Santiago Divina Flor Character Analysis

During the first part, there were a few instances of class structure and gender roles at the time.
The harassment Divina Flor at the hands of Santiago Nasar exhibits the rules of the class system.
Santiago has money and is in the upper class, but Divina Flor is a servant and belongs to the lower class. This gives Santiago the freedom to grope Divina Flor without persecution. The class systems provide the society with rules for interacting with people in other classes. Santiago could never treat an upper class woman like he treats Divina Flor, but since she is lower class and he’s not, their society won’t even blink an eye at how he treats her. She’s not as admirable and honorable as Santiago. These rules also won’t allow Divina Flor …show more content…
Angela’s character raises awareness of gender roles in society at the time.
Since their society revolves around Roman Catholicism, there values are rather conservative.
Most of the women of the society, Angela for example, are expected to remain honorable and pure so they can be married off, but the men go as far to take their sons to a brothel to lose their virginity. This introduces elements of machismo and marianismo. Machismo states that men need to assert their virility and maintain honor within the family. Marianismo states that women need to learn the womanly arts and model themselves after the Virgin Mary. There are also elements of irony with Santiago’s mother’s dream interpretation and the inherent irony that comes along with machismo. Santiago’s mother is supposedly very skilled at interpreting dreams, but when Santiago comes to her with an odd dream relating to his death, she just …show more content…
Part 3
Elements of machismo are especially evident in this part the story. When the Vicario brothers discover that Santiago supposedly took Angela’s honor, by the rules of their society, they are obligated to kill him to for honor. They were innocent in the eyes of the law because it was an honor killing, but the most striking aspect is the town’s reaction to the killing. More specifically, the butchers’ reactions. When the narrator interviews the butchers later, he asks them if as slaughterers, the Vicario brothers were predisposed to killing. The butchers responded by defending their trade. Though they did not trash the Vicario brothers, they did say they could never eat, know, or look into the eyes of an animal they killed. The narrator and butchers discuss how unsettling it is that the Vicario brothers could raise and kill their cattle. That just spoke volumes to me about the Vicario brother. If someone who kills animals for a living comments on the odd character of the brothers, it raises questions about what the Vicario brothers are