Honor In Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

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In the novel The Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the idea of honor is a dominant motif found throughout the novel. The novel takes place in a town in Colombia in the 1850’s, which sets the stage for many cultural differences as well as differences in their moral code. In the novel Marquez shows the town’s paradigm of honor in various ways, one major example being Angela Vicario’s loss of virginity before marriage, as well as the events that follow the scandal. Not only does the idea of honor practically excommunicate Angela from the town, it also compels her twin brothers,Pedro and Pablo Vicario, to murder the man whom has taken their sister’s virginity and made her a dishonorable woman. Prior to marrying Bayardo San…show more content…
Honor communicates itself as a kind of code that the society lives by. This has been shown numerous times throughout the novel, such as when Pablo Vicario’s fiancee says that she would not have married Pablo if he had not murdered Santiago and protected the honor of his sister. Additionally, the townspeople that had gathered around Santiago’s corpse where “ There hadn’t been any concern at all for the state of the body” which shows the punishment towards Santiago for breaking their sacred honor code and dishonoring the Vicario family along with the community. Usually the dead are treated with respect, especially if they had been well respected before death, which shows that they no longer respect Santiago because of what they believed he did. Matters concerning honor like Angela’s are considered sacred by the people, because the honor code is sacred which is shown when Garcia Marquez says “most of those who could have done something to prevent the crime and did not consoled themselves with the pretext that affairs of honor are sacred monopolies, giving access to only those who are part of the drama” (Márquez 97). This shows that most townspeople did little to interfere with the Vicario brother’s plan to kill Santiago because it concerned the honor of Angela and the Vicario family, so it was considered sacred to only those who were directly involved. “Honor is love” as said by Garcia Marquez in the novel, this suggests that honor is similar to the concept of love in many ways (Garcia Marquez 97). Both of which are considered forces beyond the control of man or someone who is not directly involved in the affair. Also this culture considers honor as one’s destiny, just as Santiago had been destined to die because he had became dishonorable man, similar to love which cannot be forced but happen as if the two people involved were destined to be together. In this Colombian
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