Social System in Gabriel Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death...

Social System in Gabriel Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Albert Camus’s The Stranger â€Å"Like father, like son† the old saying goes. And naturally this is so, for if the parent lacks morals, logically the child will too. Just as parents shape their children, authority figures shape their societies. Authority figures have great impact on the common people, for if they act in dishonest or fraudulent manners, the society considers it acceptable to do the same. Such reflections between authority figures and society are seen throughout Gabriel Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Albert Camus’s The Stranger. With societies constantly looking to authority figures for guidance, Marquez and Camus satirically depict folly in†¦show more content†¦Thus, the community does not prepare to show the bishop their support for the Church, but instead in hopes that the gifts would bring individual benefits. Through Marquez’s narration, a reader realizes the facade that the society creates. By immediately establishing the religious commun ity as a self-seeking body, Marquez paves the way for a parallelism between the authority figures and society. The religious authority figures referred to within Marquez’s novel, specifically the bishop, prove their hypocrisy according to the morals of Christianity/Catholicism. Commonly accepted, Christianity teaches a person the qualities of forgiveness, acceptance, and love. Thus, a strong religious leader teaches his people this behavior andguides the community to live by such ideals. Ironically, the bishop in Chronicle of A Death Foretold exhibits great apathy toward his people. For some reason that remains unmentioned throughout the novel, the bishop has an aversion to the Caribbean island. In fact, he only blesses the town due to mere obligation. The blessing shows little devotion, for the bishop simply makes â€Å"the sign of the cross in the air opposite the crowd on the pier,† a blessing â€Å"without malice or inspiration†(Marquez 19). As the highest leader of the Church, the bishop ought to promote Christian principles throughout his actions. The