Preview

Cronica de Una Muerte Anunciada Essay on Societal Expectation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
428 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cronica de Una Muerte Anunciada Essay on Societal Expectation
Cronica de una muerte anunciada

“What society expects may not always benefit the individual and this can result in irreparable damages” Discuss.

“Cronica de una muerte anunciada” is a novel written by award-winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The novel is set in coastal Colombia, in an unnamed river-port town, and is narrated by an anonymous character who is attempting to reconstruct the events which lead to the murder of its main character, Santiago Nasar. However, contrary to the title of the novel, the plot does not unfold in a linear fashion and readers are left unable to ascertain if Santiago Nasar was deserving of his gruesome murder. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has made it clear that the murder was influenced by several societal factors, a key note being pressure placed upon the individual. However, what society expects may not always benefit the individual and this can result in irreparable damages.

The main conflict of the novel can be summarized as follows: Angela Vicario was disgraced as a bride, because her husband, Bayaro San Roman, discovered that she was not a virgin. Angela named Santiago Nasar as her “autor”, which gave her brothers, Pablo and Pedro Vicario, the grisly task of restoring the family honor. The above represents key factors of Hispanic society, namely the themes of Marianismo and Machismo. The women of Latin American societies are expected to be in the image of the Virgin Mary: pure. Men, however, are expected only to be men; giving rise to the gender-bias which Hispanic societies are infamous for.

Angela Vicario’s neglect of societal expectation lead to irreparable damage: she brought shame upon her bridegroom, her entire family, and was physically beaten “con tanta rabia que pensé que me iba a matar” She also caused the murder of a man whose guilt was not proven; the narrator himself stated that Santiago Nasar was too conceited to have noticed her, and would refer to her as “la

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The marriage between Bayardo San Roman and Angela Vicario set a strong foundation for the murder. If the marriage between Bayardo and Angela had never occurred, Santiago Nasar would still be alive. Ever since Angela was a child, she faced a strong pressure to get married. “The girls had been…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Vicario Brothers Quotes

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When Pura Vicario discovers that her daughter had been deflowered by another man before her new husband, Bayardo San Roman, Pura nearly beats Angela to near death (Marquez 46). This rage is due to Angela’s tarnishing of the Vicario family’s honor and in order to restore the family’s honor, Angela names “Santiago Nasar” as the man who took her virginity (47). This allows for the brothers to enact retribution on the man who has ruined the family’s reputation. Another member of the family, Prudencia Cotes’s mother influences the boys to carry out their mission, despite their hesitancy. The mother tells the brothers that “honor doesn’t wait”, and that she can imagine the hurry that they are in to find Santiago. This back and forth signifies the mother’s knowledge of the incident that had transpired and fully supported the actions of the Vicarios. Prudencia Cotes told the narrator that she “never would have married [Pablo] if he hadn’t done what a man should do”, stating that he had to defend his families honor in order to prove his worth as a…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In their society the idea and concept of honor is the most important to a family. It affects how a person lives. The result of the Vicario family not having their honor was the reason Santiago was killed. Honor is so important that sometimes people will do anything to regain it and in this case murder someone. The Vicario the best way to reclaim their family's honor was to murder Santiago. Angela's family finding out about her secret not only destroyed her relationship with her family, but was cause for Santiago death. Angela could of easily told her mother who her perpetrator was and stopped the murder from happening. Not only did she keep the secret of her virginity, but lie about who took and even stated it later on in the story. She even realized that keeping that secret was a mistake, while her mother was beating her and was crying, because she felt bad for Bayardo, who went through a long process so they could get married. In their society the concept of honor and what surrounds it is a very hard thing to live up to, and the hardship that surround a woman are very hard to…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like Water for Chocolate

    • 2599 Words
    • 11 Pages

    The characters in the novel are Tita, the youngest daughter prohibited of loving a man since she will never marry as her life purpose is to care for her mother. Pedro Muzquiz, Tita's forbidden lover. Elena de la Garza, Tita's controlling mother who prohibits the marriage between Tita and Pedro. Rosaura, Tita's older sister which marries Pedro by suggestion of Mama Elena. Gertudis, The oldest sister which is later revealed in the novel of being the love child of Mama Elena's true love which was also forbidden being a mulato there was no way that their love would have been accepted during those times. Nacha, the family cook that taught Tita everything she knew in the kitchen. Nacha cared for Tita since she was a baby and was more of a mother figure than her mother…

    • 2599 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the novel the reader gets to know some of the Mexican prejudices in relation to women which all the female characters have to face. The sexist prejudice is clear from having read few lines of the novel where Esperanza, the narrator, explains the meaning of her name with the connection to the Chinese signs of the zodiac, “I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong” (Cisneros 10). This tells the reader one important fact. The Mexicans are proprietary towards their women and wives and they tries to take over the women’s lives. It is very difficult for the women coming from the Mexican community to live their own life themselves and to be independent of their social background. This observation is confirmed by Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez in her work on the relationships of women with men in the novels based on this phenomenon, “women characters do not initiate events in their own lives; instead they endure poverty and racism from the society at large and oppression under the men in their lives. They do not get to choose their spouses, and when they do pick a boyfriend, and get pregnant, they are considered bad girls. They do not have…

    • 2221 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane The Virgin Sparknotes

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Jane lives in her grandmother's house with her mom, and in the house they mostly speak Spanish because that’s the only language Alba understands. In any family that has a loved one that has migrated from a different country they can relate to this. For Alba being an undocumented immigrant, this subtly humanizes the fear and plight of so many Americans feel today. Her role in shaping Jane’s life feels authentic to the way Latino culture values the importance of the multi-generational extended family. Xiomara was a teen mom, just like many young latinas, and although she’s known for her promiscuous past, she actually turns out to be a good mother.…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alvarez is a somber historical novel showing the role of women in society and their…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Angela Vicario is someone who stands up against Machismo by being vocal about the fact that she lost her virginity to someone who she wasn’t going to marry. After Angela confessed to her mother about how she lost her virginity to Santiago Nasar her mother beat…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Clencia's Shortcomings

    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page

    Clemencia’s mother is then presented as being unable to identify with either of the two roles that could be prescribed to her, i.e. to be either a “real Mexican woman” or a “real American woman.” In this part of the story, Cisneros recounts all shortcomings which interfere with the mother’s attempts to identify with either the Mexican or the American…

    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    So, to inflate their honor, the machismo twins set off to an adventure to kill Santiago. But in reality, they didn’t want to do so. Having hope in the righteousness in the society they lived in, they believed someone would stop their tracks. “‘Don’t be silly,’ he said to her. ‘Those two aren’t about to kill anybody, much less someone rich’” (Marquez 55). In fact, many people had doubted them, such as the narrator, and in relation, Angela herself. “Their reputation as good people was so well-founded that no one paid any attention to them” (Marques 52), if Angela pinned the molester to a stronger figure, the twins would be too afraid to honorably kill Santiago, and rupture their honor. The twins had lived in a society which expected them to display machismo actions, such as killing for their honor. Ironically, the society that taught them to be this way, had doubted the twins could display their machismo-eaque behaviors. Furthermore, people failed to execute their responsibility due to the fragile hopes of these points as a misunderstanding of some sort. This common theme often coincides with…

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Death Foretold Duality

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Marquez poses a metaphor heavily implying Nasar’s innocence while also alluding to the Bible in one scene Angela Vicario is responding to one her twin brothers who asked her the identity of the man who took her virginity.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this society, sexual double standards arise as it is traditional for women to wait until marriage before giving up their virginity, yet men are expected to be experienced with the matter. It can be stated that with a guilty conviction, less empathy is shed toward Santiago Nasar, as he should be aware of the societal pressure for women to wait until marriage before getting deflowered. However, Santiago was also fulfilling his societal pressures as a male member. Essentially, although Santiago Nasar is guilty for deflowering Angela Vicario, his conviction is not one of shame as he was simply acting as society has taught him. Additionally, even though the immorality of murder may not be able to be completely pardoned, the Vicario brothers’ well meaning and honor behind the murder can be understood when in context with the society in which the novel takes place. Perhaps it is not Santiago who is responsible for deflowering Angela, or the Vicario brothers for his murder, but the structure of the society that is worthy of the…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells the story of Santiago Nasar’s death. More importantly it tells the story of what values and honor mean to a community and to what extent one can go to maintain that standard. A central theme in the novel is how a society can pressurize its people to act and behave in a certain way. They feel bound by a standard that if not kept, then it will bring shame to their family. In the novel, after her husband returns Angela Vicario to her family on their wedding night, she admits that it is Nasar that had taken her virginity. Her brothers, Pablo and Pedro, viscously murder Nasar to regain their sister’s and family’s honor. In this society a man or woman without honor is an outcast to the community and to the culture. Almost everyone in the community knew what was going to happen but no one did anything about it. Everyone in the community had excuses to why they did nothing to help. Excuses stating that they didn’t believe it would really happen or that they just didn’t know what to do. Each person seemed to just hope that someone else would do it; someone else would stop them, and didn’t want to take responsibility. The novel reflects how a community can victimize individuals within its society causing detrimental affects to both the general public and the specific individuals involved.…

    • 1474 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Value to Life

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Today, our society assigns the value to human life based on which life is actually more appealing to them. In other words, society places a price tag on a man’s life. A person is judged by society on the value of their life based on certain factors and aspects that are irrelevant. People realize the true value to their lives when they are in encounter with situations that may take it away. And because the value of life is so precious, society should determine its value in different and better ways that appreciate its value.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    García Marquez presents hypocrisy in three different forms: through his description of the characters, the characters' actions and words, and the society in which they live. María Alehandrina Cervantes is the town's prostitute in Chronicle of a Death Foretold and is also a perfect example of hypocrisy within the description of a character and the views of the society that García Marquez creates. María is "the most elegant and the most tender woman" (64) with an "apostolic lap," (5) when in reality, if the society's beliefs and actions were to coincide with each other, she is a disgrace to women and to her conservative society. If a society such as the one García Marquez creates in Chronicle of a Death Foretold is concerned about Santiago Nasar hindering the honor of Angela Vicario and robbing Angela of her virginity, to the point where Santiago is killed without a trial, surely María Alehandrina Cervantes receive the same judgment. After all, she "did away with [the] generation's virginity" (64-65), yet García Marquez is able to transform not only the society's view, but the reader's view of such a prostitute as he adds soft, positive, and angelic descriptive words about her. This play on adjectives hides the real characteristics María Cervantes, replacing them with soft, heavenly characteristics.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics