Angela Vicario vs. Maria Cervantes

Essay by cschmickerCollege, UndergraduateB+, November 2014

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Downloaded 5 times
Keywords

Schmicker 5

Cierra Schmicker

October 20, 2014

María Alejandrina Cervantes vs. Angela Vicario

Would a prostitute or a young girl be considered more honorable? In the book "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" by Gabriel García Márquez the two characters in question of being the most honorable are María Alejandrina Cervantes and Angela Vicario. María is the most honorable because she is compassionate, and she is also loyal to the people she loves.

In comparing María and Angela they both were not stereotypical women of the 1950's. During this time, the stereotypical woman was a good housewife, because that was her main and basically only job. By being a good housewife that means being able to clean, cook, and to be completely pure before marriage. In the case of María and Angela, both women did not fall under this common social normalcy. Clearly, because of María's profession of being a prostitute, the chances of her being pure before marriage are slim to none, the narrator describes her as being "the most elegant and the most tender woman I have ever known, and the most serviceable in bed" (Márquez 64).

It was also recognized that Angela was not a virgin before marriage when Bayardo San Román returned her to her family's home after the wedding. (Márquez 46). It was clearly unknown by both Pura and Bayardo that Angela was not a virgin because "Bayardo San Román didn't enter, but softly pushed his wife into the house without speaking a word." (Márquez 46). Angela's mother, Pura, had raised Angela and her sisters to be housewives and would often say "Love can be learned too" (Márquez 35). Pura tried to keep Angela pure all of those years leading up to the wedding, so her disappointment was very high after Bayardo brought her...