An analysis of communism and religion in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Gabriel Marquez witnessed a great deal of tragedy when his home country of Columbia was going through a civil war. On April 9th, 1948 Jorge Eliezer Gaitan, a Liberal party leader, was murdered in Bogota. According to Zaida and Laurent, “This incident plunged Columbia into a decade of violence and upheaval that would become known at La Violencia.” This event had a profound effect on Marquez. In fact, much of what he wrote about was inspired by politics and Latin America’s problems during this time. On a more fictional note, Marquez was also inspired by mystical, fantasy stories that his grandmother told him when he was a boy. By the same token, May writes, “From the influences of his early childhood, when he learned from his grandmother how to tell the most fantastic stories in matter-of-fact tone, to his later observations of the oppression and cruelties of politics, Garcia Marquez captures the everyday life of the amazing people of coastal Columbia.” Also, in much of his work, he incorporates common themes of death, fate, solitude, love and power. In “Death Constant Beyond Love” Gabriel Marquez combines these serious, tragic themes with his signature style of magical realism to tell a story about a Columbian political leader who encounters death, fate solitude, love, and power.

Religion has had a profound effect on human culture; unfortunately, the trouble with it is faith, which creates skepticism in many individuals. In order to accommodate the issue of faith, religions have regulations, values, and ceremonies, making religion a belief system, hence creating clarity to support faith. Catholicism has become a belief system that feeds its follower with answers; however, these answers are only assumptions. There are no factual answers, and as a result, religious leaders have created an expectation in which religion is supposed to fit; nonetheless, its accuracy is unknown. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” the values of religion are the center of

Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez Works Cited Not Included Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, is a story that brings one to question the code of honor that exists in the Columbian town. Marquez' paints a picture that shows how societal values, such as honor, have become more important than the inherent good of human life. The Vicario brothers' belief that their sister was done wrong was brought upon by this honor, along with racial and social tension. The dangerous path of both honor and religious faith caused Santiago's untimely death.

Although prostitution may be one of the world’s oldest professions to this day it is seen as a degrading and disrespectful career especially when regarding female prostitutes. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the town is very critical and strict about chastity and premarital sex. Maria Alejandrina Cervantes is the town madam which by society’s standards makes her to most marginalized, but ironically she is not brought down by her society’s rules. Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses characterization and irony to demonstrate Maria Alejandrina Cervantes’s contradictory role and to develop the theme of going against society in Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is known for revealing aspects of Latin American culture during the 1980’s- aspects that still predominate today’s society. Specifically in his novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, depicts a typical Colombian town, while taking a journalistic approach to the investigative and the psychological component of the twenty-seven-year-old murder of Santiago Nasar. Throughout this approach, Marquez intends to limit the influence of emotion, yet tension is inevitable after the failed marriage of Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman. Bayardo San Roman instigates this division and brings to light his persona, which relates to the persona of many Latin American men. Most importantly, Marquez manipulates the character of Bayardo San

"'Don't be silly,' he said to her. Those two aren't about to kill anybody, much less someone rich.'" (Márquez, 55). Yet they did. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Márquez uncovers the death of Santiago Nasar, a wealthy man who is killed based on the accusation he takes the virginity of the unmarried Angela Viacrio. Before he is accused, Bayardo San Roman, a new, wealthy, and exotic man pursues Angela. The author illustrates a society in which the division of social classes leads to Angela's marriage, Bayardo's lack of compassion, and Santiago's death, in order to illustrate how the classes conflict which has a lasting impact on

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s text depicts the cultural life and setting of Latin America. His inclusion of conventional values portrayed in the novel such as pride and honor influences specific characters such as Pedro

Religion is a dominant force in culture, social standings, and human interaction. Though narrated in a religious society that is centered around Catholicism, the Chronicle of a Death Foretold is about an affluent young man named Santiago Nasar, who is murdered by twin brothers, Pablo and Pedro Vicario. As evident as the community prepares for the bishop’s arrival, religion is intertwined in their culture. So, with the potency of a religious head figure, civilians alter their daily lives to follow a religious protocol in the beginning of the book. Because religion is foundational in the book’s societal structure, it shapes aspects of gender, sexual engagements, and character interaction, it provides assistance to understanding the complexity of a character’s development and actions.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “Death Constant Beyond Love” depicts the vulnerability and helplessness of a human when dealing with two of the most enigmatic parts of life. The background of corruption, poverty, and the political campaign become rather insignificant to the broader themes of love and death. Marquez expresses the confusion, power and diversity that come with the feeling of love and how ever changing it can be. These emotions are portrayed through the wealthy senator, Onesimo Sanchez. His love for Laura Farina becomes a means for him to sublimate his fear of death into sensual passion. However, his demise is inevitable, and he is left lonely and

Characters are made to present certain ideas that the author believes in. In Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold there are many characters included that range from bold, boisterous characters to minuscule, quiet characters but one thing they all have in common is that they all represent ideas. Characters in the novel convey aspects of Marquez’s Colombian culture.

James A. Forbes once said “When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised.” After accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses his acceptance speech to address the hardships his country is facing. In “The Solitude of Latin America,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez identifies how Latin America’s struggle to become a developed country is overlooked due to stereotypes of the country. Similarly, the Mirabal sisters in In the TIme of the Butterflies are overlooked by the government for so long due to the stereotypes of women.

In Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the concept of appearance versus reality is manifested in three of the major characters around whom the novel revolves. The surface impressions of Santiago Nasar, Angela Vicario, and Bayardo San Roman are deeply rooted in Latin culture; underneath the layer of tradition, however, lies a host of paradoxical traits which indicate the true complexity of human nature.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicles of a Death Foretold shows how Machismo drives all male ambition. Machismo, in Latin American countries was derived from the word macho meaning an intense masculine pride. Machismo was first used in 1948, and was taken as a code of honour for men, rules that would make you considered macho. Respect and reputation are highly regarded as important traits in Machismo, and are the driving force of reason in the novel. (Add another sentence about the broadness of Machismo).

Of the many literary devices used by writers to make their work more powerful and layered, symbolism is one of the most effective, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a text that relies heavily on its use to develop its narrative. The novella recounts, in the form of a pseudo-journalistic reconstruction, the murder of Santiago Nasar in a small Colombian town in the mid 1900’s. Through the course of the novel, Marquez employs various symbols to reinforce key ideas, themes and techniques. This helps the novella break the monotony of a linear storyline and unfolds the plot in a unique way that compounds both effect and meaning.

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Marquez employs the motif of flowers within the novel to illustrate the role of women within a Latin American society; the cultural and symbolic implications of this associate flowers with purity, victimization, gender barriers, and deceit. In doing so, Marquez creates a microcosm of Latin America, exposing the core of Columbian culture and society with all its aspects such as ethnicity, and social norms and conventions that led to a series of insecurities and poverty in the community, and its affect on the role of women. The cultural context of this novel must first be considered before examining the symbolic importance of flowers.