank (Alvarez 1991). Yolanda wanted to fit into the American society which resulted in a mental break down. Sandi one of the daughters also had dreams to be a rich American like Mr. and Mrs. Fanning (Alvarez 1991) Alvarez uses these characters to exemplify the unhomeliness immigrants like herself may face when adapting to a dominant culture such as the American culture.

Discrimination is also a problem that the Garcia girls must cope with when they arrive in America. According to Alyson Cavaughn (2018) “Adolescents’ Latino cultural assets also protected against higher levels externalizing symptoms in the context of high peer discrimination and foreigner objectification.” In the novel Carla the eldest girl was discriminated in her public school that she attended. “Out of the sight of the nuns, the boys pelted Carla with stones, aiming them at her feet so there would be no bruises. “Go back to where you came from, you dirty spic!” (pg. 152). According to Herrera and Murry (2005), these are some of the challenges foreign cultures face when moving from one culture to the next. (pg. 3). Carla also mentions that her neighbor who they secretly called “La Bruja” would make disrespectful remarks to her and her family while passing in the lobby (Alvarez 1991). These girls had no peace and a sense of belonging in America. Every day was a struggle to fit into this new society.

Throughout each of these books, we see death, violence, identity crisis and discrimination and the basis of racism. Although each of these authors is for within the same region and share similar writing styles, their visions are different. Marquez reveals violence and death in his stories, while Alvarez is more focused on some of the issues that are faced when immigrating to another country, such as identity lost and racial discrimination. Each of these authors seems to have a specific aim/vision within their writing criteria.

Work Cited

1. Alvarez, Julia. “How the Garcia girls lost their Accents”. PDF
2. Alvarez, Julia. How the Garcia girls lost their Accent. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 1991.
3. Cavanaugh, Alyson M., et al. “Protective and Promotive Effects of Latino Early Adolescents’ Cultural Assets Against Multiple Types of Discrimination.” Journal of Research on Adolescence (Wiley-Blackwell), vol. 28, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 310–326. EBSCOhost, DOI:10.1111/jora.12331.
4. Echevarría, Roberto González. “Gabriel García Márquez.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1 Nov. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez.
5. Marquez, Gabriel. “Chronicle of a death foretold”. PDF
6. Marquez, Gabriel. “Death Constant beyond love”. PDF
7. Sawe, Benjamin Elisha. “Latin American Countries.” World Atlas, 31 Aug. 2016, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-countries-make-up-latin-america.html.
8. Ahmad, Mustanir, et al. “Elements of Social Protest in Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold: A Study in Magical Realism.” Asian Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, June 2015, pp. 1–17. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=103219330&site=ehost-live.

The coexistence of divine destiny and free will is an ancient paradox at the centre of Greek tragedy and, more recently, of the Catholic faith. However, by inevitable, I mean if there was no other possible outcome to the story because of their society and other factors, rather than divine influence. In the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Santiago Nasar is assassinated. A case can be made for the murder to be inevitable because of the traditions of the village inhabitants or due to the free will of the characters. This raises the line of inquiry: to what extent was the death of Santiago inevitable rather than caused by actions made freely? Through an analysis of the author language, use of symbolism and his portrayal of the society, readers can recognise two perspectives. Either the protagonist was doomed to die, the concept of destiny being implied not only in the title of the book itself but also in the first sentence: ‘On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar woke up at five-thirty’ (p.1) Or Santiago’s murder was a deliberate act, perpetrated and permitted by the characters in the novel.

There are mystical elements to the murder. The narrator came back to the town 27 years later, with an obvious desire to find out rational reasons for the murder but he just couldn’t understand how it could possibly have happened: “No matter how much they tossed the story back and forth, no one could explain to me how poor Santiago Nasar ended up being involved in such a mixup.”(p.20) At first glance there are so many coincidences leading to his death that it can only be explained by fate. It is believed that a young man took Angela Vicario’s virginity. On her wedding night, Bayardo San Roman gave back his bride Angela, after discovering that she was not a virgin. Even though the twins Pablo and Pedro announced loud and clear their intention to avenge their sister’s honour by killing Santiago, no one was able to warn him in time. There are countless examples of Santiago not being warned. For example, an anonymous warning letter he did not notice, the fact that Cristo Bedoya searched Santiago on the morning of the murder to alert him of the Vicario brothers’ plan but did not find him or the fact that his mother had locked the door because she thought he was already there which left him trapped in front of his house where he was killed and many more coincidences.

Furthermore, the narrator tries to convey the mystery of the assassination with his vocabulary and use of symbolism. He repeatedly uses the words “fate” and “destiny”: “their part of the destiny that life had assigned to them” (p.84) or “ill-fated night” to support the interpretation that the tragedy was predestined. The narrator is using foreshadowing through the use of symbols like flowers about which Santiago says, they are “equal in cost to those of fourteen first-class funerals.” Furthermore, he says that the smell of flowers makes him think about death. Birds are also frequently mentioned and can be interpreted as a symbol for bad omen, as augurs and prophets read the future by watching birds in ancient Greece. Lastly, it is a coincidence that Santiago’s mother who is famous for interpreting people’s dream accurately, could not recognise anything in the “dreams of trees he’d told her about on the morning preceding his death. (p.2)

I think that the society in which they lived led to a situation, where the murder was inevitable. The novel criticizes this patriarchal society, where women cannot choose their husbands and are raised to endure suffering, but also a society where honour and reputation are extremely important. Losing one’s dignity means becoming an outcast of their society. Furthermore, it is a society in which there is a clear hierarchy, everyone has to stay at its place and this contributed to the murder, because everyone was too paralysed to take real action. Additionally, I see a critic of the society in the irony of their religious situation. The characters of the novel consider themselves religious but when the priest passes their town, he does not want to stop there, is a further critic to this society. This shows that people outside their town know that they do not stand by their religious values and morality. Furthermore, it is ironic that the report about the murder wrote “it looked like the stigma of the crucified Christ, although they brutally assassinate Santiago, with multiple cuts and he died bleeding out. The narrator writes: “They took it for granted that the other actors in the tragedy had been fulfilling with dignity, and even with a certain grandeur, their part of the destiny that life had assigned them.”(p.84) Their traditions and culture are so deeply engrained that the town people see murder as their “duty” as a “grand” gesture, that will restore dignity. It is a typical case of honour killing, when the murder is committed publicly, so that other people can witness it and the murder turns himself in and is seen as a hero. In Garcià’s novel, the wife of one of the twins explicitly states she would not have married him if he had not avenged his sister’s honour. Pablo and Pedro were motivated to kill by social pressures. With the quote “so he put the knife in his hand and dragged him off almost by force in search of their sister’s lost honour. ‘There’s no way out of this,’ he told him. ‘It’s as if it had already happened’ ” (p.62), the reader understands that the twins consider the crime as their duty, imposed on them by their culture, their norms and their religion. And even though they do their best to escape them, almost surrendering at one point, they saw no other way than stabbing Santiago. Lastly, the Garcià criticizes the principles of honour killing, as he strongly implies that there is no proof of Santiago’s relationship with the bribe and that he is probably innocent. He was killed anyway, without the twins even questioning the validity of the statement, because their honour had already been damaged.

While there are many indications that Santiago’s death was inevitable, there is also the interpretation that twins and other characters were responsible for his death and that it could have been prevented. First, the Vicario brothers are not the only culprits. Without the ‘complicity’ or rather the non-response of others, Santiago would still be alive. Although some people in the community, such as Clothilde Armenta and Yamil, tried to prevent the crime, people unconsciously agreed that he had to die. They were so influenced by their cultural doctrines that no one questions the brothers’ decision to kill to restore the honour of their family. Several characters, such as Victoria Guzmán and Divina Flor, could have warned Santiago but chose not to. In addition, the interpretation of free will implies that all the characters are more or less responsible for the murder. Indeed, part of the narrator’s language supports this interpretation of the tragedy, especially his insistence on describing the murder as a ‘crime’. At other times, he even suggests that the entire community, not just the Vicario twins, is guilty. With the quotes “For the immense majority of people there was only one victim: Bayardo San Román.” (p.84) and “Fatality makes us invisible” (p.114), the author shows that the characters are oblivious of their sense of responsibility, they do not understand that they are guilty.

To conclude, Santiago’s death can be interpreted in two different ways, which paradoxically are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The author, who is Catholic, seems to indicate that the murder of the protagonist includes elements of destiny as well as culprits, who did not react ‘morally’ and have a share of responsibility in this tragedy. There is also a critic of the society and of honour killing, as Santiago was probably innocent, but characters were too paralysed in their place in the hierarchy that they did not prevent the murder. Furthermore, the author gives indications for both interpretations in his language. On the one hand, he talks non-stop about fate and destiny, using flowers and birds as symbols of bad omen. On the other hand, he calls this tragedy a ‘crime’, which implies perpetrators. And even if the coincidences seem too numerous to be chance, perhaps the norms of society have provoked this situation, where killing to regain one’s dignity is not seen as a crime.

Society has the ability to influence people tremendously, especially in romantic relationships. The theme of “society’s impacts on people in relationships” is prevalent in the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, the 1894 short story The Story of an Hour, the 1981 novella The Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and the 2018 film Us and Them. This is an important theme to be aware of as society will always be present and will always be able to influence people. With increased awareness, we are able to understand just what it takes to be our own person, and how to celebrate love as it is, with less toxic input from the society around us.

In Emily Brontë’s only novel Wuthering Heights, the social construct that is revealed to be the motivation for a relationship to be broken apart is class. This is shown in Catherine’s speech to Nelly of her acceptance of Edgar’s marriage proposal so she could be the “greatest woman of the neighbourhood”. Catherine’s attitude to her true love was tainted from the moment she stated, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now, so he shall never know I love him.” Catherine’s love for Heathcliff was pure and powerful, but it was society’s strongest poisoned air she breathed that made her push him away. Brontë is telling her readers that although the action of the story is so far from the bustle of society, social ambition motivates many actions of her characters, no matter who they’re hurting, including themselves and their loved ones. She uses Catherine’s decision to exemplify the effect of the social considerations of class status on people’s actions. The setting of the story was intentionally in an isolated moor to show just how far society can reach – wherever you are, toxic social constructs have the chance to corrupt you and your relationships with others.

The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin’s short story, set in the 18th century United States, is a strong example of how severely societal norms can influence a person’s outlook on their relationship with a significant other – similar to Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship. Louise Mallard, our protagonist, is a woman who believes in one’s freedom and independence. She isn’t fully aware of just how much she abhorred society’s stifling idea of marriage until her husband, Brently Mallard, dies. She realises that as a widow, “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” Kate Chopin makes it clear throughout the story that it wasn’t Brently at fault, it was the entire construct of marriage that Louise was critiquing. One could argue that without being indirectly “forced” into a marriage by society’s standards, Louise and Brently could have been well and truly in love. As Chopin (through Louise’s voice) considers the oppressive dictates forced on people in romantic relationships, she concludes that it is the direct result inevitably and unavoidably brought about by the institution of marriage, constructed by society.

Likewise, Gabriel García Márquez’s novella The Chronicle of a Death Foretold showcases how society and it’s outlook on gender roles ruin a person’s chance of having a real romantic relationship. Set in a Colombian town in the late 19th century, it tells the story of how man was murdered because of a young girl who didn’t want to be married – Angela Vicario. This girl lived back when women’s life was bounded by expectations of marriage. The narrator describes the upbringing of Angela Vicario and her siblings: “My mother thought there were no better reared daughters. ‘Any man will be happy with them because they’ve been raised to suffer.’” Márquez is showing the readers that the idea that women were expected to suffer in married life is extremely damaging – no woman enters a marriage expecting to be happy unless they were fortunate enough to love the man her parents chose for her. These binding ideas of how women would be treated in marriage suffocated Angela Vicario so much that she did not even realise she loved the man who tried to marry her – she was too scared to conform to a standard so degrading. Márquez conveys exactly how society’s expectation for the ideal wife in marriage ruined what could have been a perfectly loving relationship.

How society negatively impacts people’s romantic relationships is conveyed realistically in the 2018 film Us and Them directed by René Liu. Like Márquez’s novella, the pressure of society was too overbearing for a true long-lasting relationship to form. Due to all the people around him becoming successful, Jianqing strives for success himself, and ends up losing his girlfriend. Despite all his material success he obtained in the long run, Jianqing is not truly happy. When the estranged couple meet ten years later, Jianqing says, “I tried really hard to become what you wanted me to be.” The film is set in the early 2000’s Beijing society where there was a tremendous pressure to “make it”. The struggles of both protagonists in the big city echoes the struggle of many who are saddled with expectations from society. As a result of this “make it in five years or lose everything” high-pressure environment, Jianqing loses sight of what is important to him (ultimately, he realises it’s his relationships) and ends up truly losing everything. Liu makes an excellent case on how society’s notion of material success may negatively impact an individual’s tie to their significant other.

The idea that society can impact a person’s choices regarding a relationship is significantly displayed in the British novel Wuthering Heights, the American short story The Story of an Hour, the Colombian novella The Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and the Chinese film Us and Them. Readers and audiences of these texts are able to sense the gravity of the damage that society did to the relationships in them. These texts teach us to be aware of society’s reach and how eventually, true love is more important than conforming to a social standard.

There are many different forms of narration that can be used in a novel; the topic of this essay specifically discusses the journalistic approach used in the novella, Chronicle of the Death Foretold written by Gabriel García Márquez, and how it enhances the major themes of the story. In this work, the utilization of the author’s journalistic experiences combined with his ability to present a well-crafted tragic story allows to enhance the major themes of the novella. Themes such as the quest for truth through memory are made more effective with the journalistic approach. Furthermore, the theme of family honour and community engagement in trauma is also enhanced due to investigative style of writing. Finally, the theme of moral limitations is one that is discovered and enhanced through Màrquez’s writing style.

The author introduces the murder of Santiago Nasar at the beginning of the novella to draw the attention of the readers, which is an indicator of the author’s journalistic skills: “ON THE DAY they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning” (1). In this excerpt, the first three words of the novella are in capitals just like a headline from a newspaper article which is an example of how Marquez uses the journalistic approach to grab the reader’s attention and create suspense. Similarly, a recent CBC article states, “Police said she likely died of hypothermia. (citation)” Likewise, in the novella, the author claims, “The report concluded that the cause of death had been a massive hemorrhage” (76). Both of these headlines follow a similar journalistic approach because of how it is structured and the language that is used. Márquez purposefully uses a journalistic approach to create curiosity for the reader and to allow them to follow the novel as if it is an investigation.

Moreover, Márquez uses a first-person narrative style, where he himself is a journalist putting evidence and clues together based on his memory, for a murder that he witnessed twenty years ago. Similar to the novella, Márquez’s family friend, Cayetano Gentile Chimento, was murdered in 1951 by two brothers because Cayetano’s action of taking the virginity of their sister. Since Márquez is going back twenty years to recall information, the readers cannot be certain that the memory of events is intact. Márquez narrates the novella by relying on this own memory to figure out other witnesses who were there during the event. Therefore, there is a non-linear structure to the novella as Márquez jumps from witness to witness to figure out why Santiago was murdered. A non-linear structure means that the story does not follow a chronicle or a typical journal report. For instance, the first paragraph spans about 27 years, therefore this makes the literal indication of the title irrelevant: “Placida Linero, his mother, told me twenty-seven years later, recalling the details of that distressing Monday” (2). This quote by the narrator also foreshadows the ‘distressing’ Monday that will come later in the story. Therefore, this journalistic method of the story of Santiago Nasar’s murder being in a non-chronicle order allows the reader to follow the mind of an investigator who is compiling evidence in a sporadic fashion in order to find the truth.

In addition, Márquez also uses a style that makes the characters flat and static as he wants the reader to form their opinions about the characters. His journalistic approach allows him to create an unbiased narrative of the murder hence, readers have an absence of emotions in the characters. For example, there is no emotion in the people that knew of the murder as they are passive. The reaction of the characters is mysterious, which makes sense in the journalistic point of view since he is writing in order to search for the truth through investigation and interrogative means, rather than just assumptions or rumors. In the novella, there is an unbiased representation of the antagonist and protagonist due to the journalistic approach. No one is completely guilty, despite the whole town knowing the Vicario brothers’ intentions, and even though no one stopped them, they are not accused of hiding the truth. Thus, the quest for truth being one of the major themes in the novella, is enhanced through the journalistic approach as it allows the reader to become engaged in the investigation as they are not simply told how to feel about certain characters, but are given unbiased evidence and are allowed to make their own conclusions.

In addition, two other major themes within the novella are of honour and community engagement. The Vicario brothers, who committed the murder, did it to protect the honour of their family. Angela Vicario tarnishes her family’s honour by losing her virginity to Santiago. Yet, interestingly enough, it is also the society’s moral responsibility that is very much in control of everyone in the town and makes the readers uncertain about the truth in society. Angela speaks about how her mother treated her after she revealed she was not a virgin, “The only thing I remember is that she was holding me by the hair with one hand and beating me with the other with such a rage that I thought she was going to kill me” (28). Angela didn’t reveal any other name but Santiago’s, not because he was the one who had done the act, but he fit perfectly to the description: “She found it at first sight amongst many, many easily confused names of this world and the other” (28). This forces uncertainty into the minds of the readers to speculate whether or not it was supposed to be someone else. Angela’s act also leads to the death of Santiago, which again makes the readers comprehend why she had possibly said the wrong name. This displays that within the story, out of fear of her own and her family’s honour, Angela wanted to deflect attention from herself so that her family as well as the community would focus on who wronged her.

In Garcia Marquee’s novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the various jobs of people in this present 1950’s Latin American culture are conspicuously shown by different characters. The named culprit of a youthful lady of the hour is killed to spare the respect of the lady and her family. Clearly, in Colombia during the 1950’s, men were relied upon to deal with the family and ensure family pride, while ladies were raised to wed and keep up the family unit. In this novel, Garcia Marquez utilizes his characters as devices to show the social sexual orientation jobs inside the Chronicle.

The men portrayed by Garcia Marquez are relied upon to maintain the respect of the family regardless of what the expense. In view of this reason, Garcia Marquez made the Vicario twins, the siblings of Angela. Garcia Marquez stresses the topic of ‘twins’ with the Vicario siblings to pass on a duality theme. This twofold sided sense manages the way that there are two siblings (twins), yet likewise has a more profound importance; the young men have two different ways of pondering the homicide. From one viewpoint, they think executing Santiago is important to reclaim their family’s respect. On the other, the Vicario siblings would prefer truly not to kill Santiago: the gravity of the circumstance (controlled by their social standards) for all intents and purposes compels them to. Clotilde comments, She was sure that the Vicario siblings were not as anxious to complete the sentence as to discover somebody who might help them out of halting them.’ The young men endeavor to abstain from slaughtering Santiago on various events, first reporting at the market that they were really going to play out the homicide (a ploy that could prompt the homicide’s anticipation).

In spite of their battle, maintaining their sister’s respect is a higher priority than going to prison for homicide. The Vicarios are predominantly worried about issues of family notoriety, while Pablo’s better half and different citizenry are worried about being related with them. Pedro Vicario, the more strong of the siblings’, nearly will not proceed with the arrangement to murder Santiago. Pablo, shockingly, takes care of business and persuades his sibling to oblige the arrangement: ‘So he put the blade in his grasp and hauled him off nearly by power to scan for their sister’s lost respect.’ This shows social standards come even before the passionate welfare of the twins. In correctly this way, Garcia Marquez utilizes the Vicario siblings to embody the desire for men to maintain respect in this general public.

Garcia Marquez likewise utilizes different other male characters to place into impact the topic of men being predominant over ladies. One of the most significant characters here is Santiago Nasar, the hero of the story. In spite of the fact that we never really find whether Santiago is blameworthy of despoiling Angela, his notoriety doesn’t do a lot to support his case. Santiago is known for his pushy goes at the young ladies of the town, including Divina Flor. Divina’s name is emblematic for her virtue, which can be compared strongly against Santiago’s forceful sexuality. Truth be told, Santiago’s lewd gestures towards the ladies show the typicality of men utilizing ladies as items in this general public. Another significant character considering this subject is Bayardo San Roman. Bayardo basically powers Angela to wed him when the two don’t have any acquaintance with one another. He gets her affection with costly things, however doesn’t set aside the effort to really get the chance to value her; he believes that his cash and great looks will be sufficient. This moving shows how men anticipated that ladies should just need to wed them in light of riches and looks, by and by exhibiting a lady’s desire for marriage.

There are different regards in which Garcia Marquez draws on the Vicario family as the essential case of sexual orientation jobs. Angela Vicario is potentially the character in Chronicle of a Death Foretold who most obviously exhibits the desires on ladies in the network. Angela’s name actually signifies ‘heavenly attendant’, a reality which is incredibly unexpected considering her circumstance. Be that as it may, Angela’s name isn’t just a logical inconsistency of her genuine self; it additionally considers the desires for the individuals around her. The townspeople accept that Angela is unadulterated and other-worldly; one of the most significant qualities in this general public is virginity. Ladies were required to stay virtuous until marriage, and this holy thought held a critical spot in this town. The prime case of the significance of virginity was Angela’s attentiveness. Angela Vicar versus name symbolizes the normal sexual orientation job put on young ladies in the general public of the Chronicle. Garcia Marquez likewise utilizes Pura Vicario to build up this subject. Pura has a social commitment to take care of her girl, and ensure that her family unit adheres to the standards of society. Her name is representative too, and signifies ‘unadulterated.’ Naturally, Pura’s disappointment and outrage towards Angela could be founded on the significance of virtue to her.

Garcia Marquez utilizes milk to symbolize female supporting; Clotilde looks out for the twins as it were, letting them know not to slaughter Santiago before the religious administrator, and trusting in the Colonel that neither of the young men truly needs to submit the homicide. Around evening time, the milk shop transforms into a bar, with liquor being the principle item. Liquor by and large symbolizes brutality and strife, and is known as a ‘man’s beverage’. Clotilde’s shop symbolizes the differentiation among people in this general public. A third female character utilized is Divina Flor, whose name really signifies ‘Divine Flower. Divina is another case of the desires for society upon ladies; she is unadulterated and pure and rejects Santiago Nasar’s forceful advances. Using female characters, Garcia Marquez shows the social sex jobs set on ladies.

Garcia Marquez uses the characters of his book to depict customary and social sex jobs in this Colombian culture. He utilizes the Vicario twins to show the job of men Co maintain respect. Angela and Pura Co exhibit the desires set on ladies, Santiago and Bayardo to portray male predominance, and Clotilde, Prudencia, and Divine Co put to utilize the topic of females in this general public. Through his utilization of name imagery and themes Garcia Marquez is likewise ready to utilize the sexual orientation job topic (duality theme, milk symbolizing female sustaining). Along these lines, Garcia Marquez networks together characters and imagery Co make a general public where the most significant worth is the recognized sex jobs of guys and females