The Role of Faith in the “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Essay Example

The role of faith is important to “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” due to the prevalence of religion in Colombian society. Since the book deals with many cultural concepts that are integrated into the lives of the characters, such as machismo, the powerlessness of women, and ritual, it is important to fully understand the aspects of faith that impact characters’ actions throughout the story. Fate, another prominent theme in the story, is closely tied into the concept of faith. In the novel, the townspeople seem obsessed over Santiago’s death because they know it will happen. Ultimately, the novel raises questions of whether divine intervention in the form of fate or human actions guide our lives, and this question is answered from the point of view of many different townspeople. Many of the people who hear of Santiago Nasar’s death believe they know will happen because the situation is predicted according to Colombian ritual. Since Nasar contributes to Angela’s downfall, it is necessary for her brothers to kill him for the family’s honor. This analysis will demonstrate that the characters of the novel were all subject to fate and exhibited no free will in this situation due to the traditions of their society.

The theme of fate is brought into play when Marquez’s anonymous narrator says, “There had never been a death more foretold.” The townsfolk in the novel are obsessed over Santiago’s death because none of them “could go on living without an exact knowledge of the place and mission assigned” to them by fate. The narrator of the novel spends much of his words in convincing us, that Santiago Nasar was fated to die under the knives of the Vicario brothers at the specific time and place that the event happens. He fills his narrative with forebodings and omens, all of which clearly point to his death before it happens, although no one attempts to interfere with their actions.

We can interpret the reactions of the townspeople to the knowledge of the murder in several ways. Firstly, it should be emphasized that nearly everyone knows that the murder will happen and many were present to observe the murder at its various stages. It is therefore clear that in many cases, the townspeople believe that it is not their place to interfere with either the fate or ritualistic beliefs of the community. Overall, the concept of “machismo” guides these practices. Broadly, machismo is defined as the supremacy of man over woman, or it could be meant to refer to general manliness. In Latin societies, this term also refers to the responsibility that men have to take care of their families, which is mainly related to honor. In Colombia in the 1950’s, it was almost expected that if a man dishonor’s another man’s family, the family will seek revenge to restore their pride. As such, it wasn’t a surprise that the Vicario brothers needed to kill Santiago Nasar for his affair with their sister Angela which left her unsuitable for marriage according to tradition. Although the townspeople could have interfered with the murder and protected Santiago Nasar, they recognize both the need to respect the Vicario family and the fact that he committed a crime against society by deflowering Angela. As a consequence, they left Santiago Nasar’s life up to fate; there was a possibility that the brothers would decide against the murder or choose to go through with it and they believed in was not their place to intervene.

An example that supports the belief that the townspeople idly stood by and let Santiago Nasar experience his fate is when the narrator reports that Clotilde Armenta says that “She was certain that the Vicario brothers were not as eager to carry out the sentence as to find someone who would do them the favor of stopping them.” Although it is clear that Clotilde is concerned for Santiago Nasar despite the fact that few others are, she is demonstrating that she is unwilling to find someone herself that would be willing to stop the Vicario brothers. While believes that the townspeople would be more willing to stop this sort of act than the Vicario brothers would be to commit it, she overestimates the influence of fate in the situation. Clotilde is one of the only townspeople that don’t expect Santiago Nasar to actually be killed, and believes that something could be done to interfere with fate. Yet, she ironically chooses to do nothing about the situation and therefore contradicts her own beliefs.

The secondary principle that prevents the townspeople from intervening in Santiago Nasar’s death is the concept of ritual. As stated above, ritual held an important place in Colombian society in the 1950’s and guided many of the community’s day to day practices. We can see many examples of ritualistic behaviors in the novel which ranges from Bayardo San Roman’s extravagant courtship of Angela to demonstrate his affluence and power, the repeated telling of Santiago Nasar’s death, and Angela’s obsessive letter writing to Bayardo. The concept of ritual goes hand in hand with the concept of machismo, because many other Colombian families would react to a man’s deflowering of their sister in a similar way. However, ritual plays an interesting role in the story because it is what actually provides the reader information about Santiago’s death. Although all of the townspeople seem informed about what happened, and some even saw the death first hand, the reader is only able to obtain the same limited knowledge of the event no matter how many times it is repeated. While we do learn some new information about Santiago Nasar himself or the situation with Angela Vicario throughout the story, the information regarding the events of the death itself is fairly limited. This repeated story telling emphasizes the fact that the townspeople are obsessed with fate but believe that nothing could be done to stop the events of the murder. Since Santiago Nasar deflowered Angela Vicario, her brothers murdered him; this is a simple concept to those that have information about the murder.

Fate certainly appears to be governing the life and death of Santiago Nasar by providing the Vicario brothers with an amazingly unchallenged path to kill him. Though the entire town knows he is to be murdered, all knowledge escapes only Santiago through a series of almost comical coincidences. As a consequence, the book questions whether we are the ones who choose what we do in our life or whether we just live by what has been written as a consequence of the series of extraordinary circumstances that lead to the story’s eventual outcome, the death of Santiago Nasar. An example of a situation in which Santiago Nasar is nearly warns of his death appears at the end of chapter three, and the person who nearly warns him is Father Amador. He says to the narrator, “’The truth is I didn’t know what to do,’ he told me.’ My first thought was that it wasn’t any business of mine but something for the civil authorities, but then I made up my mind to say something in passing to Placida Linero.’ Yet when he crossed the square, he’d forgotten completely. ‘You have to understand,’ he told me, “that the bishop was coming that day.’” At first Father Amador considers that he should tell someone what he knows about the potential murder but then retracts this opinion because he believes that it is not his place to intervene. When he finally decides to inform Placida Linero, Placida Linero forgot about the murder because he was busy with the arrival of the bishop. However, this forgetfulness could either be interpreted as an accident purposeful. Fate is more of a contributor to Santiago Nasar’s death if Placida Linero truly forgot about the murder; Nasar was just unfortunate that his murder plot would occur on a day that an important figure would come to town. However, one could argue that human actions are more at play if Placida Linero deliberately didn’t tell anyone about the murder. Based on the reports of the townspeople in the novel, it is more likely that Placida Linero forgot to report the murder as many people seemed distracted and engaged in the fact that the bishop would be arriving in town. As a consequence, Santiago Nasar’s death was an unfortunate consequence of fate.

In conclusion, fate is unavoidable for Santiago Nasar in “Chronicles of a Death Foretold”. In many situations in the novel, Santiago Nasar proves incredibly unlucky, which supports the fact that he was meant to die. Firstly, the rituals and traditions of Colombian society required that the Vicario brothers kill him in order to honor their family and restore pride to them for the crime Nasar commits. Secondly, these traditions prevented the townspeople from intervening and stopping the Vicario brothers even though everyone knew it would happen. The two people who showed that they wished the murder wouldn’t be committed, Clotilde Armenta and Father Amador demonstrate that fate even intervened in their warning attempts. As a consequence, it is truly fate that guides our actions; little is left to free will.

Works Cited

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. New York: Vintage, 2003. Print.