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5). This change in Angela has to be as much a surprise to her as it is to Bayardo and the reader, but again, her choices are limited.
Other females in the community have been lusting after Bayardo before his wedding, and he is cited by one young woman who says, "I could have buttered him and eaten him alive" (Marquez 202). He is a catch because he is not only handsome and athletic but also rich, for "he's swimming in gold" (Marquez 203). At the same time, descriptions of him suggest that he is not a nice man, as one older woman notes when she says he "reminded me of the devil" (Marquez 204). He shows his true nature when he forces Xius to sell him his house because Angela has expressed a desire for it.
Angela still resists hijm in spite of the way he is sought after by others and in spite of her parent's wishes. She tells her parents she does not love him, but her mother says, "Love can be learned too" (Marquez 209). Angela ses no way out and so considers suicide rather than marry Bayardo, but when she does not have the strength to do this, she does marry him. She is even more horrified about her fate when she sees that Bayardo does not love her, either, and sees her as socially inferior to him. She learns this when he takes her to meet his parents.
Other women in the novel are just as tied to the social order and also fail to do anything to save Santiago. Among these are Flora Miguel, Placida Linero, Victoria Guzman, and Divina Flor. His fiancee is Flora Miguel, and she knows what is to happen and does not help him: "She feels humiliated and hurt because of the rumor concerning why the Vicario brothers want to kill him and decides...
She and other women in the community gain what position they have fro the men with whom they are associated, and they also make moral choices based on how they will look to the community rather than on real moral values.
Significantly, Angela only begins to regain her will to live once Santiago is dead. In some way, she now has a choice, and she exercises that choice by writing to Bayardo. When they meet many years later, both are much changed, and now she believes she loves him and accepts him as he accepts her. The social structure is also likely to accept their marriage now in spite of the history behind it. The novel shows that women like Angela are oppressed by the patriarchal system in which they live and by the false moral values that infuse this system and that are also held by her family. The Church is just as guilty by promoting the same values and by not denying the family its revenge. The life of Santiago is lost in all of this, and though it is hinted that he was not guilty in the first place, this issue is never resolved.
Works Cited
Alonso, Carlos J. "Writing and Ritual I Chronicle of a Death Foretold." In Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Harold Bloom (ed.), 257-270. New York: Chelsea House, 1999.
Marquez, Gabrial Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Knopf, 1983.
Michaels, Leonard. "Murder Most Foul and Comic." New York Times (27 March 1983), Section 7,-Page 1.
Pelayo, Ruben. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood…
Works Cited
Alonso, Carlos J. "Writing and Ritual I Chronicle of a Death Foretold." In Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Harold Bloom (ed.), 257-270. New York: Chelsea House, 1999.
Marquez, Gabrial Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Knopf, 1983.
Michaels, Leonard. "Murder Most Foul and Comic." New York Times (27 March 1983), Section 7,-Page 1.
Pelayo, Ruben. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001.
.. 'The only thing I prayed to God was to give me the courage to kill myself,' Angela Vicario told me. 'But he didn't give it to me (Marquez 41-42). Again, as with the men in the story, women place honor as more important that life. Pura Vicario does all that she can to preserve her daughter's honor, just as her sons will do all they can to restore it. Since
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1982) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is set in a small Columbian town. The novel revolves around the murder of Santiago Nasser for the defilement of Angela Vicarico. The importance of honor to the culture depicted in the novel is evident throughout the story. Santiago's murder is motivated and justified by honor. Honor has different values and meaning in the context of different cultures. In Chronicle of
Even the requirement that Angela be a virgin on her wedding night is tied to the Church, where priests never marry and so supposedly are virgins, and good Catholic girls must be virgins when they marry. In addition, throughout the novel, the murder, and the events leading up to it are often referred to as being "God's will," which indicates how the Church permeates everyday life. The narrator's mother
This appearance does not improve as the book progresses. Because their first set of knives is taken away, the twins go to the butcher Faustino Santos twice to have knives sharpened for the murder. In piecing together the story later on, the narrator says, "Faustino Santos told me that he'd still been doubtful, and that he reported it to a policeman who came by a little later to buy a
Angela knows she cannot change this social perception of gender roles, and gives the first name that comes to mind because she realizes that she is in the position of sentencing that man to death, and probably tries to save the man who had actually dishonored her. Guilt is a major theme in the novel, and is closely linked to the theme of fate. In fact, this inextricable link explains
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis both place the protagonist in opposition to a prevailing family structure. At the same time, the family structure dictates personal identity, character traits, worldviews, and reactions to events. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold and in The Metamorphosis, personal identities are malleable and yet the changes that occur take place within a confining social structure at which