Vicario Brothers Quotes

Ethan Axelrad – 3
Ms. Wendell
IB SL 1 English – 5th
10 February 2015
Close Read of Page 62-64 In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez details the murder of Santiago Nasar at the hands of the Vicario Brothers and the Society’s role in his death. Marquez uses a journalistic and magically realistic style in recounting the events that transpired in the town, using these styles to focus heavily on the societal ideals in the Colombian town. The heavy focus on Catholicism, and the honor that is associated with religion, is the Vicario Brother’s main reason for their murder of Santiago. The townspeople view the Vicario Brother’s as honorable men whose machismo and masculinity justify the killing of Santiago. However,
When Pura Vicario discovers that her daughter had been deflowered by another man before her new husband, Bayardo San Roman, Pura nearly beats Angela to near death (Marquez 46). This rage is due to Angela’s tarnishing of the Vicario family’s honor and in order to restore the family’s honor, Angela names “Santiago Nasar” as the man who took her virginity (47). This allows for the brothers to enact retribution on the man who has ruined the family’s reputation. Another member of the family, Prudencia Cotes’s mother influences the boys to carry out their mission, despite their hesitancy. The mother tells the brothers that “honor doesn’t wait”, and that she can imagine the hurry that they are in to find Santiago. This back and forth signifies the mother’s knowledge of the incident that had transpired and fully supported the actions of the Vicarios. Prudencia Cotes told the narrator that she “never would have married [Pablo] if he hadn’t done what a man should do”, stating that he had to defend his families honor in order to prove his worth as a
Clotilde Armenta serves the brothers alcohol in her bar and when they borrow her husband’s shaving instruments, she recalls Pedro looking “like a killer in the movies” at the “height of machismo”. Machismo in the town is synonymous with honor and manliness and Clotilde’s romanticized description of Pedro is a reflection of the society’s view of machismo dangerous and seductive. This machismo draws other members of the town into the bar, who are trying to see if the Vicario brothers are actually “waiting for Santiago Nasar to kill him” by purchasing “milk they didn’t need” or “asking for food items that didn’t exist”. The gravitation towards machismo results in the townspeople’s inability to warn Santiago about his impending fate at the hands of the Vicario