The Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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Limitation of an Individual by Its Culture: Oppressing Weak-Willed Relic and Modernity

This Written Assignment is an analytical look at the role our culture plays in deciding our destiny. I am going to be writing on Gabriel Marque’s short novel The Chronicle of a Death Foretold. I observed in the reading that Marquez constantly uses motifs and the idea of fate to tell a love story about the customs, clashes, illusions and emotions of life. So I wondered what Marquez was trying to tell or warn his readers by writing this short novel. Authors often use motifs and symbols as a means of pointing out an issue or problem in their culture or in the world. My question is that: In what ways does Marquez use his culture as a mean to warn people of the danger of being socially tied to their culture and how being ties to your culture is the same as a predestined fate. The paper argues that Marquez believes that an individual culture can limit his or her freedom to choose.

Edition Used:

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. [Trans. Gregory Rebassa] Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Alfred A. Knoph, Inc. New York. 1983.

Limitation of an Individual by Its Culture: Oppressing Weak-Willed Relic and Modernity

As we look today in our neighborhood, we see people constantly exercising their freedom of speech without worrying about the consequences it might bring. But other countries may not be as fortunate to enjoy this freedom of speech that we have here in the Unites States. In Latin American culture, a profound emphasis is placed on tradition and the belief of honor. Because of this profound emphasis on culture, this can limit an individual freedom to choose and act. Gabriel Marquez’s short novel, The Chronicle of a Death Foretold illustrates the ...

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... they’ve been raised to suffer” (Marquez 31). These two excerpts depict the role of women in the Colombian culture. Women were not allowed to follow their dreams but to be submissive to their husbands. They were brought up to become household wives who “screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone”. Their lives were being dictated by tradition and the expectation to get married and have families which restricted them from having personal ambitions. In this culture a woman's merit as a wife was defined by her splendor and also her ability to elegantly operate a household. The suggestion that the woman in a marriage is expected to “suffer” is noteworthy because no woman enters marriage expecting to be content unless she is fortunate enough to love whichever man decides to court her. In this Spanish culture, unlike Western culture, marriage is not based on love.

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