Conner Beihl
Mrs. Balka
IB HL English 11
The novel, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by Gabriel Márquez is a unique book that
questions society and other parts of the world using many techniques. The book centers around
the mid 20th century Colombian society and its morals and beliefs. Within the novel Márquez
creates this society and picks apart every problem and impurity about the society's morals and
reasonings. Of the ways Márquez does this, his use of honor as a motif is very clear to conveying
his goal and aspirations of ridiculing and questioning the Colombian society in which why he
To start off, the main character of the novel, Santiago Nasar, was horrifically murdered
and the book itself was about the retelling of the events that led up to his death. The perpetrators
of the murder were the Vicario brothers to whom believed that Santiago had sex with their sister
and took her virginity. Outraged in their newfound knowledge they brought it upon themselves
to kill Santiago ¨in legitimate defense of honor,¨(Márquez 48) because their sister no longer
could marry and this was a blemish to their family honor. What Márquez uses is the idea that the
whole story was about the society's belief in honor and the shear importance of it was worth
killing someone over it. Márquez ridicules such a society to believe that one family´s ¨honor¨ Beihl 2
being slightly tattered must result in someone´s death whether that someone is guilty or not. The
society's morals are inadequate and so Márquez took it upon himself to reveal that their honor
moral was unjust and lacked reasoning in the mid 20th century world.
Later, when it came to the court hearing of the brothers it was their time to attempt
justifying their reasonings and innocence. The brothers believed they were innocent for the
murder that even though they ¨killed [Santiago] openly,¨(Márquez 49) and admitted it to them
being guilty the fact of that ¨´it was a matter of honor´¨(Márquez 49) had made it justified and
alright that they killed Santiago Nasar. Representing the Colombian society, it would be common
that killers and murderers got off scott free from their crime for arguing that it was for their
honor that they committed the crime. As it is obvious that is not a justified or just moral so
Márquez used the novel to ridicule and question the Colombian society, that is it okay to kill
someone only over honor? These morals and beliefs somehow festered in a time period of
change in the world, where civil rights movements were occurring and people were becoming
equals yet one society is still killing each other for honor and Márquez is provoking the
Colombian society to change too because their morals were far from what they should be.
Lastly, the morals and beliefs of the Colombian society were shown and cemented further
when before the Vicario brothers murdered Santiago Nasar and had gone around town before. In
the time before the murder when the brother had went around town, they ¨had told their plans to
more than a dozen people,”(Márquez 58) and yet no one did anything to stop them or to save
Santiago Nasar. Even though news had spread and the whole town pretty much knew of what
was going to happen to Santiago Nasar not a word or action was brought to impede the plans
because everyone understood that it is was for honor. That the whole society decided to take a Beihl 3
rain check on saving Santiago Nasar because they (too an extent) had sided with the Vicario
brothers killing Santiago to preserve their honor. This exemplifies the Colombian morals the
collective belief that honor was to everyone worth killing someone for, and this is what Márquez
is so deeply attacking because it didn't belong and need to change. The Colombian beliefs were
in the time of the past and it was about time that they changed.
In conclusion, the novel, ¨Chronicle of a Death Foretold¨ by Gabriel Márquz is using the
motif of honor to ridicule and question the morals and beliefs of the mid 20th century Colombian
society. Everyone was changing and it was necessary that the society did too. Their morals were
wrong and did not belong in that time so Márquez questioned it to catalyze that change.
