Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover

Here we have a story about the unfortunate death of Santiago Nasar, a wealthy, well-respected townsman. However, it is not his death that is most interesting in this story, it is what lies beneath his death that is really the intriguing part. Underlying the vicious death is a town of beggars, of workers, of the wealthy, and of the poor. It is a conglomeration of economically varied people who happen to share the same values. This town is not your ordinary town though. Suspicious behavior has clouded its courtyards and its grassy knolls—behavior that would be seen as irrational, gruesome, and irresponsible in our culture but is acceptable and even expected in this particular place, demonstrating that what is praised and honored in one culture can be criticized or condemned in another. We see women as having a choice to be abstinent until marriage whereas those from some Latin American countries, like the characters in the novel, believe that a woman should remain pure until she becomes a wife. In a culture that accepts the promiscuities of men and values the purity of women, a murder such as Santiago Nasar’s was bound to happen eventually. Also playing a crucial role in the cause of this murder was the pressure to uphold one’s family reputation and honor. With these two factors and with the help of a seemingly apathetic town, Santiago Nasar was stabbed to death by the two Vicario brothers, Pablo and Pedro.

Could the town have stopped these two men from killing Santiago Nasar or did they even want to stop this murder? The motives of the individuals in the town are questionable. We readers are aware of many possible instances when a member of the town could have spoken up or tried to physically stop the brothers, but many of these times, they do nothing but think to themselves is this murder really going to happen. It is clear that some witnesses genuinely did not think Pablo and Pedro would really go through with the murder since they have always been nice boys and have done nothing to contradict that fact. Another variable was that wedding celebrations for Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman have been going on for the past few days and therefore when the men declared their plans people saw it as a drunken thought that would go anyway the next morning once they sobered up. Because of the brothers reputation and the wedding circumstances, many of the townspeople simply did not think twice about an actual murder taking place in their town and brushed the silly boys off when they came around with sharpened knives in their hands. However, there were some other characters whose motives for not doing anything when informed about the possible murder were not as simple. Victoria Guzman and her daughter Divina Flor are a prime example. Ms. Guzman, the Nasar family cook, had a past with Santiago’s father. She said she was seduced by Ibrahim Nasar and when she noticed that his son, Santiago, was doing the same thing to her daughter she was appalled. In the event of Santiago’s death, the two women secretly disclosed all information, which if they had informed Santiago of early that morning, it might have changed the outcome of the day. Colonel Lazaro Aponte, Clothilde Armenta, Maria Cervantes, and the man in the knife shop are all also responsible for Santiago's death. They could have taken more forceful actions to prevent his death, but instead, chose to rely on other to do so. Therefore, the whole town, some inadvertently, played a major role in the death of Santiago Nasar.

By emphasizing the actions of all witnesses, not only the ones of the crime but also of the two brothers declaring their plan to kill, Marquez successfully shows that the motives of people other than the murderers are just as important as those of the murderers themselves. He also demonstrates that what lies on the surface is not always what is important but rather what we are not able to see at first glance.
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