In Latin American culture, machismo, a system that is geared towards celebrating men with “traditional” masculine features, particularly in interactions between men and women, is a common occurrence (Pederson 8). The concept of machismo as a manifestation of patriarchy serves to empower men in terms of authority and dominance over women, which ends up suppressing female participation and responsibilities (Ralph and Steven 19). This cultural mentality, which has roots in the way people think and behave, is displayed in double standards that sometimes undermine women’s efforts and contributions while acknowledging the work of men. The combination of feminism and machismo as motifs in Gabriel García Márquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” leads to a captivating interpretation, allowing the reader to see how characters deal with and occasionally resist the usual gender arrangement (Marquez). Showing how the machismo ethics puts more value on the work of men over the work of women, Marquez puts a magnifying glass on the limited power given to women like Purisima del Carmen Vicario, Maria Alejandrina Cervantes and Clotilde Armante in the novel The Product of their work is attributed to their male counterparts in the family even though those benefits were due to the work of women. This double standard results in the suppression of women and a weaker society because women never reach their full potential.
Pure sima del Carmen Vicario, despite being enacted as a strong matriarch with much control over the family, is limited by the rules of machismo. She devoted herself with such a spirit of sacrifice to the care of her husband and the rearing of her children that, at times, one forgot she still existed (García Márquez 18). Although she is the character in authority, she assigns the job of representing the family honour to her sons, which is a reflection of a situation where it is expected that men must restore the family’s reputation through their acts of violence. This implies that society is strongly inclined toward gender roles, as women are confined to domestic responsibilities and men are to maintain honour in the public space. Purisima’s demand of her sons to avenge Santiago Nasar’s honour killing reflects the rooted cultural ideas about men’s duties of sacrificing their lives for their family’s honour (Marquez 49). Cancio (5) stated that the machismo culture is reinstated in a patriarchal manner by societal norms being enforced by families. The practice of women lifting the entire burden of maintaining the family reputation only onto men reinforces the traditional gender notion and sustains the patriarchal power machinery (Goetz 5). Hence, the agency of women is underestimated as their place is restricted by subordination within the family unit. This projection of machismo implicitly denies women a sanctioned free will and, at the same time, propagates the prevalence of social norms that emphasize masculine power and superiority.
Clotilde Armenta is a female character from the novel who fights against gender-based marginalization within the economic sphere. Her contribution to the business’s day-to-day operations, especially the critical moments, is always unrecognized to her. However, her husband always gets credit for the business’s success (García Márquez 32). This discrepancy shows the problem of gender inequality, which prevails everywhere in every aspect of society; women’s work is often ignored or acknowledged by someone else (Choudhury and Shailendra 2). Clotilde’s bravery and capacity to take charge during the most important moments of the business operation seem to be the biggest factors contributing to the organization’s prosperity. Women in such patriarchal contexts are generally not financially independent, making their struggle for prestige more deafening and bringing the bigger picture into discussion (Chatterji 15). Thus, they bring all the problems a woman has to face to be independent and to appraise her on her own merits in a male-controlled environment.
María Alejandra Cervantes is a heroine of a different calibre. She boldly owns a brothel and challenges gender norms entirely (García Márquez 39). The business authority she can exert is limited, as she depends on male support and approval from the community. This complexity testifies to the contractiveness of women’s empowerment within the patriarchal structure, where women’s independence depends on the approval of the male order. The brothel owned and managed by Maria was countering the stereotypes of the female gender hierarchy, and she was portrayed as one who runs the show in a male-dominated society. Despite society’s attitude toward her profession, the double standards for women’s behaviour and sexuality are still applicable (Alvarez et al. 10). In the brothel. However, women are being controlled by men, and male customers are usurping their liberty; this points out that gender relations have a complex nature. Feminist scholars address Maria’s situation within a larger framework of women’s agency and rare professions, highlighting the obstacles and opportunities for empowerment in a patriarchal society.
Conclusion
In “Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” García Márquez not only exhibits his excellence in the deconstruction of the complicated relationship between machismo, gender prejudice, and social institutions, but he does so with an indispensable nuance that leads to insight into the everywhere-or-nowhere reach of patriarchy. The novel portrays this gender gap in the socks of Purisima, Clotilde and Maria, who are victims of discrimination against women and ways of restricting female permissiveness, for example, by imposing boundaries and limiting equal opportunities and double standards for women. García Márquez has marvellously woven together the twin strands of Latin American culture—feminist criticism and the wider narrative of our society. One is drawn to the story as if it is a compelling issue that cannot be ignored by those who want to understand the level and effects of the machismo culture within a given society. By doing so, he institutes dialogue for the reflection layer. By using an in-depth portrayal of the scene, he can make an invisible connection between power and freedom, and this inner strength of his leads to the eternal sign of human resilience in the face of torment.
References
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Choudhury, Sanghamitra, and Shailendra Kumar. “Gender discrimination and marginalization of women in North‐East India.” Journal of Public Affairs 22.4 2022: e2625.
García Márquez, Gabriel. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Vintage International, 1982.http://www.sxcsrannalibrary.co.in/sites/default/files/Chronicle%20of%20a%20Death%20Foretold-GABRIEL%20GARCIA%20MARQUEZ.pdf
Goetz, Anne Marie. “The politics of preserving gender inequality: de-institutionalization and re-privatization.” Oxford Development Studies 48.1 2020: 2–17.https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2019.1672144.
Pedersen, Charlotte. “Men, Machos and Masculinity.” https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=9001742&fileOId=9001748
Ralph, Brittany, and Steven Roberts. “Theories of men and masculinity, and their ability to account for positive change.” The Palgrave handbook of masculinity and sport 2020: 19–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19799-5_2.
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