Social Duty Essay, Research Paper

Social Duty. Society invents morals, morals that are used to determine what is right and what is wrong. Morals differ as societies differ. However, in today s environment, more and more societies grow alike, although in doing so they have conflicting views and morals. This is defined as social modernization, where societies climb over obstacles and choose their uniform morals and views of what is right and wrong. Once such morals in a society are made, individuals in the society who act rightfully under these morals are justified. However they might not be justified in other differing societies. In the novel, Chronicle Of A Death Foretold, the author, Gabriel Marquez exposes the conflicting views and morals of a single changing society. In this society, two brothers are justified, when they kill another fellow human being, in the name of honor, however the laws of the land require the imprisonment of the brothers.The two brothers Pablo and Pedro Vicario are required to recover their family honor when their younger sister is disgraced. Their younger sister Angela Vicario, is rejected by her husband when he finds out that she is not a virgin. In order to recover their honor, the brothers are placed with the duty to find and kill the man who took the virginity of their sister. The sister says that a rich young man named Santiago Nasar, took her virginity. Santiago is a good friend of Pablo and Pedro, however duty requires them to kill him. Clotilde Armenta, a character in the novel senses that ” the Vicario brothers [are] not as eager to carry out the sentence as to find someone who would do them the favor of stopping them(p.65).” Clotilde feels very sorry for what the Vicario brothers have to do, she tells the Mayor to arrest them, but the he just takes away their knives and tells Clotilde that he can t arrest them for a crime they haven t done. She replies, “That s not why It s to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty that s fallen on them(p.65).” However, the mayor dismisses her advise and leaves.

Furthermore, the brothers are further reminded that ” There is no way out of this It s as if it had already happened(p.70).” In fact, the Vicario brothers are further supported, by Pablo s fianc e, Prudencia Cotes, who admits that ” [She] didn t only agree, but [she] never would have married him if he hadn t done what a man should do(p.72).” Even though the brothers realize that there was no way they could get out of this, they try their very best to get someone to stop them. They tell everyone they met of their plans, many of the people they tell don t believe them, and think that they are drunk. However, none of them directly took the responsibility to inform Santiago Nasar. In turn, Santiago Nasar is murdered very brutally. When the brothers are arrested, they plead innocent, not because they didn t kill Santiago, but because they did it for honor. When they are sentenced they show no guilt for what they did. They are also sentenced very lightly, and live in the prison with many extraordinary privileges. In this way they are justified by their society, and are semi-justified by their government for its leniency. Different societies have different morals. In this particular society that Marquez creates is a society that puts a lot of importance in honor. In the society that the Vicario brothers are brought up in, what they did is expected and justified, however in most of today s modern societies, such acts are considered atrocious and immoral. The question isn t whether they are justified, but by whom are they justified?