answer any essay question on honor in Chronicle of a Death for told with this simple breakdown today we're going to go over a few key aspects of this theme and how you can wind them together to write 10 out of 10 essay topics on this tricky text if by the end of this video you're still stuck on how to answer your essay prompt drop it in the comments down below and I'll respond with how I would plan and answer it the characters in Chronicle of a Death were told and deeply preoccupied with their honor the town is characterized by traditional expectations as the contention of these is tantamount in some cases to social death in the town honor is many people's Best Kept possession and it can have life-changing or even threatening consequences decides to marry Angela because she's well- named and after she loses this reputation Santiago is killed so that the seduced sister was in possession of her honor once more to start with let's have a look at some sample topics you may get and break them down the first thing to note is that nearly all of them follow the standard fancy quote or statement plus variation on is this true format this means that your task is to write a thousand words on some reasons why this might be true and some reasons why it might not if you want an overview of the two easiest ways to break down prompts of this kind please check out our video which goes through all the principles in detail in this case we're dealing with the theme of Honor so there are a few key things to keep in mind firstly honor is quickly revealed to be the town's most deeply defended value the people are of a prudish disposition and as the narrator's mother Louisa Santiago says honor is love to be Dishonored as Angela Vicario and even Santiago Nar are is to become dirt and despite these characters losing their reputation and life respectively B San Raman is considered by the town to be the only one who had lost everything not only does no one question actions done in the name of Honor but some people such as pentia coats and her mother expect them as pentia later tells the narrator I knew what they were up to and I didn't only agree I never would have married him if he hadn't done what a man should do likewise her mother tells her sons that honor doesn't wait encouraging them before the killing but even if other characters don't support the murder so explicitly many of them in fact outwardly condemning it those who could have done something to prevent the crime and still didn't do it consult themselves with the pretext that Affairs of Honor are sacred monopolies with access only for those who are part of the drama in this way the characters in the novel condone murder through their inaction an easy first body paragraph on the topic of Honor would just be setting the scene you could use this paragraph to outline the social and historical context in which the piece was written focus on aspects of the novel which show How Deeply these people view the importance of Honor I would describe how pontio Vicario Lost His sight from doing so much fine work in gold in order to maintain the honor of the house and how Angelo Vicario prayed to God for the courage to kill herself before the wedding further you could explore how an insult to pray not only invites a response but sometimes requires a horrible Duty the Vicario brothers killing of Santio Nar is the clearest example but even Pur Vicario beating Angela after she's returned home would count the above examples of pentia and her mother would also work to emphasize the town's entrenched expectations of a response to insulted honor there are a few ways to add to this if you have the space in interest discussions of Honor can be viewed through lenses of religion class and gender if you wanted to go even further you could mention father amador's response to the Vicario Brothers assertion of Innocence before God an irony since the Christian faith preaches that thou shalt not kill it seems that the town's experiencing a kind of cultural cognitive dissonance on the one hand they're Christian but on the other their deeper older cultural practices of Honor are more important than any of the frivolities of organized religion this is not unlike the practices of the Italian-American mob in the last century ostensibly devout Italian Catholics they somehow managed to square their religion with the everyday brutality and crime of their profession it would only be worth getting into the intersection between class and honor if you were sure that you could stay on track but if I were to get into this I'd consider the appeal of be sun ran to the town he's described in the style of magical realism like a fairy and it appears that most of the town's people view him with a sense of wonder as if he can do no wrong only the narrator's mother and possibly the narrator himself view Bato with any skepticism whether he really is this amazing is questionable especially following his drunken collapse alone and with the lights out in the Widow of Z's happy Farmhouse the crossover between gender and honor is big enough to constitute its own paragraph So for some essays this might make a good paragraph to honor is an almost entirely gendered Concept in the text the Vicario family is exemplary the brothers were brought up to be men the girls had been red to get married women are expected to take care of the home in its entirety and the best girls will be able to do screen embroidery sew by Machine weave bone lace wash an iron make artificial flowers and fancy candy but most importantly they must be raised to suffer so that any man will be happy with them one of the greatest symbols of Honor for a woman is her virginity the motif of the bed stain a man's Honor on the other hand is tied to his respect within the town the Fidelity of his wife and his ability to defend both hence what factors determine a person's honor or reputation are directly tied to their gender let's return to our prompt if I were to answer any of these I could definitely make my first paragraph about the social preconditions for automotivated actions a perfectly good topic sentence might look something like Chronicle of a Death Foretold explores the intense and pervasive social expectations of honor and its defense in 1950s Colombia though if necessary you could modify this a little to match the specific topic more closely for the second body paragraph a good approach to the text would to ask what happens in the middle of the chronicle most of the text is about how and why the murder is able to take place honor is certainly a precondition but several other things augment or expedite the completion of the event for one there's fate additionally there are the actions and omissions of the town I categorize these into three broad categories deliberate action indirect condoning and human weakness or Frailty those who take a deliberate role in enabling the violence apart from the Vicario Brothers themselves include Victoria Guzman deciding not to war Santiago because in the depths of her heart she wanted them to kill him and possibly even Flora Miguel Santiago's fiance who claimed in her emotional Outburst that she hoped they would kill him these characters are largely driven by emotion the town's people who either do nothing or gossip the information along without warning Santiago a guilty of condoning the murder indirectly clld de armenta is a particularly interesting example for all her insistence to her customers that they worn San Diego not once did she leave her shop to visit the nissar household which was visible from her window perhaps the worst among these are the ostensible leaders of the Town father Amador and the mayor Colonel Lazaro Aponte whose weakness and incompetence constitute some of the most disappointing enablers of San Diego's death after confiscating the vicaria brother's knives the mayor didn't think of Santiago and Nar again until he saw him on the docks before the murder and then he congratulated himself for having made the right decision to have simply taken their knives rather than locking them up like Father Amador intended to say something in passing to Plaid lero but had forgotten completely by the time he crossed the square his excuse is that you have to understand the bishop was coming on that unfortunate day for the priest the official ceremonies of religion are more important than its actual teachings despite being a minister in a religion which condemns killing father Amador claims it wasn't any business of mine but something for the Civil Authorities and that he didn't think he could do anything for Santiago Nar except save his soul a rather Bland relinquishing of agency for such an important symbolic figure so if we recap where we are so far we have quite a comfortable first body paragraph about the social realities of Honor in 1950s colia and a variety of things we could talk about in body paragraph 2 the impact of Fate on the plot selfish or personal motives and negligent or disappointing leadership any of these could also be used as a third body paragraph so we could end here however we should check each of our sample prompts to see whether or not we can tailor for any of them an especially interesting or especially relevant third body paragraph So let's go through each of them quickly in turn this question sits apart a little for giving you the scope to go far beyond honor you're asked about the driving forces in the town Chronicle of a Death for told suggests that honor is the driving force of Colombia to what extent do you agree in this case I would have at least one paragraph on honor the other paragraphs could be any of the Alternatives we gave for body paragraph 2 so this topic would be reasonably easily dealt with we're being asked for what dictates or causes events in this one misguided Notions of Honor dictate the events of Chronicle of a Death Foretold do you agree so again we're more focused on how the tragedy comes about than on honor itself you could use the same plan as for the previous topic just making sure to change your topic sentences and the way you frame the argument Alterna if you wanted to answer the topic a little more specifically I would focus on the social requirements for Honor so our standard first body paragraph and then how these Notions of Honor caused not only Santiago's death but also the return of Angela her beating and B's subsequent collapse and for my third body paragraph another Factor such as incompetence the town's complicity or fate which contributed to and eventually enabled these tragedies much of the trouble in Chronicle of a Death for told is caused by a preoccupation With Honor discuss I could answer this topic in much the same way one the first one asks about how honor affects the plot while the second this one asks about how much of the plot is caused by Honor they're similar enough that you can keep the same ideas and evidence and just tailor the wording with which you frame it the next two are a little more specific to honor so let's see how we can attack those for the town's people in Chronicle of a Death for told on is the highest value to what extent is this true this topic is less about the causes of the tragedy than about the values of the town's people themselves so we have to adapt our plan here a little one way we could do this is to split our initial paragraph on the social conditions into two factors General expectations for honor and Honor's gender Dimension how men and women have different standards for Honor alternatively I would brainstorm different values of the Town social expectations ations family even gossip or Community Norms each of these could make a solid body paragraph probably the easiest structure overall though would be something like a discussion of the value of each of Honor gender roles and family one body paragraph each and in that order how does Chronicle of a Death for told explore the difficulties of fulfilling one's duty here when not not being asked about how honor contributes to the events or even how it ranks among the other values the town's people hold this entire question is just about whether or not fulfilling duty is easy to answer this I would use the true true false framework from our video and Essay planning and to start with I would think through a list of every single character in the text asking myself for each of them does this person either fulfill or run away from a duty of some kind and as a result does their character Arc show that they find this juty hard or easy once I've got two lists covering all the characters I would consider for the characters who land on the majority side why do they find Judy hard or easy this will split the bigger half of the evidence into two sub paragraphs pretty soon we'd end up with something like body paragraph 1 exploring how for many honor is a deeply entrained V which compels even distasteful action which becomes a little bit of a sneaky body paragraph one as we had before on the community valuation of Honor in terms of my examples I would talk about how Louisa santiaga and Christo badya try to save Santio Nar and how it pushes them to act if if you wanted to talk about even the distasteful aspects of fulfilling honor you could talk about the Vicario Brothers for my second body paragraph I would say that however those who run away from honorable action reveal that sometimes the pain of Shame is more comfortable than the pain of action as well so my examples here would be father Amador the mayor and possibly the town's people again if you're super shrewd you might have noticed that in the end we're still talking about the same themes as above we've just kind of worded them to be a little bit more in line with this topic for body paragraph 3 we could use any of the following despite following the mandates of Honor characters can still be left with a sense of guilt or unease for example the Vicario brothers are unable to sleep in their cells and they're followed by the smell of Santio Maria similarly is followed by Santio smell we could even use as evidence any quotes showing the town's people's ostensible guilt after the murder or if I wanted to take a slightly different interpretation for this body paragraph that those who ignore the Call of Duty might equally be followed by guilt and you could discuss here father Amador as well as the town's people again the town's people could fit into either category depending on whether you think they have fulfilled their duties or not and the argument can go every way there you have it a simple framework for dealing with any essay topic in Chronicle of a Death for told comment below if you have questions if you found this helpful please pass it on thank you so much for making it to the end of this video if you would like more content like this please hit subscribe and if you found this valuable please hit 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