Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Garcia Marquez utilizes Religion as an important cultural value system to develop characterization and manipulate characters beliefs. The Narrator describes the enthusiasm his friend Santiago had towards the religion Catholicism .“Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on ” (3). “Santiago Nasar put on a shirt and pants of white linen, both items un starched...It was his attire for special occasions. If it hadn't been for the bishop’s arrival he would have dressed in his khaki outfit and the riding boots he wore on Mondays to go to the Divine Face, the ranch he'd inherit from his father.”(5) The Narrator depicted his friend Santiago as a man who was very religious, that his religion
Santiago seems like a very respectful and responsible man toward his religion, he seems determined to show up at the event that is going to take place because he wakes up at five-thirty in the morning something that is not obligatory but that he chooses to do because he believes it's the right thing to do, because everyone in town will be doing the same thing just to be closer the this religious figure. Forming part of the Catholic religion affects the style of clothes Santiago chooses to wear, he is dressed in all white that also represents he is pure and ready to receive the image of God through the bishop.Santiago Nasar is not fully an innocent Character who is just devoted to his religion, throughout the book he is shown as a man who was capable of killing, who was sometimes violent, and a woman seducer, but at this moment due to the way the Narrator who happens to be Santiago friend is describing him, we believe as audience that this young man is able to leave his truthful way of acting a side just for the great beliefs he has towards Catholicism. The belief in his church is manipulating and developing new characteristics in Santiago who suppresses his truthful way of being to meet the requirements for his religion, in order to be seen as a religious man in his town, where men are seen with better eyes if they coordinate to the expected cultural value
The Narrator describes how Santiago Nasar walked in town. “In the country he wore a 357 Magnum on his belt, and it's armored bullets, according to what he said,could cut a horse in two though the middle”(5) . The Narrator also remembers how precaucious Santiago was “He always slept the way his father had slept, with the weapon hidden in the pillowcase, but before leaving the house that day he took out the bullets and put them in the drawer of the night table”(5). For Santiago Nasar it was important to show that he was manly and strong which are the characteristics of machismo. For the people in town knowing that Santiago was always armed and alert signified that he was a prepared man and that he was determined to take someone's life if any situation that aggravated him was to occur. Showing strength might have work for Santiago Nasar up until the day he died. Everyone even the brothers who attacked him knew he was a man to be cautious about, but this was his might have been his flaw, showing that he was strong and that had enough resources to take possession of anything he wanted were the motives of which the Vicariously Brothers didn't dare to ask him if the crime from which Santiago Nasar was blamed had been committed by him.The murders of Santiago just took justice on their hands showing Machismo