Throughout history, authors use cloth as a medium to convey the cultural themes of the ancient and the present world regarding how clothing is a representation of the respect, prestige, or attention an individual receives. In addition to this, authors place a significant degree of importance on clothing when referring to certain political, social, and religious ceremonies throughout literature. Clothing does and will always take on different significant forms as authors use it in different transformations to suit the purpose of their story as a way to reflect the cultural values that exist within the context of the story line. Even though there are variations in how cultures treat cloth and how authors treat cloth as well, there is an underlying motif that they have in common. In literature, authors use cloth to accentuate upon subtle themes and motifs to a plot. The same remains true in both Anna Karenina and Chronicle of a Death Foretold where the use of cloth may not seem significant on the outer levels, but upon further analysis it allows the reader to dive into the cultural systems of which the authors write about.
In order to understand the implications clothing can have in society, one must understand the societal norms of the time in respect to the novel. During the time context in which Tolstoy writes Anna Karenina, Russian society goes through a demoralizing downward spiral. As a result of this, Russian society, in all its aspects, was distorted to the extent that what was once accepted as normal was not and what was not accepted as normal was now normal; however, this is not the case in the time context of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote this novel in the context of the 1920's - 1930's era, a time of modernist growth. As a result, Chronicle of a Death Foretold is based upon a society whose entire live revolves around spirituality of the Latino culture.
