Leo Tolstoy and Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Paper Summary:

This paper uses the author's tones in "Anna Karenina" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" to compare Leo Tolstoy's and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's cynical tone towards society. Both authors use satire and irony to criticize the corruption of society and the institution of marriage. The paper shows that Tolstoy focuses on his disapproval of the upper-class aristocracy, while Garcia Marquez satirizes society in general. Tolstoy does not present the aristocracy with much honor or morals, unlike Garcia Marquez who uses a town that, although is corrupted, still has a strong moral back bone.

From the Paper:

"Tolstoy and Garcia Marquez also differ in the amount of honor and morals that their characters contain. Tolstoy's mocking tone towards society is displayed when he is describing society's view towards adultery. Vronsky thinks of "the position of a man pursuing a married woman, and, regardless of everything, staking his life on drawing her into adultery, has something fine and grand about it, and can never be ridiculous" (Tolstoy 117). Adultery is not a fine or grand act; it is a sin that defies the purity of marriage. Tolstoy uses society's indifference towards adultery as a way to create irony because society permits adultery, as long as it does not break apart a family. Once Anna leaves her husband for Vronsky, society rejects her. Tolstoy displays how society approves of adultery as long as it does not disrupt the social arrangements of marriage."

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