Beverley Yuen: Marquez Stories

In all three stories, Garcia Marquez manages to intertwine the binaries of magical realism as well as a few subtle, underlying revelations about religious and social attitudes or structures, ultimately pointing out the truths and flaws of humanity. While Borges’ short stories revolved heavily around the binary of reality and fantasy, Marquez’s stories predominately focus on the binary of life and death; however, this is not to say that he does not manage to graze the former binary because all of the stories contain fantastical, unreal situations or characters. In terms of religion, Marquez exposes how people have become so invested in religion and God that they easily follow His word or the word of his representatives, such as priests, without thinking or making judgments for themselves. He makes apparent how religion or an ideal figure, such as God, is of utmost importance to many people; it is their mental savior, giving them peace of mind when anything bad or different is thrust upon their lives. Additionally in all of the stories, there is a patterned social structure, in which the males are dominate over the females and those who are different are interpreted as inferior, while those deemed good looking are superior, treated as if more than a mere man. He enlightens readers by illustrating the socially fickle, apathetic, and unappreciative attitudes that humanity has unfortunately developed.

Starting with “Monologue of Isabel Watching It Rain in Macondo,” the two binaries mentioned previously are used together in that the reader does not know if the characters are genuinely alive in the real world, or dead, living as ghosts in a fantasy world that they believe to be the real world. While sitting and watching the rain, Isabel is suddenly joined by her husband Martin. “Without turning to look, [she] recognized Martin’s voice,” but “when [she] looked toward the voice [she] found only the empty chair” (p. 91). Was Martin really there? Is he real or a fantasy? Is he alive or a ghost? Another binary of time and timeless or linear and nonlinear appears that emphasizes the idea of reality and fantasy. Isabel cannot distinguish days any longer, believing it to be Friday when it is Thursday. Time was at a standstill for her. Time is being twisted and so is the legitimacy of her world. The rest of the story mostly involves life and death. There is a situation with a cow that perfectly symbolizes this binary. A cow who is stuck in the mud “stood motionless for half an hour, as if she were already dead but could not fall down because the habit of being alive prevented her,” (p. 92) as if the cow is in a state of purgatory, which represents the entire story. Isabel seems to be in a state of purgatory, battling between life and death. From her perspective, she is alive, while others seem like ghosts, such as the vanishing Martin, but in the end she has the revelation that she is dead. Is she alive or dead? Perhaps Isabel is not dead, but the monotony of the rain has allowed her to enter a figurative state of purgatory, where her perceptions are skewed and the world is timeless.

In this particular story, the implications about religion are slyly made throughout the story. As Isabel and her family are coming out of church, the insufferable rain begins. This could be a bad omen in itself, showing that the church is evil, as it is being associated with such a horrendous rain that will eventually create a flood and destroy everyone and everything. It was later revealed that the church was flooded and had collapsed, signifying that the church, and in turn religion, is not as powerful as everyone believes it to be. Marquez is trying to show how fragile religion can be and how it will not always be there for you, so people should not always rely on it. He portrays Isabel’s stepmom sitting with a rosary in her hand saying, “Now we have to pray,” in the midst of the dangerous flood to reflect the constant, meaningless prayer of people that is completely unnecessary as the time and efforts put towards prayer could be better used in escaping the natural disaster or physically helping others. Marquez might have also used the rain and flood to allude to the religious story of Noah’s Ark, in which God flooded and cleansed the Earth of man’s wickedness, killing many lives in the process. He wanted to show that God may be all-powerful, but not all of his actions have good results. His power should not be rejoiced but perhaps feared for he has the power to destroy everyone with a single flood.

For social structure, there are two instances that exemplify the male/female dynamic mentioned before as well as the inferiority idea. Despite possibly being a figment of imagination, Martin exacts dominance over Isabel. While lying in bed with Martin, Isabel notices a horrible smell coming from outside. Terrified, she dutifully alerts her husband of this odd phenomenon, but he just turns to the wall and says, “That’s something you made up. Pregnant women are always imagining things,” which demonstrate how the male Martin can simply dismiss the female Isabel’s claims, passing off her false assertion as a side effect of pregnancy, an attribute only carried by females. It gives the sexist impression that the observations or opinions of women are irrelevant and should be ignored. In both scenes that involve Martin, Isabel never actually sees his face; in the first scene, he vanishes before she is able to get a glimpse of him and in the second scene, he turns to the wall before revealing his face. Does this somehow imply that she is not worthy of viewing his face? The other social structure idea involves the Guajiro Indians, who are portrayed as faceless, nameless servants for Isabel and her family. The first instance in which they are seen is when they attempt to disperse a cow that has wondered into Isabel’s family’s garden. “The Indians tried to drive it away with stick and stones,” (p. 91) giving the illusion that they are barbaric, unsophisticated cavemen. Isabel further detailed the situation by saying, “The Indians harassed [the cow] until my father’s patient tolerance came to its defense,” (p. 92) The word “harassed” has a negative connotation that leads the readers to believe that the Indians are unskilled and useless, only making the situation at hand worse, while Isabel’s father is described with positive connotation through the words “patient,” “tolerance,” and “defense.” In the end, the Indians look inferior in comparison to Isabel’s father as he is portrayed as the benevolent and powerful one. The next scene shows “the Guajiro Indians, shirtless and barefoot, with their pants rolled up to their knees,” (p. 93) moving furniture for Isabel’s family. Performing all these tasks for the family as servants creates an obvious inferiority for the Indians. Even Isabel notices “the cruelty of their frustrated rebellion, of their necessary and humiliating inferiority in the rain,” but she seems to attribute their inferior job to the rain with her use of “necessary.” Is there anything that makes inferiority necessary? She does not realize that her and her family could move the furniture themselves but choose not to. Her thought process and assumption just prove her superior status and state of mind. The Guajiro Indians are not given individual, specific names or really physically described; they are a faceless and nameless bunch. They are bluntly called “Indians” or “Guajiros,” degradingly recognized only as a set of people from a certain ethnicity and not as individual human beings.

As briefly mentioned before, some of the social attitudes that are present in this story are fickleness and apathy. When the rain initially begins, Isabel and her stepmother perceive it as a beneficial and wondrous occurrence. They were “happy that the rain would revive the thirsty rosemary and nard in the flowerpots after seven months of intense summer and scorching dust,” (p. 90) but eventually their happiness withered away like their flowers and turned into an “overwhelming sadness” (p. 91). How quickly their opinions of the rain changed when the situation became harder, reflecting that when things get tough, humans tend to easily change their minds and opinions out of fear; people no longer have strong convictions. In relation to social apathy, Isabel and her family had noticed that the rain was getting worse and the flood was starting and yet “[they] were paralyzed, drugged by the rain, given over to the collapse of nature with a peaceful and resigned attitude” (p. 92). They just idly sat by and watched while the rain flooded their home. They physically did nothing to secure their own safety; they just prayed to God and watched the Indians work. This shows how humans, succumbing to fear or faith in religion, do nothing truly productive when the time comes, instead opting to wait for destiny to determine their fate.

In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” the binary of fantasy and reality is briefly touched by the fact that this supernatural creature, an angel, appears and yet is treated horribly as if he were a common person. The readers are baffled by whether or not this story is real. Is the poor treatment of this heavenly creature real or so improbable that it must be a fantasy? His presence seems real as everyone treats it as relatively normal, but is it fantasy because there is no way that an angel could be treated so cruelly? The authenticity of this angel is further questioned by Father Gonzaga, who deemed him “an imposter” (p. 205) because “he did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers” (p. 205). The angel seemed too human: “he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the backside of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels” (p. 205). The circumstances and characteristics of this creature blurred the distinction between reality and fantasy. The other binary of life and death is very important in this story as well. The main couple of the story, Pelayo and Elisenda, have a sick child and it was implied by an old neighborhood woman that the angel “must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down” (p. 204). The angel was unable to fulfill his goal and was captured by the couple. He, an old angel, is trapped in a small chicken coop with horrible living conditions and barely enough food. Both he and his initial target, the sick child, are suffering in this purgatory state between life and death, like the previous story. They are trapped in this mortal realm, unable to move on into the divine heaven. The sick child eventually becomes healthy and starts school, thus choosing life over death; however, the angel’s life wavered quite a bit. He was so ill that a doctor thought “it seemed impossible for him to be alive” (p. 209). There is a constant bouncing between life and death with the angel. Is he deemed alive by human standards but dead by angel standards by not being in heaven? Is he already deemed permanently dead since he is an angel?

Seeing as how the story revolves around one of God’s heavenly creatures, religion played a significant role in this story. Angels are messengers of God, but the angel in this story is not treated as “a supernatural creature but [as] a circus animal” (p. 205). With the captivity of such a sacred creature, an angel, Marquez exposes the hypocrisy of people with religion. People are so devoted to religion that they faithfully listened to the announcement of Father Gonzaga, a representative of God, who deemed the angel a fraud. As a result, they treated the angel like an animal. Some people would have acted upon sympathy and developed a guilty conscience to help the poor creature, but nobody did this, for their minds were focused only on what the Father said. These people are hypocrites as they believe in God, praying for their own safety and good health, and yet can easily choose to harm God’s creature, mirroring how humanity can poorly treat one another or animals in real life. Not only does Marquez question the followers of God, but he questions the authority of God himself. In deciding what to do with the angel, the couple decided “against the judgment of the wise neighbor woman, for whom angels in those times were the fugitive survivors of a celestial conspiracy, [as] they did not have the heart to club him to death” (p. 204). Marquez makes an interesting point to include that historical allusion to the celestial battle in which the now fallen angels, led by the angel Lucifer, rebelled against God. Even God’s own messengers turned against him, so is he as powerful and trustworthy as he seems? Bringing up this incident makes transparent the fallibilities of God. The last recurring religious notch made revolves around the angels once again. Angels are usually portrayed as magnificent, heavenly creatures dressed in white and glowing with a halo; they look pure and innocent. The angel depicted in this story was “dressed like a ragpicker” with “huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked” (p. 204). He is more of an annoyance than a respected holy representative. Elisenda, seeing the angel everywhere in her house, said, “It was awful living in that hell full of angels,” (p. 209) which is a distinct contradiction or oxymoron in itself; the idea of a “hell full of angels” is so obscure as one is a representation of pure evil and one of pure good. A binary of good and evil is used within this quote to blur the distinction of good and evil within angels. When the angel finally leaves his imprisonment, he begins to fly but with a “risky flapping of a senile vulture” (p. 210), and Elisenda is extremely happy with his departure for “he was no longer an annoyance in her life but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea” (p. 210). Here, the angel is compared not to a graceful swan but a “senile vulture” and no one is even remotely amazed by his sudden flight, just happy and content to be rid of him. The poor illustration and treatment of an angel, an extension of God, shows how religious figures do not need to be constantly worshipped or treated specially; they do not always have to be held to such a high regard.

Social structure in this story revolves heavily more around the idea that people who are different are “freaks” and not suitable for treatment equivalent to that of a “normal” person. It is obvious that Father Gonzaga has the power and say in this story, so he would be placed at the top of the social structure, along with other religious figures. The next level would comprise of the common people, such as Pelayo and Elisenda. The bottom level would contain the different, the unknown, such as the angel or the girl who was transformed into a tarantula. Despite their humanistic characteristics, both the angel and the tarantula girl are treated inhumanely, subjected to poor nourishment and exploitation by the others for entertainment or making profits. The basic moral of this story is that humans generally treat those who look different, who do not conform or fit societal norms of the rest, should be treated in continuance with that manner; since they are different, they should be treated differently. This concept of treating others differently alludes to the social attitude of treating people horribly out of fear; fear the unknown. People may not know much about a person and become paranoid and scared of him/her, so perhaps treating him/her badly is a defense mechanism. They have some semblance of power and mental security in knowing that they can exert superiority over the mysterious, unknown person. The socially apathetic attitude was apparent in this story as well. When the angel first arrived, no one really care that a true angel had graced their presence. Pelayo and Elisenda saw him as a burden and a possible threat to their child, so they did not care about the fate of the angel. Marquez is illustrating how people are not very gracious as to help others if it does not benefit them. For example, people might not help a starving homeless man on the street. They would just pass by him, thinking that the homeless man could possibly harm them or helping the homeless man does nothing to help them. People have become too afraid or materialistic that they will not even help those in need; they will not take the time and/or risk to help others, unless it directly benefits them, epitomizing the true meaning of selfishness. For people, if someone could possibly harm them or does nothing to help them, then they will ignore it despite it needing help itself. Only when the idea of “charging five cents admission to see the angel” (p. 206) was established did their apathy fickly change, which exemplifies another social attitude. Apathy can disappear and social fickleness can occur when greed and money are involved. Marquez is trying to show how even the simplest of people, a couple with a sick child perhaps, can be easily subdued to the lust and greed for money. People constantly change their opinions and actions for a chance to make a quick buck. The last social attitude exhibited was the idea of being unappreciative. Pelayo and Elisenda took advantage of and exploited the angel. Before, they just feared for their child’s life and hoped and possibly prayed for a miracle. They received that miracle in the form of the angel. The angel might have been sent from God to help the child regain his health or be a symbol of good faith. Ultimately, the angel’s exploitation helped the couple gain a lot of money that dramatically increased their quality of life as well as the health of the child. With more money, the child probably had better nourishment and, as shown in the story, had access to a doctor. Despite this beneficial effect, the couple, especially Elisenda, still treated the angel horribly as if he was a useless burden upon their lives; as mentioned before, Elisenda was extremely happy to see him off. This entire scenario displays how humans do not appreciate what they have. People often pray and hope for a miracle, and when the miracle occurs, they take advantage of it and not stop to appreciate and thank whoever is responsible.

In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World,” the binary of life and death is used to blur the definitions of life and death. The handsome drowned man found ashore the tiny village is clearly dead, but everyone fantasizes about the perfect dead man making it seem as if he is still alive. He brings so much life and excitement into the village that there is no way that this man could be dead. Objectively by worldly standards, the man is dead, but to the village, he is very much alive. They do not view him as truly dead “for he did not have the lonely look of other drowned men who came out of the sea or that haggard, needy look of men who drowned in rivers” (p. 231). There was something different, something better about him. The village women fawned over him and named him as if he were a new pet or baby, indefinitely securing his emotional connection to the women and village. Even the men, astonished by the drowned man’s “sincerity,” (p. 235) took a liking to him. When Esteban, the drowned man’s given name, was given a proper funeral and sent off the cliff into the ocean, “[the village people] let him go without an anchor so that he could come back if he wished and whenever he wished” (p. 236). In this sense, Esteban is seen as alive, like he is sailing out into the ocean and will one day return home. After Esteban departs, the village knew that “everything would be different from then on, that their houses would have wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors so that Esteban’s memory could go everywhere without bumping into beams and so that no one in the future would dare whisper the big boob finally died, too bad, the handsome fool has finally died, because they were going to paint their house fronts gay colors to make Esteban’s memory eternal and they were going to break their backs digging for springs among the stones and planting flowers on the cliffs so that in future years at dawn the passengers on great liners would awaken, suffocated by the smell of gardens on the high seas, and the captain would have to come down from the bridge in his dress uniform, with his astrolabe, his pole star, and his row of war medals and, pointing to the to the promontory of roses on the horizon, he would say in fourteen languages, look there, where the wind is so peaceful now that it’s gone to sleep beneath the beds, over there, where the sun’s so bright that the sunflowers don’t know which way to turn, yes, over there, that’s Esteban’s village” (p. 236). This very long quote is extremely relevant because the entire quote is one sentence, representing the seemingly never ending and everlasting life that Esteban has bestowed upon the village. The village has become lively, excited, and energetic over the changes, showing how Esteban is still making an impact even when not there. They are changing their entire village in accordance to Esteban’s physicality and contrived personality. They have such high regards for him that they want to their village to be referred to as “Esteban’s village.” How could a dead man make such an impact on a village?

In comparison to the last story, the significance of religion is not as great in this story. There are only two possible relations to any religious or biblical details. First, the village’s high regards towards Esteban and the perfect appearance he emits is close to that of a god. When first described, it was said that “not only was he the tallest, strongest, most virile, and best built man they had ever seen, but even though they were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination” (p. 231). Esteban is portrayed as the epitome of manliness, with human characteristics pushed to the utmost potential of humanity, making him seem “more than a man but less than a god.” He is viewed and treated like a God; he is mourned by everyone in the village and his funeral is held to be of greater importance than even other men who for years belonged to and lived in the village. Again, the village is later restructured entirely in Esteban’s memory. The second relation is when the villagers let Esteban go off the cliff into the ocean without an anchor so that he could come back. Esteban has already been established as a God in this village, bringing life into the world, so this possible return is similar to that of the resurrection or second coming of God, better known as Easter. They hope for his return in which he will refresh the life of the village once again. Both relations show how people find comfort or peace of mind in worshipping or idolizing a figure; they vicariously live by focusing their efforts and hope onto someone or something. They need someone or something to believe in, in order to live on with their lives. It reflects how people in the world spend much time in their lives, like the villagers, worshipping and waiting for God.

The main social structure characteristic shown in the male/female dynamic spoken about before, in which the males exert an aura of dominance and control over the females. When the females are cleaning and pining over Esteban’s body, the males angrily say, or more like order, “get away from there, woman, stay out of the way, look, you almost made me fall on top of the dead man” and “since when has there ever been such a fuss over a drifting corpse, a drowned nobody, a piece of cold Wednesday meat” (p. 234). The men order the females around, blame them for anything that goes wrong, or believes their actions to be frivolous. It was true that “the men thought the fuss was only womanish frivolity” (p. 234). There is an obvious male superiority attitude in this village. It should also be noted that the more attractive people are treated better than anyone else, as learned by Esteban’s presence. This can also be considered a social attitude: attractive, good looking people are treated in a better manner than common people. The women of the village saw Esteban as the ideal man, attending to his needs better than their own husbands, who were “the weakest, meanest, and most useless creatures on earth” (p. 232). Marquez saw this as true in the world; that people who are better looking have it easier in the world. There is a strong emphasis on looks and vanity that turns into obsession in some people of the world. Before cleaning Esteban off and revealing his appearance, the villagers treated him like a normal drowned man washed ashore. They had an apathetic attitude for the man who did not belong to any of the villages. Why should they care for a stranger? Their attitudes again fickly changed when Esteban was recognized as good looking. The story’s social attitude towards beauty and appearance in the world is Marquez’s way of telling the world to not be over concerned with looks. People are apathetic towards average looking people and quickly change their attitudes for beautiful people, creating a narcissistic and shallow world.