Gabriel García Márquez's "Chronicle of a Death Foretold": Illustrating the Force of Hypocrisy in Society Essay Example
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which took place in the 1950s off the Caribbean coast, García Marquez uses the force of hypocrisy within the lives of the characters and the society in which they live. García Marquez's idea of adding hypocrisy to such a religious and conservative setting found in Chronicle of a Death Foretold adds an unusual yet interesting twist that forces the reader to stay attached on the novel until the very last work. The force of hypocrisy that García Marquez embeds within the lives of his characters is another tool used to keep the reader in Marquez's spell.
García Marquez presents hypocrisy in three different forms: through his description of the characters, the characters' actions and words, and the society in which they live. María Alehandrina Cervantes is the town's prostitute in Chronicle of a Death Foretold and is also a perfect example of hypocrisy within the description of a character and the views of the society that García Marquez creates. María is "the most elegant and the most tender woman" (64) with an "apostolic lap," (5) when in reality, if the society's beliefs and actions were to coincide with each other, she is a disgrace to women and to her conservative society. If a society such as the one García Marquez creates in Chronicle of a Death Foretold is concerned about Santiago Nasar hindering the honor of Angela Vicario and robbing Angela of her virginity, to the point where Santiago is killed without a trial, surely María Alehandrina Cervantes receive the same judgment. After all, she "did away with [the] generation's virginity" (64-65), yet García Marquez is able to transform not only the society's view, but the reader's view of such a prostitute as he adds soft, positive, and angelic descriptive words about her. This play on adjectives hides the real characteristics María Cervantes, replacing them with soft, heavenly characteristics.
Santiago Nasar's condemnation of death for supposedly taking Angela's
García Marquez presents hypocrisy in three different forms: through his description of the characters, the characters' actions and words, and the society in which they live. María Alehandrina Cervantes is the town's prostitute in Chronicle of a Death Foretold and is also a perfect example of hypocrisy within the description of a character and the views of the society that García Marquez creates. María is "the most elegant and the most tender woman" (64) with an "apostolic lap," (5) when in reality, if the society's beliefs and actions were to coincide with each other, she is a disgrace to women and to her conservative society. If a society such as the one García Marquez creates in Chronicle of a Death Foretold is concerned about Santiago Nasar hindering the honor of Angela Vicario and robbing Angela of her virginity, to the point where Santiago is killed without a trial, surely María Alehandrina Cervantes receive the same judgment. After all, she "did away with [the] generation's virginity" (64-65), yet García Marquez is able to transform not only the society's view, but the reader's view of such a prostitute as he adds soft, positive, and angelic descriptive words about her. This play on adjectives hides the real characteristics María Cervantes, replacing them with soft, heavenly characteristics.
Santiago Nasar's condemnation of death for supposedly taking Angela's