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Santiago And Cholly

Decent Essays

Santiago Nazar and Cholly Breedlove, two opposing men In both Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the male characters are affected by the social hierarchy of their communities. The novel written by Marquez is set in a small town of South America, and the official main character, Santiago Nazar, is described as a young, wealthy and handsome Arab man. In The Bluest Eye, the novel written by Toni Morrison, the story takes place in a small town of Ohio and portrays Cholly Breedlove, an abusive, alcoholic and violent Black father. These two individuals are both affected by the social rules which conduct their societies, such as machismo and racism. But even though Santiago and Cholly …show more content…

In The Bluest Eye, Cholly and his family belong to the Black community -which was at the time inferior to the white one- and moreover, they are ones of the poorest. Toni Morrison describes their accommodation, “The large ‘store’ area was partitioned into two rooms by beaverboard planks that dit not reach to the ceiling. There was a living room, which the family called the front room, and the bedroom, where all the living was done. […] There was no bath facilities.” (34-35). The rudimentary conditions in which Cholly lives illustrate his belonging to the lowest social class of all: the poorer of the poorest. Being aware of this fact, Cholly turned into an angry and defeated man. In contrast, in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Santiago is a proud and arrogant white man because he knows that he is one of the wealthiest of his town. Gabriel Garcia Marquez describes his accommodation, “The house was a former warehouse, with two stories, walls of rough planks, […] in back he built a stable for four animals, the servants’ quarters, and a country kitchen with windows opening onto the dock, […] In the front he built two full-length windows with lathe-turned bars” (10-11). This two stories house, with quarters dedicated for servants, highlights the prosperity of Santiago’s family. The contrast drawn between Cholly’s and Santiago’s housing and living conditions is …show more content…

Two terms designate someone who is separated from a group: other and outsider. But there is a subtlety: the “other” is the one perceived by the group as not belonging, whereas the “outsider” is only distanced from the group. In The Bluest Eye, Cholly is described as an “other”. Within his own community -the Black one- he has no acquaintances or friends. He only has a wife and two kids, who all hate him. One of his neighbor says, “Cholly Breedlove, then, a renting black, having put his family outdoors, had catapulted himself beyond the reaches of human consideration. He had joined the animals; was, indeed,an old dog, a snake, a ratty nigger.” (18). Cholly’s dehumanization by someone from the Black community emphasizes the fact that he is indeed perceived by the “group” as not belonging. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold however, Santiago is only described as an “outsider”. He is distanced from the “group” because he is Arab. In the small town in which the novel is set, the Arabs from a peaceful minority. Even though they are not rejected, they usually stay together and marry together. The narrator says about Santiago, “He had turned twenty-one the last week in January, and he was slim and pale and had his father's eyelids and curly hair. [...] They spoke Arabic between themselves, but not in front of Plácida Linero, so that she wouldn't feel excluded” (7). But Santiago’s ethnicity did

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