Sunday, June 19, 2011

The chronicles of a death foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (chapter 3, 4 and 5)

Summary:
    After Angela Vicario reveals Santiago's name to her brothers, they immediately go to the store, and pick out two of the best knives, and have them sharpened later on at the meat market. Pablo declared that they were going to kill Santiago Nasar. Because the twins brothers are known to be good people, nobody payed any attention to them, and never took them seriously. Although Pedro made the decision to kill Santiago, Pablo still insists on following through with the plan. The twins go to the milk shop, their knives wrapped in newspaper. Clothilde Armenta, the owner of the shop; knowing their plans, gives them rum, hoping to make them so drunk that they won't be able to do anything. In chapter 4, after murdering Santiago, both Vicario brothers' can't get Santiago's smell off them, nor can they sleep at night. They both go to prison, and the rest of the Vicario family moves away. In the last chapter of the book, the narrator explained that Santiago died without understanding why. This chapter also demonstrates the complicity of the town in the murder of Santiago Nasar, and shows how they saw themselves as spectators rather than actors.

Quote:
    "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." (marquez, 150)

Reaction:
    The speaker of this quote is Father Amador. Father Amador is an authority figures who had the power to stop the crime, but ended up being completely ineffective in preventing it. The bishop, the priest, a police officer, and the Colonel had all been warned that Santiago Nasar was going to be murdered by the Vicario twins, but none of them took this news seriously enough to take effective to prevent this murder from happening.

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