In the Latino society, various flaws are witnessed between the different traditions and cultural beliefs they possess. In Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Columbian society affects the personas of the myriad of characters, revealing society’s flaws.
Through each character, Márquez is able to portray hypocrisy, sexual appeal, inability to unite with society and fortune as a part of the Latino society in the novella.Marquez illustrates how Columbian society is unable to unite as one. The narrator discusses with the older ladies by telling Angela Vicario that “The brothers were brought up to be men. The girls had been reared to get married” (Marquez 31). The author’s word choice ‘reared’ simply refers to how the girls are brought up in life.
Detailing marriage as a time of joy and commitment with your partner, girls ironically in the Latino culture get married because they are persuaded to and are not given the choice to marry their loved one; they have to get married to the partner of the parent’s selection. Angela Vicario had already lost her virginity so she was “taught…old wives tricks” from local women to fake her “lost possession” so she can display a “linen sheet with the stain of honor” (38). Symbolizing virginity, the ‘stain of honor’ that Angela refers to is lost by the women placing their blood on a linen sheet. By the morning if blood is not on the linen sheet then the girl must be sent back to her family, however, if blood is presented then she will stay with her husband.
The “stain” also symbolizes family and women’s honor because in the Latino culture virginity is highly praised and rewarded; a man would rather be with a woman rather than an impure woman, but also that judgment reveals men’s hypocrisy; the men themselves are not pure because of their actions and judgment. Angela discusses how she feels that “Bayardo San Román” is only marrying her because he is in a trance to “[buy her] happiness” with the “power and fortune” that he has. (38) Bayardo exhibits the immeasurable amount of power and fortune; Román thinks he can marry Angela by pleasing her with money. Though Bayardo appeals to the women in the Latino society, it can be inferred that Román may be insecure about marriage because he “buys” things to make others happy instead of just keeping a woman happy culturally.
Emphasizing that he cannot keep anyone happy for who he actually is. Society’s’ flaws were seen through their hypocrisy and judgment.Furthermore, in the Columbian community women are not taken as seriously as they should be. Clotilde Armenta telling her twins to “take care of yourselves” later tells Prudencia Cotes that “I realized just how alone we women are in the world” (63).
Though Clotilde is uncertain about whether or not women, she still infers that men are superior to women because of the way they are treated within the Latino society. Since men either ignore them or never acknowledge them, they do not have a chance to stand up for themselves and fight back for their own rights. As Prudencia watches her twins “leave by the courtyard door”, she waits until “Pablo Vicario [gets] out of jail and [becomes] her husband for life” (63). Prudencia does not care about the fact that Pablo, her fiancé is in jail.
It can be inferred that Prudencia feels both neutral about her betrothed not being around to boss her and happy because she is in charge of her life for now. Divina Flor, daughter but more importantly a mate for, by Ibrahim Nasar “brought her to be a house servant” (63). This detail represents respect and honor, the reason why women cannot choose who they want to marry, along with them not being able to choose the life they want to live they desire, emphasizing that they must live a life chosen by men. Women in the Latino culture do not have a major roles or jobs in the Latino society, but when the women are given to do something, they are given the duty of the love making.Throughout the novella, people of this society follow a corrupted man; the bishop representing hypocrisy. The As the band musicians began playing the bishop’s anthem, he “[makes]” the “sign of the cross in the air” and “[keeps] on doing it mechanically afterwards” (17).
“Mechanically” connotes that the bishop hypocritically makes the cross sign in the air without any thought. The bishop should make the “sign of the cross” with thought of God or religion to show respect, but instead shows little thought or passion in making the cross, emphasizing that he is an unfaithful man.The bishop, irreverent with his actions, means that he does not care about what happens within the society, he will just bless them. The Vicario brothers were “exhausted from the barbarous work”, “their clothes and arms were soaked”, “and their faces smeared with sweat and still living blood”, however the priest called their activity “as an act of great dignity” (49). The contradiction of religion is seen because the bishop does not condemn their acts; instead he thanks the Vicario brothers in a positive manner. It is hypocritical that the church and bishop are supposed to be part of a religious empire, but the priest sees the murder as an act of “dignity” which reveals his own hypocrisy as religious leader.
Clotilde Armenta tells Pedro “ for the love of god…leave him for later, if only out of respect for his grace the bishop” (49).Santiago Nasar was to be killed but due the circumstances that the bishop wasn’t off the boat yet, the “grace” of Santiago’s murder was delayed, displaying irony as the Vicario brothers still commit the crime against their religion. Contradiction of religion is displayed when the mother says “‘For the love of God’” means do not attempt to murder any human being if you respect religion and God, later in the novella, they kill Santiago and it can be implied that Pedro does not respect religion. Aside from having society affect personas of many characters, society also affects the personas of a type of people in the society.
All of society affects those within the society and is more influential to a targeted group within the society.Marquez portrays the discrimination that society faces if they do not hold a certain amount of honor. The narrator informs the reader about the Arabs expressing that “Santiago Nasar, listened to his parents in Arabic and answered them in Spanish” (81). The Arabs people are known in the Latino culture to be religiously intact and cooperate very well, but when Santiago responds to his parents “in Spanish” he symbolically throws the Islamic religion in his parent’s faces and embraces the Latino culture. Contrast between the languages can be related to the contrast between the social classes in society.
As Angela discusses Santiago’s relationships, she articulates that “The most current version, perhaps it was the most perverse, was that Angela was protecting someone who really loved her and she had chosen Santiago’s name because she thought her brothers would never dare go up against him” (90). Angela was sent home by Bayardo because she wasn’t a virgin. Angela, knowing which social class she belongs to, decides to name Santiago because he is of a higher social class. Santiago is a respected, wealthy, powerful man, and Angela, knowing these characteristics about Santiago, had chosen his name instead of anyone else’s.
Santiago is seen as the protagonist because he is not the hero or the heroine of the novella.During Santiago’s childhood, he and his father “spoke in Arabic between themselves” however, they never spoke in Arabic when they were “in front of Plácida Linero” so she would not feel like an outsider (7). People such as Plácida, are highly praised due to their wealth, power, social rank, and of her Arab husband. Since the Arabs spoke amongst themselves they felt even more powerful, however, they were never discriminant towards Plácida, but they only speak it when she is not around, but when she is, it can be implied that they speak Spanish.
Striking back at other people for a wrong doing is common in the Latino society which leads to revenge and conflicts that change a person’s persona from their normal nature to something completely different.Marquez portrays the hypocrisy, murder, sexual appeal, unable to unite with society, and fortune as various aspects of being part of a Latino society in this novella. Through the various roles that each character takes in this novel, Marquez evidently reveals the many flaws that society holds. Flaws that not only hurt the society itself, but flaws that would hurt society and culture to future generations.
