Chronicle Of A Death Foretold Reflective Statement
Maria McWilliams
Ms. Janicek
Interactive Oral Reflective Statement: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
27 May 2015 In our interactive oral we discussed the cultural and contextual consideration of Garcia Marquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In our discussion we covered the culture of women in society and machismo. Before this oral, I had no knowledge of the Colombian cultures norms or values. The setting of this novel is in a Latin American country where the idea of pride and honor is of great importance. Throughout the novel, it was hard for me to grasp that honor could be a crucial aspect in this small Colombian village. Because of this cultural norm, the Vicario Brothers felt that the only way to win back their family’s honor was to kill the man who took it. This reaction would be extremely rare and not supported in my culture like it is in Colombian culture. Through this oral, I came to realize that I misunderstood much of the story due to my nonexistence knowledge of Santiago’s culture. I was not able to comprehend how the Vicario twins, Pedro and Pablo, could kill someone just to defend their family name and prove their masculinity. After comparing Santiago’s culture and my own, I realized that a last name’s importance can drastically change due to cultural norms or values. The Vicario brothers are Colombian and in the small isolated town they live in, their last name is unique and distinguishes them from other countries. But, an Americans last name does not have much significance because it most likely was changed when our ancestors journeyed into Elis Island. In Latin American, your last name reflects you and your family and when someone attacks it, the men are expected to defend their name and reputation. Our discussion went in depth on the topic of machismo and how it influences the fate of the characters in the novel. In this town, honor is a societal expectation for all men. The Vicario brothers did not want to commit the murder of
Ms. Janicek
Interactive Oral Reflective Statement: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
27 May 2015 In our interactive oral we discussed the cultural and contextual consideration of Garcia Marquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In our discussion we covered the culture of women in society and machismo. Before this oral, I had no knowledge of the Colombian cultures norms or values. The setting of this novel is in a Latin American country where the idea of pride and honor is of great importance. Throughout the novel, it was hard for me to grasp that honor could be a crucial aspect in this small Colombian village. Because of this cultural norm, the Vicario Brothers felt that the only way to win back their family’s honor was to kill the man who took it. This reaction would be extremely rare and not supported in my culture like it is in Colombian culture. Through this oral, I came to realize that I misunderstood much of the story due to my nonexistence knowledge of Santiago’s culture. I was not able to comprehend how the Vicario twins, Pedro and Pablo, could kill someone just to defend their family name and prove their masculinity. After comparing Santiago’s culture and my own, I realized that a last name’s importance can drastically change due to cultural norms or values. The Vicario brothers are Colombian and in the small isolated town they live in, their last name is unique and distinguishes them from other countries. But, an Americans last name does not have much significance because it most likely was changed when our ancestors journeyed into Elis Island. In Latin American, your last name reflects you and your family and when someone attacks it, the men are expected to defend their name and reputation. Our discussion went in depth on the topic of machismo and how it influences the fate of the characters in the novel. In this town, honor is a societal expectation for all men. The Vicario brothers did not want to commit the murder of