The Holy Bible recommends to people who are in the role of authority, specifically that of religious authority, how to act in order to be a good leader when it states “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Peter 2:1). In addition to the characteristics of a good leader as stated by the bible, leaders should also have the responsibility of being role models and safeguard the lives of the people they serve. However, in Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the authority figures do not live up to these expectations and they ultimately fail at keeping the people they serve safe because of their own personal weaknesses and outside pressures. Marquez, who himself questioned the leadership in his native Columbia, uses his novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold to display accusatory depictions of political, religious, and moral leadership of legal systems by portraying the characters of the Bishop, Father Amador, and Colonial Aponte as failures at keeping both themselves and their town in order. The most failed authority figure in Chronicle of a Death Foretold is the Bishop. When the Bishop visits the town, all the townspeople are very excited and anxious to get his blessing. They gather gifts and crowd around…show more content… Like Father Amador, Colonial Aponte is aware of the murder plot of Santiago but he does not act to stop it claiming, “I thought it had all been a fib... Father Carmen Amador wasn't worried either” (36). A good authority figure would investigate just to make sure that a threat was only a fib but Colonel Aponte just brushes it off, even trying to get Father Amador to back him up. Colonial Aponte was selfishly preoccupied with dropping by to find out when the next domino game would be, rather than assuring the lives of the people under him, making him a failed authority
