Importance Of Honor In Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Society shapes who we are, our beliefs, morals, and way of living. The way we are raised impacts our outlook on life and how we live it.Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, uses the way he has been raised to inform readers and give insight to the values and morals of the Colombian society. He also brings his sense of religion into his novels. Based off of the reading, one is made aware of the severity of honor in this society and the importance of religion. The reader can also see the many religious inferences throughout the book. Both the severity of honor and the religious inferences give the reader a look into the Colombian society and its core values . Honor is an extremely large part of the Colombian society and Marques depicts its severity of all through out the novel. He does this by using Angela and the Vicario brothers.
“The brothers were brought up to be men. The girls were brought up to be married. They knew how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements… my mother thought there were no better-reared daughters. 'They're perfect,' she was frequently heard to say. 'Any man will be happy with them (Marquez,31). In a
Colombian society the virtue and purity of a woman is extremely important. “The activities of women were severely circumscribed because of the male concern with protecting the honor and virtue of the wife and unmarried daughters. Women in the upper and middle classes traditionally were not permitted to do work outside the home except for volunteer work. The social life of women in the upper and middle classes, particularly of unmarried girls, was limited to the home, the school, the church, and well-chaperoned parties and dances” (Federal Research Division,Columbia 9). When it alleged that Angela has lost her virginity before marriage, she is beaten within an inch of her life by her mother. She looses her fiance Bayardo San Roman, because loosing one’s virginity before marriage is cultural taboo, not to mention completely unacceptable for a woman not to be a virgin on her wedding night. Based off of this system of honor that is ingrained in society, Angela’s brothers are required to murder the one who allegedly took their sisters virginity, Santiago Nasar. They have to do this in order to “avenge” their sister and save the family name. “That's not why", said Clotilde Armenta. "It’s to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty that's fallen on them. (Marquez 57).” The code of Honor in Latin America was so strong that even a murder could be justified in its’ defense.
"There's no way out of this", he told him. "It's as if it had already happened." (Marquez 61). The irony of the situation is, that the brothers do not even want to kill Santiago, but because of the rules of society, they are forced to . Because of the standards and conditions of the Latin Colombian society, they are forced to avenge their sister’s purity. An interesting point however, is that in order to re-gain honor for their sister and their families name, Pedro and Pablo are required to commit murder, which generally is not seen as an honorable
act. Along with the severity of honor and purity, Gabriel Garcia Marquez brings a strong sense of religion into the novel.This is due to his Roman Catholic background. Marquez, “although born to two parents,[was] left to be reared by his grandparents and three aunts [and was]... brought up culturally as a Roman Catholic” ( Meyer,1,2) Marquez makes his religious references in the form of the characters names and what they symbolize, as well as his portrayl of Santiago Nasar. Angela Vicario’s name translates into angel. Ironically enough, angels are supposed to be pure and holy, while Angela had allegedly been in a unholy and un-pure sexual relationship with Santiago Nasar. The other young women in the book such as Divina Flor and Flora Miguel all have names that translate into beautiful flower or something along those means. Generally speaking flowers are seen as beautiful fragile frail living things that are to be treated with care. However, Angela’s craft, is making fake flowers, so while all the other young ladies are “actual flowers”, she is a fake one . She appears to be pure beautiful and holy, but on the inside she is corrupt. The final religious reference made by Marquez is found in the way he represents Santiago Nasar. Marquez represents Nasar as a Jesus figure as he dies without just cause.There are references to Christ that are made through Santiago. On page five of the novel it explains how Santiago was wearing white clothes on the day he was destined to die, and Jesus was also wearing white clothes on the day he was going to die, “ Santiago put on a shirt and pants of white linen..” It is clear that throughout the novel Santiago is completely unaware of the fact that he is going to be murdered, and even while he is being murdered he does not know why. He even says to his fiance Flora Miguel that he “..doesn’t understand a damn thing.” This let’s the reader know that Angela must have been lying about her “relationship” with Santiago . If he had really taken her virginity, he would know why the Vicario brothers were out to kill him, if honor and purity are so important to the society. Instead he died for no real cause just like Jesus Christ, there was no proof that Santiago and Angela had had any relationship , just as there was no proof to sentence Jesus to death. Instead of dying for something that he did , Santiago dies for all the sins that everyone else committed, just like Christ. Santiago dies because of society’s hypocrisy, Angela’s lies, and the selfish nature of all those who knew of his impending death but did not warn him . Jesus took on the sins of human kind and decided to pay our debt. In both situations there really is no just cause for death. In conclusion based off of Chronicle of a Death Foretold , Marquez uses his background and his experiences to tell a story of the harsh realities of of the Colombian Latin society .