Reflection on Chronicles of a Death Foretold

Reflection
The cultural and historical context of Marquez life played an important role in his novel Chronicles of a Death Foretold. In the 16th century, Spain colonized many parts of South America and replaced the native religion with Catholicism. While the indigenous cultural practices celebrated openness about sexuality the orthodox Catholic ideals of chastity and purity that penetrated into the local tradition during colonization. The archaic perception of honour was founded on the grounds of the Catholic ideals and it promoted gender inequality and organized crime cultures promoted violence. Marquez offers a critique of the religious system when he describes the arrival of the Bishop who is representative of the power of the Church. In preparation of the Bishop’s arrival the town prepared many cocks which are rather a physical offering to the Church rather than a spiritual offering. The state’s inability to act upon the Vicario’s brother’s action is a Marquez’s critique of the decadence of the Old Christian value system. Father Amador does not condemn the Vicario brothers for their actions but instead he says that they are forgiven on the bases of acting to avenge their sister’s honour. The mayor is also unable to take action and he simply takes away their knives.

We also explored the influence of Marquez’s life on his style of writing. The influence of Marquez’s grandmother on his style of “realism” was also explored. Marquez’s grandmother’s way of telling unlikely stories as if they were facts influenced his style in Chronicles of a Death Foretold. The murder of Santiago Nasar remains a complete mystery until the end of the novel and the episodes that unfold in the story seem extremely unlikely however; the death was accepted by the reader because of factual tone in which it was told.
Word Count: 298
Dissociating the allusion elements from their referents