Human Selfishness and Ignorance Portrayed in Gabriel...

In the story Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez portrays how the bystander effect impacts the people around Santiago Nasar to act submissively revealing how people do not want to help others in difficult situations, unless it directly affects them. Marquez informs readers how individuals only see the different ways for personal gain, thereby not having â€Å"time† to help others in need. As Santiago Nasar nears his death, many of those who are informed of it do nothing to save his life, as they all rely on others to help rather than taking matters into their own hands and stepping up. Ignorance by specific townspeople, like Angela Vicario, Lazaro Aponte, Clotilde Armenta, and even a friend, Cristo Bedoya. Each person’s†¦show more content†¦The fact that she gave a death sentence to an innocent man proves just how selfish people are in the world. People do anything to get by in the world without ever causing shame to them. Though in Angelaâ₠¬â„¢s case, the shame was already brought when she let the man who truly took her virginity sway her into bed. The readers can safely assume that she was not raped or pressured into having sex, because she would not have any reason in trying to protect the man who ruined her innocence’s image. Angela herself decided that in saying the name of a random man would result better for her than in telling the truth. Even after 23 years, Angela Vicario â€Å"was protecting someone who really loved her and she had chosen Santiago Nasar’s name because she thought her brothers would never dare go up against him† (90). Though she thought her brothers would not do anything drastic for their family name, like killing Nasar, she easily saw where it was all leading to, yet she claimed unawareness to the future fate of an innocent man. Taking initiative requires more than just one attempt to help out a friend in need. Being the head of the police in town, Colonel Lazaro Aponte did not do as much as he could have in helping try to save Nasar’s life. Aponte first hears of the Vicario brothers’ plot to kill Santiago Nasar early morning from one his officers. Aponte did not take this threat seriously as he was tired of settling so many fights between friends before. After finishing