What you believe is right or wrong are
your moral values. Every single person’s moral values vary, as one’s moral values
are influenced by one’s upbringing, culture, religion, and surrounding. Though the
specifics of each individual’s moral values vary, there are general agreements
with values: taking other’s belongings or possessions is considered immoral. This
includes stealing, robbing, and killing. Human life is considered the most
valuable possession a person could have; therefore taking other’s lives would
be considered the worst of all sins. In the Chronicle
of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, however, the characters seem
to have rather skewed moral values, as they didn’t seem to value life over
everything else.
Family honor, or rather, the social
appearance of a family was put before the life of others. In the Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the
Vicario brothers set out to murder Santiago Nasar, who allegedly had shamed the
Vicario name. The Vicario brothers believed that murder in the name of honor is
justified, as they openly said that they were innocent because “it was a matter
of honor.” They placed the concept of family honor before the life of a friend;
they defended their family name by murdering someone who allegedly shamed their
family, but with no solid proof. This goes against the general value that life
is the most precious of all. The Vicario brothers found it justified to kill
someone over the abstract concept of their family honor, it is shocking how
lightly they view life.
Though the Vicario brothers
originally did not want to actually kill Santiago, after having announced their
plan to the whole town and had been failed to stop, they reluctantly killed
Santiago to restore their family honor. There is evidence of internal struggle
in the Vicario brothers as they couldn’t uphold family honor and not kill
Santiago at the same time. It is evident they did not want to kill Santiago, but
the weight of upholding their family honor eventually caused them to; they
sacrificed a life for restoring their family name. This is their conflict with
this society rather than Santiago because it was expected of the Vicario
brothers to kill Santiago since honor was so upheld in their society, they
would have been ashamed if they didn’t. If this were to happen in the society
today, people would obviously value life over the supposed family honor, but in
the society in the Chronicle of a Death
Foretold, this was not the case.
Almost everyone in the town seemed
to have become an accomplice in the murder of Santiago Nasar unintentionally
due to their distorted moral values. No one who knew about the planned murder
seemed to take it seriously. Whether it’s the Colonel who went to check on the
time for his next game, the priest who forgot to warn Santiago because he was
preoccupied with the Bishop’s arrival, or the friends of Santiago who thought
other people would warn him; no one seemed to have taken life importantly.
The villagers’ malformed moral
values are seen after Santiago’s death as well. After Santiago was brutally
murdered, he was mercilessly dissected by an amateur pathologist. It is
sickening that even after a victim of distorted moral values dies; he could not
be given the most basic form of respect of resting in peace. In addition to
that, the perpetrators of Santiago’s death, Pedro and Pablo Vicario, were only
sentenced to three years in jail. This shows the worthlessness of life in that
society as murderers were given such a short time in jail for such a repulsive
crime. The villagers were not surprised by the length of the sentence when the
case was finalized, displaying their contorted moral values.
The only person who ran everywhere
and did everything he could to warn Santiago of the murder was his friend,
Cristo Bedoya. Though he seemed to be a very righteous man and a trustworthy
friend, his moral values are also misshapen. It was revealed that he would go
see Santiago’s lover, the town prostitute María Alejandrina Cervantes, behind
his back, even though she vowed she would not see anyone when Santiago is
present. This shows that even though Cristo Bedoya may have higher moral values
than his fellow villagers, his moral values are skewed as well because it is
wrong to be seeing one’s friend’s lover behind his back.
The characters in the Chronicle of a Death Foretold have
different moral values than what would be considered normal, since they
undervalue life. Had this story happened in modern society, it would have been
a scandalous case because the moral values of the characters are so conflicting
with the moral values of people presently. This was the purpose Gabriel Márquez
wanted to achieve, to traumatize the readers about the beliefs and values
present in the book, and to question the existence of these beliefs and values.
Even after thirty years since the book has been first published, hints and
traces of these beliefs and values are still seen in occasional horrific cases
around the world, leaving the readers unsettling.
