The Truth,-, Thirty-Seven, By Gabriel García Danticat

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The Truth May (Not Always) Set You Free

In both Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez and “Nineteen thirty-seven” by Edwidge Danticat, the narrators are witnesses to disquieting incidents. The ferocity of their confusion lead both narrators to search for and gain inner peace through the truth. Nawal El Saadawi claims that the knowledge of truth is the most important weapon in gaining consciousness and control of one’s life; similarly, the narrators of both “Nineteen thirty-seven” and Chronicle of a Death Foretold are obsessed with finding the truth after being struck by trauma, attempting to regain composure in their respective lives. However, El Saadawi places the concept of “truth” on a pedestal, seemingly failing to realize, as Josephine from “Nineteen thirty-seven,” does, that the truth may be subjective. Nor does she appear to recognize, as the narrator from Chronicle of a Death Foretold eventually does, that the quest for the truth may not be as emancipating as she believes. As a result, the idea of “truth” is more convoluted than El Saadawi may perhaps believe.
El Saadawi asserts that not knowing the truth denies people the right to liberty, autonomy, and free will. It is akin to “living in an illusion,” as she equates it with a state of ignorance and deception. El Saadawi maintains that living under this deception is “the most dangerous” situation for a person to be in, as “it deprives people of their most important weapon in the struggle for freedom.” Accordingly, not knowing the realities of their situation is the absolute worst circumstance humans can find themselves in as El Saadawi essentially associates “living in an illusion” with a form of slavery. Like slavery, the state of deceit shackles ...

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...d the narrator from Chronicle of a Death Foretold aimed to discover the truth in an attempt to unburden their conscience, become emotionally free, and regain control of their lives, thereby agreeing with Nawal El Saadawi’s claim that awareness of the truth is the most authentic form of freedom. However, “Nineteen thirty-seven” contests El Saadawi’s allegation of a clear-cut, definite ‘truth’, by showcasing that ‘the truth’ may actually be ‘a truth’ with different variations. Similarly, the townsfolk and the aftermath of Santiago Nasar’s murder in Chronicle of a Death Foretold illustrates that though the truth may liberate, as El Saadawi asserts, the pursuit of the truth itself may be oppressive and harmful. These two passages complicate and contest El Saadawi’s vision of “the truth”, proving that the truth is not as defined nor objective as El Saadawi may suggest.

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