Chronicle Of A Death Foretold Essay

“When the bishop’s boat bellowed, almost everybody was up to receive him and there were very few of us who didn’t know that the Vicario twins were waiting for Santiago Nasar to kill him, and, in addition, the reasons were understood down to the smallest detail” (Marquez 58). Chronicle of a Death Foretold takes place in a small town in Colombia where most of the people know each other. They are tied together through family, friendship, and religious links that push the plot of the novel to its detrimental ending. Without these bonds, Santiago would not have died, the Vicario brothers wouldn’t have felt obligated to kill him, and Angela wouldn’t have been shunned by the town. The oppressive religious beliefs launched the main characters of the

In the Catholic religion, in this time period, they believed heavily in honor killings. Family honor and respect was the most important thing over everything else, even honor and respect of one’s self. When the Vicario brothers heard that their kid sister had lost her sacred virginity to Santiago they were taught to make things even and get back the respect that their family deserved. “When they heard her, the Vicario twins reflected, and the one who had stood up sat down again. Both followed Santiago Nasar with their eyes as he began to cross the square. ‘They looked at him more with pity,’ Clotilde Armenta said” (16). Even though they had to adhere to the strict rules of their religion, The Vicario brothers knew deep down that Santiago was their brother and they didn’t want to go through with it. For the majority of the novel the brothers were having a constant dispute over whether they should follow through with their plans. They recognized the immorality of killing a man without even proof of his offenses, but their rooted beliefs pushed them to go through with it. After they were arrested and went on trial, their sentence was miniscule and they got off with little to no charges because of the religious morals in that area. If this book took place in a different setting during a different era, the circumstances would have changed and the horrid outcome would have been