Woman at Point Zero by Saadawi and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez - Essay Example

To what extent is fate part of the protagonist in “Woman at point Zero” by Nawal El Saadawi and “Chronicle of a death foretold” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez dictated by the moral values of the culture in which they live? In Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, the protagonists’ reactions to the events affecting their lives are a direct outcome of their belief in the values of their society. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold the moral value in question is honor whereas in Woman at Point Zero it is attainment of power. These values determine the characters actions and thereby shape their fates. In Woman at Point Zero, the protagonist is manipulated and dishonored by a number of people in her life. She has no power over the events that happen to her. She gradually learns the value of power and money which enables one to gain control over others and that becomes the utmost aim in her life. “All my life I have been searching for something that would fill me with pride, make me feel superior to everyone else, including kings, princes and rulers.” Her life as a prostitute provides her a source of power she wields over men. Similarly honor as a moral value affects the lives of all the major characters in Chronicle of a Death Foretold as they exist in relation to a single major event. Santiago pays the price for supposedly dishonoring Angela. Angela pays the price for not being a virgin. The Vicario brothers have to commit a crime to defend the honor of their sister. Roman has to discard his wife because honor means everything to him. All the characters display a variety of emotions. They show both negative and positive streaks in their personalities. Although much of the narrative is focused on him, Santiago Nasar is an ambiguous character throughout the novel. The narrator says that “he was a child of a marriage of convenience” and that he is open hearted. His appreciation of valor, prudence, firearms and falconry comes from his father, who is no longer alive. The narrator also says that Santiago would have seduced Divina Flor, just as his father seduced her mother, Victoria Guzman. As the narrator says “She never missed a chance to keep her daughter away from the claws of the seigneur.” The narrator strongly implies that Santiago was innocent of the crime. It is also evident by Santiagos confused words right before his death that he had no idea what he was being killed for. “His manner reflected not so much fear as confusion.” His innocence is also brought out by the fact that he was never seen alone with Angela. “They belonged to two completely different worlds. No one had ever seen them together, much less alone together.” But on the other hand, he would have had sex with Divina Flor if given the opportunity, so it is doubtful that he would not do so with Angela Vicario if given an opportunity. Angela Vicario can be said to be the main character of the story. She is center of the mystery that the narrator is trying to unravel, since she is the only one who knows who truly took her virginity, and she remains mysterious at the end of the story because she never reveals whether or not Santiago was guilty. “She would recount it in all its details to anyone who wanted to hear it, except for one item that would never be cleared up: who was the real cause of her damage and how and why.” As a young girl, she was the most beautiful of her four sisters. However, the narrator says she had a "helpless air and a poverty of spirit that augured an uncertain future for her." The narrator says that her "penury of spirit had been aggravated by the years." Angela says she did not wish to marry Santiago because she felt that he did not court her, but merely ingratiated himself with her family. However, her parents would hear none of her objections; her mother told her that love could be learned. “The parents’ decisive argument was that a family dignified by modest means had no right to disdain that prize of destiny.” When the narrator went to visit her years later, she answered all his questions "with very good judgment and a sense of humor." When he asks her once again if Santiago Nasar was the guilty party who had taken her virginity, she replied: "Dont beat it to death, cousin. He was the one." Though she seems like an honest person, it is difficult to tell whether she would have been willing to reveal the name of the man who truly took her virginity, especially if she still had feelings for him. “The most perverse version was that Angela was protecting someone who really loved her” The motif of honor is as central to the novel as in the culture of the Colombian town in which the narrative takes place. All of the characters in the novel are influenced by this concept of honor. For instance Pablo’s fiancée justifies his act of killing Santiago as defense of honor “I never would have married him if he hadn’t done what a man should do” Márquez uses magical realism in Chronicle of a Death Foretold to illustrate anecdotal digressions or details about characters. In the opening of the book, the narrator discusses the dream that Santiago Nasar has right before his death: "Hed dreamed he was going through a grove of timber trees where a gentle drizzle was falling, and for an instant he was happy in his dream, but when he awoke he felt completely spattered with bird shit," making it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction The novels style is like a ritual. There is repetition of the events surrounding a crime. It does not follow a traditional narrative arc, but goes back and forth through past, present and future as the narrator provides random, fragmentary information with which to piece all the events together. However, it’s more like a ritual of investigation providing no discoveries or results. The narrator focuses on collecting others views of the day of the murder, neglecting to give the reader a comprehensive picture of the victim of the crime. In Woman at Point Zero, Firdaus the protagonist is manipulated by all the elders in her life. All the major decisions in her life are taken on her behalf by her elders or the men. Fridaus’ life becomes a resistance against her male dominated society. She never takes delight in relationships with men. She needs to be treated as equal which in no way occurs within the ‘respectable’ life of an office assistant. As a prostitute Firdaus has no need to show respect toward even the most powerful of men and thus gains her own dignity and free will. Symbols like money play an important part in the novel. When Firdaus learns about the monetary value of her body, she realizes that she can command the men instead of being at their mercy. Money becomes very important to Firdaus as it has the ability to clear her name when she is slandered. But by the time she kills the pimp and demands money from the prince, money becomes a symbol of hypocrisy. In Firdaus’s world, men don’t want women to have power over them. By condemning her work as a prostitute as shameful, they try to minimize her power. For them respectable women are women who are submissive and live under the protection of a powerful man. The motif of captivity is central to the novel. For Fridaus, life outside the prison was one that she spent in captivity. She did not attain mental freedom until she got to prison. Captivity, for Firdaus, is living under someone else’s power. It means not being able to make choices. Though Firdaus is waiting to die in prison, she considers herself freer than anyone else in the world. Firdaus looks forward to death because it means that she will have a second chance. Though she is behind bars, she feels free. When she finally agrees to meet with Nawal, it is only in order to spread a message of truth and to do further damage to the world that abused her before she dies. “Her voice continued to echo in my ears, vibrating in my head, in the cell, in the prison, in the streets, in the whole world, shaking everything, spreading fear wherever it went, the fear of the truth which kills, the power of truth, as savage, and as simple, and as awesome as death, yet as simple and as gentle as a child that has not yet learnt to lie.” Thus it is seen that the protagonists are forced to act in different ways by the moral values of the society which in turn decides their fate. By Aris Gulami Word count: 1510 Read More