Sarang Modi
Ms. Sloan
IB1 English B1
20 March 2014
Interactive Oral Reflective Statement
During this interactive oral activity, my interpretations of the novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold were drastically altered. Throughout the novella, Marquez made it clear that a murder mystery has to be solved, but the way he presents it is very tricky. Shreeya talked about the characterization of females in the novella, and how culture views them in our world compared to the novella. For me, I did realize the importance of women in the novella because of Angela’s role in it; however, I did not see it as important as the men. Shreeya stated that the culture in the book presented women being dependent on men, and people who kept honor in the family; however, comparing that to life today, men and women are viewed as equal. Additionally, Shreeya stated a unique theme of flowers in the book, and that it represents women as delicate people who have to conform to expectations around them. After hearing this, I realized that I was missing some key aspects of the novella and that women possibly played a huge role in Santiago’s murder. Furthermore into the discussion, Eshu presented the cult of machismo, which is basically the idea of being masculine and shying away from feministic views. This subject was very new to me and instead of realizing something that I had not while reading the book, I learned a new topic that relates to the novella very well. For example, Eshu says that the Vicario brothers relate to the cult of machismo because they have a masculine trait of thought, which is acting without thinking. Also, they held their sense of pride by showing their willingness to kill. The cult of machismo definitely added a more cultural aspect in the novel and also shows its influence in the novella overall. Despite all of this being true, Shashank made point that stood out against the cult of machismo. Prior to what he said, after hearing what Eshu said, I instantly...