Chronicle of a Death Foretold theme anaylsis

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Jason Levine

English 2025 – 20

Short Response Essay 1

        In the novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells a story of a man whom two brothers murder in the name of honor. This story takes place in the early to mid twentieth century in a poor agrarian town in Columbia, South America. Santiago Nasar has been named as the man that took Angela Vicario’s virginity and the twin brothers must kill him to restore honor to their family’s name. This town is a very small tight knit community where everyone knows everyone else and most people are related in some way. When something wrong happens to a family in this community, the whole town is wronged in a way. Since the people in this community are poor the only way they can earn and keep respect is honor. Honor is, essentially, the only thing people in small communities such as this one have, next to family. If a family is dishonored in this community, they lose the respect of the community and either restore honor, move out of the community, or live in shame in the community, the latter of which is never an option. So when the brothers find out their sister’s virginity has been taken by another man and shamed their family, they must restore honor to the family’s name and kill the man who did it. I think the theme of this novella is how important honor is in a small community, such as the one in this story.

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        The novella starts off with the death of the main character, Santiago Nasar. After that the story starts before Angela Vicario’s wedding and works up to the murder. After we, the reader, learn that Santiago Nasar is going to die we find out why. The story starts off a couple days before the wedding when everyone is awaiting the arrival of the local bishop. A rich son of a politician comes to the town to find a bride. The wealthy man, Bayardo San Roman, finds a woman, Angela Vicario, and decides that he wants to marry her. The Vicario family ...

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