Chronicle of a Death Foretold Term Paper

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 a Death Foretold, set in a Latin culture, the adherence to family honor and values are viewed as one of the highest moral obligations. Events in the book are provoked by the idea of fulfilling the expectations brought on by the honor of family traditions.

Angela's marriage to Bayardo San Roman was arranged, she did not wish to marry him. Bayardo came from a wealthy and prestigious family and has come to town to find a bride. When Bayardo awoke from his afternoon siesta one day and saw Angela and her mother. Pura, crossing the town square he was smitten by her beauty. He asked the landlady who the young one was and then told her "When I wake up remind me that I'm going to marry her" (p. 29).

Bayardo's courtship strategy consisted of charming Angela's family. "Angela never forgot the horror of the night on which her parents and her older sisters with their husbands, gathered together in the parlor, imposed on her the obligation to marry a man she had barely seen" (p. 34). Her parent's asserted that "a family dignified by modest means had no right to distain that prize of destiny" (p. 34). When Angela protested that she did not love Bayardo her mother responded, "Love can be learned too" (p.35). So her commitment for her to marry Bayardo was forced on her by her family in order to improve their financial and social standing.The narrator in the story discloses that "No one would have thought, nor did anyone say, that Angela Vicario wasn't a virgin." In fact she says with less than two months to go before the wedding, "The only thing I prayed to God for was to give me the courage to kill myself" (p.37). She resolves to tell her mother the truth but is dissuaded by two coworkers who "made me believe that they were experts in men's tricks" (p. 38). They taught her "old wives' tricks to feign her lost possession, so that on her first morning as a newlywed she could display open under the sun in the courtyard of her house the linen sheet with the stain of honor" (p. 38).

On their wedding night Bayardo discovers that Angela is not a virgin. This prompts him to take her back to Pura who beats her with such rage that Angela thinks she is going to kill her. Angela's twin brothers, Pedro and Pablo, return home at their mother's summons and press their overwhelmed sister to tell the reason for her humiliated return from her marriage bed. When Angela says, "Santiago Nasar," the twins know immediately that they must defend their sister's honor (p. 47).

Familial duty is another important theme linked to the novel's portrayal of Latin American culture. When Angela has premarital sex, and married as a non-virgin, she not only dishonors her family but also fails in her duty to them. Society demands that Angela has an obligation to stay a virgin and marry to as high a station as she can, even though she….....