Extract 5.

1 Group Oral
Global Issue: Bystander Effect
paragraph 1
● [nat’s portion: “Affairs of honour are sacred monopolies” demonstrates that the town
values a sense of honor code more than involvement in culture. They believe that one
should not involve themselves in situations that they have no place in.
● “Honour is love” is ironic in that, within machismo culture and ideologies, concepts
regarding ‘love’ aren’t valued as much as honor code is in their society. Women are seen
to be treated with little respect, and ideas relating to love such as monogamy are not
valued. ]
● Baute’s, Villeros’s, and Flor’s lives after Santiago’s death
○ Magical realism, karma for being bystander: terrible events were karma for little
having been done in to prevent Nasar’s death.
● Linero’s life after his death
○ “never forgive herself”
○ “pepper cress seeds”
■ Symbolism, many benefits one is memory booster
● tried to save him but still feel guilty
○ Misinterpreted dream; mixed up trees of good health with birds which are unlucky
paragraph 2
● Ironic, community suddenly eager to be involved in Nasar’s death after having ignored it.
why now? This demonstrates the hypocrisy of the community.
○ “everyone is eager to show off his own important role in the drama”
○ “pouring to testify”
● not being able to find magistrate
○ no files of him
mysterious aspect to his case. little importance was placed on Santiago's death and that's why the
narrator had such a difficult time tracing it. i think we can mention that little importance was
placed on Nasar's case because the town was respecting the honor code of his death and everyone
involved in it. ideals of machismo and honor code culture believe that a community should not
involve themselves in business that doesn't relate to them. so the community probably wanted to
disregard the case as soon as possible, which also builds the sense of curiousity and myster

What we are going to say

(make sure to connect something with the person before you)
Natalia (Intro/assertion + honour):
Intro: The author utilizes irony, symbolism, details, and ideas of magical realism within the
passage in order to express the consequences of the bystander effect when honor codes are
valued.
- “Affairs of honour are sacred monopolies” Symbolism. demonstrates that the town values
a sense of ‘sacred’ honor code more than involvement/assisting other within their
community in their culture. The people believe that one should not involve themselves in
situations that they have no business or place in. This is directly a result of the taught
ideals of machismo, exemplifying the reluctance to aid others, correlating with an “every
man for himself” philosophy.
- “Honour is love” Irony. is ironic in that, within machismo culture and ideologies,
concepts regarding ‘love’ are not valued as much as honor code is in their society.
Women are seen to be treated with little respect, and ideas relating to love such as
monogamy are not valued or practiced.

Joyce (First paragraph - karma + symbolism):

- Baute’s, Villeros’s, and Flor’s lives after Santiago’s death
○ Magical realism, karma for being bystander: terrible events were karma for little
having been done in to prevent Nasar’s death.
- Linero’s life after his death
○ “never forgive herself”
○ “pepper cress seeds”
■ Symbolism, many benefits one is memory booster
■ tried to save him but still feel guilty
■ punish herself forever

Chasa (irony of community):

★ “Drinking pot coffee laced with cane liquor”
○ Details
■ The purpose of this is to highlight how unbearable the townspeople were
to the magistrate
■ The magistrate needed the coffee for the energy to begin to deal with these
people and the purpose of lacing the coffee with cane liquor is so he could
be a little buzzed and overall less present while talking to the townspeople,
as they are overbearing when they are given the opportunity to be selfish
■ Plays into the next idea of how the community is selfish and showing the
bystander effect
○ “Everyone eager to show off his own important role in the drama”
■ Irony of the townspeople finally paying attention to the murdering of
Santiago Nasar and caring about his death. They all knew what was to
 come they day of Santiago Nasar’s death; they l knew that his fate rested
in the hands of the Vicario twins, yet they did nothing to stop them
because all of the townspeople assumed that someone else would warn
Santiago Nasar about the Vicario twins’ plans. This is exactly what the
Bystander effect is; the social psychological claim that individuals are less
likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater
the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.
Because the magistrate is there showing some level of concern for the
death of Santiago Nasarr, the whole town now begins to act upon the
incident like his death holds significance to them and that they themselves
hold significance to his death, displaying this self importance that they feel
and overall this selfishness mentality that is ever so present throughout
this novel which ultimately contributes and is the reason for the bystander
effect; a selfish deed that is carried out by humans due to a lack of
empathy.

Chris (Last part + conclusion):

The magistrate, someone who is wealthy and powerful, a lawyer, has legal precedence, holds an
official position in this case, one of the few people/leaders in this book who has authority, does
not have a name or identity. The only proof of his existence is from some leftover pages from an
incomplete brief on the events that happened from twenty years ago with scribbled in notes in the
margins written by the judge in blood red ink. Only some of the scattered pages of this brief
were recovered by the Narrator, but only after wading through centuries of files for 5 years in the
lagoon that was the flooded ground floor of the abandoned “decrepit colonial building that had
been Sir Francis Drake’s headquarters for 2 days.”
Spooky
This setting and imagery creates a strong mysterious tone, which adds on to the ambiguity that
has been building throughout the book from various strewn together recollections of this horrible
event, and now that this chronicle is coming to a close, this ambiguous unidentified character
that’s been put in this mysterious setting solidifies this feeling of magical realism, which comes
to a peak at this point of the book. The ambiguity ensued by this murder we’ve been reading
about ofcourse lies within not the event but how it came to be and more specifically the different
perspectives given by all the bystanders who did nothing, all on acount of suscpicion and honor.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the author utilizes irony, symbolism, imagery, and ideas of magical
realism to convey the consequences and effects of the bystander effect when in play with honor
codes and values within a society.