Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

596 Words2 Pages

In class today, we discussed the racial and social barrier that many of the characters were apart of in the novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Marquez brought to light the struggle of class consciousness. He uses characters like Santiago Nasar and Bayardo San Roman as the upper class, but uses characters like Angela Vicario and her family as the lower working class. I believe Marquez was excellent at bringing to light the injustice faced by the lower class in the Colombian society. Angela Vicario's father was," a poor's man Goldsmith, and he'd lost his sight from doing so much fine work in gold in order to maintain the honor of the house" (30). This sounds like it should not be relevant to the story and is just the background of the …show more content…

Divina Flor recalls to the narrator of the time Santiago had molested her, " he grabbed my whole pussy, it was what he always did when he caught me alone in some corner of the house, but that day I didn't feel the usual surprise but an awful urge to cry" (13). The fact that Divina Flor and her mother are servants portrays what horrific sexual and verbal abuse women had to go through. I believe this sort of act is what fueled the anger towards the upper class, especially Santiago. Marquez's attitude toward social class is almost one of resentment and hatred. He neither supports the upper class and or the lower class. He shows the dark and tainted nature of both classes. For example, the Vicario brothers kill Santiago because they are bitter and jealous at the fact that Santiago would dishonor them and take away the one chance they had at getting up into the upper class, Bayardo San Roman. Social class affects everything in the novel, from the way the women are treated to Santiago being blamed for the lost virginity of Angela and ending up dead for

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