How does Gabriel Garcia Marquez use Honour to make the town responsible for the death of Santiago Nasar in Chronicle of Death Foretold?
Latin American culture is infused with the ideology of ‘honour’, and an obligation to this system of belief plays a pivotal role in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1981 novel ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’. Considered both a prized personal possession and a crucially important expression of one’s public self, honour lies at the heart of the individual male characters as well as the institutions of the Church and State, underpinning the action and driving the plot of the novel. Marquez conveys the power of a collective commitment to honour by highlighting and exploring the effects a code of silence that allows a town to accept responsibility for the murder of Santiago Nasar and essentially enables the individual characters of Pablo and Pedro Vicario to escape punishment.
The novel follows the sequence of events that lead to the murder of Santiago Nasar and the reason that the Vicario twins committed the murder. The main justification that many saw was that the twins had for their actions was to defend the honour of their family and due to how important honour is within Latin American culture they had an obligation to murder Santiago Nasar. The notion of shared liability for the murder of Santiago Nasar is seen with how the Church accepts the Vicario twins immediately after they commit the murder. After the twin’s murder Santiago Nasar, they run to the church, not for atonement, but because they would be safe from the Arabs who were chasing them and when they got to the church the twins “were comforted by the honour of having done their duty, and the only thing that worried them was the persistence of the smell”, the smell being that of death. The fact that they run to the church as a safe place after committing a horrendous crime as well as how they were comforted after killing a man solely by the fact that they had restored honour to their family illustrates how honour is such a vital role in the town’s culture as it is able to shape the nature of the church and its views as to what is right or wrong. The twins confess their sins to Father Amador “We killed him openly, but we’re innocent”. “Perhaps before god?” “Before God and before man”, “It was a matter of honour”. The use of simplistic but direct diction by the twins indicates their tone during this stage of the novel. It gives the twins an aura of certainty and confidence showing the reader that their duty to honour has made them so confident in themselves that they can kill without conscience, ‘before God and before man’. The act of two men committing a murder with blood still on their hands whilst running into a church, a place of good, and being accepted for committing such and evil act creates a stark contrast. This powerful juxtaposition of murders being accepted and protected in the purest of places allows for the importance of honour to be highlighted to the reader once more, as they learn that honour can allow for situations such as this murder, to unfold without judgement. This is coupled with the acceptance of Father Amador to the murder, reinforces the notion of how honour plays such an invaluable role throughout the town that it has the capability to silence the church and its views, which in a western culture would be seen as a disgrace to the church. Due to the fact that honour is able to influence such a major pillar of the town highlights how honour is such a fundamental aspect of Latin American culture as it is able to shape the church against its normal views and accept the murder of a man in the name of honour. In addition, if a prominent power within the town such as the accepts the murder, the citizens in the town are left with no option but to accept the murder themselves, indicating how the ability of honour to silence the church and hence the rest of the town has led to the town as a whole becoming responsible for the murder of Santiago Nasar.
The adherence to a code of honour underpins the legal and justice system within the town and in turn leads to the town having a shared liability in the murder of Santiago Nasar. The power of honour over the justice system is made prominent through the Vicario twins murder, Honour not only plays a small part in the trial but is the basis of it “The lawyer stood by the thesis of homicide in legitimate defence of honour, which was upheld by the court in good faith” (pg48). This extract highlights how honour is not only respected more than the justice system but how it has actually shaped it into a completely altered version. The legal jargon “homicide in legitimate defence of honour” is in an invert of the expected as many would expect honour to be the defence of homicide however it is the opposite which occurs. This illustrates how honour has the ability to shape the justice system within the community into something drastically different when compared to that of a “normal” justice system allowing for a murder of a man to be almost overlooked. In addition, the fact that the claim “was upheld in good faith” reinforces how honour has established itself as its own power within the community, that a court trial is done to defend a man’s honour not the man murdered, and as it was upheld by the jury in “good faith” demonstrates how although people may not want to believe that this was the best action to take it was the only one the twins could take. This completely slanted view as to what is regarded as “good faith” highlights how Honour has the capability to alter peoples’ actions despite what they truly want to do. The ability of honour to predetermine everyone’s decisions about a murder no matter their thoughts, illustrates how honour is such a vital part of this town and Latin American culture and hence leads to everyone becoming accountable to the murder of Santiago Nasar as they accept honour as a defence for homicide.
The idea of everybody being accountable for Santiago Nasar’s murder is clearly shown through how the prominent figures within the town don’t try to stop the murder even though they know it is going to occur. “Don Lázaro Aponte, a colonel from the academy, and town mayor for eleven years, waved to him with his fingers. "I had my own very real reasons for believing he wasn't in any danger anymore," he told me. Father Carmen Amador wasn't worried either. "When I saw him safe and sound I thought it had all been a fib,". This quote shows how two major pillars of the community legal of the mayor of the town and religious of Father Amador choose to ignore the murder despite have knowledge it was going to occur. The imagery of “safe and sound” by Colonel Aponte is incredibly ironic as although he is trying to create the image of Santiago being perfectly fine, he is the complete opposite and is being hunted and results in not having a “safe and sound” ending. This ironic comment by the Colonel when he knew that the Santiago was going to be murdered directly shows how honour has forced him to stay silent and hence responsible for Santiagos’ murder. This lack of action by vital members of the community shows how the honour system embedded in the society has caused the whole town to become accountable for the murder of Santiago Nasar.
To conclude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez examines the role of honour in South American culture and its effect on the inhabitants of a small town rocked by the murder of Santiago Nasar. Marquez demonstrates how honour has the ability to predetermine peoples actions no matter their thoughts, leading to the whole town becoming accountable and liable for the murder of Santiago Nasar. Honour silences the major powers within the town, with the church, religion and Father Amador accepting a murder and seeing them as innocent. Whilst the justice system seeks to defend the honour of the murders not to convict them of the murder they committed. This lack of authority in stopping and convicting the Vicario Twins in their murder shows the importance of honour in South American culture that it underpins and in essence controls the systems and hence leads to the town having shared liability in the murder of Santiago Nasar.
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