Death Foretold Themes

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a significant Colombian novelist of the 20th century, is well known in the Spanish language. Trading in the source for living, he left law school to pursue journalism. In 1972 and 1982, he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Nobel Prize in Literature for his outstanding works. Garcia Marquez’s favorite style of writing is known as magic realism, which consists of “magical moments and events of realistic situations,” (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 2018). Portraying a true story that happened in 1951, Garcia Marquez wrote the novel, Chronicles of a Death Foretold. In the novel, it is illustrated that the main character, Santiago Nassar, is killed which becomes a massive, yet, short-lived shock. As shown through …show more content…
Twin brothers that know of Santiago’s’ well-being, end up the murders and they take satisfaction. Being based in Colombia, the translation of the novel’s theme is different than how it would be interpreted in the United States. Three ways the theme is portrayed throughout the novel is by Colombian customs, honor, and loyalty.
Colombia is very rooted in its customs. One custom is the status of men compared to women. There is a sexual segregation and some might call it sexist to this day; “men are recognized to uphold strict dominance and take full responsibility for family pride and their spot inside the community,” (Colombia, 2018, Gender roles and statuses) . Garcia Marquez writes, “the death of his father had forced him to abandon his studies at the end of secondary school in order to take charge of the family ranch”. The fact that Santiago had to mess up his education just to take over his father’s job within the household and not let his mother take the “job”, presents to the reader that men are at the top of the thrown. This gender segregation is known as machismo; along with a man’s

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