Chronicle Of A Death Foretold Gender Analysis

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"Angela Vicario was the prettiest of the four, and my mother said that she had been born like the great queens of history, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. But she had a helpless air and a poverty of spirit that augured an uncertain future for her" (Marquez 32). This quote from Chronicle of a Death Foretold, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, highlights the theme of masculinity which appears throughout the book. Girls are born already deprived and suffocated of life, knowing their sole purpose is to grow up and become a wife. Chronicle of a Death Foretold takes place in a small Colombian village and tells the story of Angela Vicario's stolen virginity and the murder of the suspect, Santiago Nasar. The narrator, decades after the events, is trying to uncover the truth in all of the …show more content…

The only way to overcome the restrictions of gender roles is to be the person who stands up and breaks the pattern. Clotilde Armenta and Cristo Bedoya both work indefatigably to do this and save Santiago. Unfortunately, both make fatal mistakes in their execution. Clotilde, believing she cannot do anything personally since she is a woman, goes to the mayor for help, but he ends up only making matters worse. Cristo, on the other-hand, believes it is his male duty to help everyone he runs into along the way. This causes him to run out of time and he misses his opportunity to stop the twins. Both were fully capable of putting an end to Santiago's massacre, they let their societal gender roles stand in the way, ultimately killing Santiago. Hence, machismo impacts people around the world and can only be escaped if one steps outside the gender boundaries of their society in order to allow everyone the freewill to live their life the way they

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