Machismo Death Quotes

How many of people have witnessed unfair discrimination and done nothing to help? The answer, nearly everyone. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a fictional novella which took the reader through the lives of a small Columbian town centuries ago. In the chronicle, a young man named Santiago Nasar was murdered by two twin brothers, Pedro and Pablo Vicario. Upon reconstruction of the event using the memories of all of those in the town along with written records of the case, evidence shows that almost everyone in the town knew that the twins were planning on murdering Santiago Nasar. The purpose for the murder was that Santiago Nasar was accused of taking Angela Vicario's virginity. The author never reveals whether or

not Santiago truly took Angela’s virginity or not, but the true importance in the book lies within the negative aspects of their culture. Most of the members of the society follow along with the traditional values and morales associated with machismo. This machismo culture provides negative aspects to all members of the society such as death, lack of career choices, child rearing practices which limit self-actualization, inequality between genders, as well as negative pressures coming from other members of the society who are embracing machismo. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Marquez, the author illustrates both men and women in Columbian society embracing a machismo-style culture through tradition to express the negative impact of machismo on both men and women in Columbian society as seen through death, lack of opportunity, inequality, and negative peer pressure from society.
First and foremost, the author outlines how machismo culture is embraced by both men and women. The Vicario household is being described, and the narrator exposes the flaws in how the Vicarios raise their children. Both marriage partners agree upon raising their children to follow along with machismo culture. The author shows the marriage partners embracing machismo in the following quote, "the boys were brought up to be men, the girls reared to suffer" (Marquez 31). The father and mother embrace the machismo culture in the Vicario family, leading their children to accept machismo as a way of life. The children will end up believing that machismo is beneficial, thus teaching these morals to their children as well. Consequently, the embracement of a machismo culture by the entire society leads to generations of people going along with machismo rather than challenging the validity of the idea. The negative result that comes from rearing your children in this fashion is all of the lost potential and minds trained for usefulness. The men and women could educate their children, in hopes of a beneficial impact on society. The untapped potential of women is in the following quote, "they know how to screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy” (Marquez 31). The women in this society are taught how to do industrial-type processes, but not to use their powerful minds for the benefit of society. Children have much more potential than the weak opportunities presented by machismo culture. This shows how machismo limits the possibility of progress made by the society.
Undoubtedly the author uses death as the most profound negative result of Columbian machismo culture.

The peer pressure coming from both men and women, which influences Pedro and Pablo to commit the murder. Pablo's girlfriend believes strongly in machismo and if Pablo did not follow through with the murder, he would be living single. The author shows Pablo's girlfriend embracing machismo in the following quote, "I never would've married him if he didn't do what a man should do" (Marquez 62). In this scenario, the women are endorsing machismo death in the name of machismo. The women are pressuring the men into acting "manly" with the threat of living single if the men fail to submit themselves to the machismo culture. The women are treating themselves as the prize the men receive upon following along with machismo. There is a negative impact created for both the men and the women. The men must choose between a guilty conscience or being single for the rest of their lives. The following quote shows Pedro and Pablo not truly wanting to commit the murder, "She was certain the Vicario brothers were not as eager to carry out the sentence as to find someone to stop them" (Marquez 57). The women on the other hand, are seen by society and by themselves as prizes. Men are granted a “prize” after following machismo and that has a demoralizing impact on the self concept of women. Women embracing machismo produce a lose-lose situation for the men while objectifying the women; in

machismo nobody wins.
Furthermore the author confirms the innocence of Santiago, the ultimate victim of Columbian machismo culture.

Machismo caused the death of Santiago Nasar, with only one word out of Angela's mouth. The author intentionally cancels the true deflowerer of Angela because the true message of the book is that machismo is not a victimless crime. The author describes Santiago's reaction to his death with the following quote, "He died without understanding his own death" (Marquez 101). The death of Santiago Nasar was caused by machismo culture No matter who Angela said deflowered her, the would've been put to death without questioning. Machismo calls for a sacrifice of human life in order to maintain honor. Machismo establishes a moral code in which honor from the eyes of society is of greater worth than one's life. This heartless moral code is embraced by both the men and the women in Columbian society. The most profound negative impact of machismo was the death of Santiago Nasar. Everyone, ale and Emile, followed along with machismo and allowed the death to occur. The Columbian society let Santiago down, but more specifically, machismo let Santiago down. The whole society is indirectly impacted by Santiago's death as the entire town felt guilty. This is shown in the following quote, "Everything continued to smell like Santiago that day" (Marquez 78). Machismo was the motive behind Santiago's murder and the entire book exposes that

point.
In Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Marquez, the author illustrates both genders in Columbian society embracing the traditional values of machismo to reveal all of the negative impacts machismo has on all members of the Columbian society. First off, the author demonstrates how the Vicario family’s child rearing practice follows machismo’s moral codes. The adverse effects of the child rearing is that children are born into jobs which are useless to society, leading to children who will never self-actualize and a society with stunted growth. Throughout the novella, the author also demonstrated the negative peer pressure coming from both the men and women of the society. Moreover, the peer pressure had a negative impact in prompting the men to commit murder in the name of honor, or be single for the rest of their lives. Undoubtedly, the most profound example that the author implements in the plot is the death of Santiago Nasar. The death was caused by machismo, but all of the members of society suffered as the Columbian town felt guilty for days. The entire book displayed various negative events which all have a similar cause, machismo. In this fashion, the author leads the audience to search for a solution to the problem at hand. Feminism seems to be a solution which would fix this problem, as feminism promotes the idea that both men and women are equal and that women should have the same opportunities available as men. The feminist lifestyle would benefit everyone regardless of gender, while machismo benefits nobody living under machismo’s lethal code of morals.