Term Paper: Gabriel Marquez

7/29/2019 Term Paper: Gabriel Marquez

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A STUDY OF SELECTED WORKS OF

GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

An Undergraduate Research Paper Presented

to

Prof. Jesus Flor R. Nicolas

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For LITE 1023

by

Abbigail Derige

April Ivy T. Escota

March, 2012


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Title Page .... i

Table of Contents... ii

Dedication... iii

Introduction...... 1

Historical Background 1

Statement of the Problem.......1

Importance of the Problem...1

Scope and Limitations...2

Definition of Terms2

Selected Literary Works...3

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings..3

Death Constant Beyond Love4The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World..5

One Hundred Years of Solitude...7

Conclusion.....8

Bibliography.....9

Secondary Sources.9

Primary Sources.....9

Appendices.....10

Appendix A...

Appendix B...

Appendix C...


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DEDICATION

The students who conducted this research dedicates this term paper to the great author

himself, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian novelist and short-story writer awarded with the

Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. He is still alive and is fighting cancer at the age of 85. The

students pray for his good health and devote this to him.


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INTRODUCTION

Historical Background of the Study

The student researchers selectively chose Gabriel Garcia Marquez from a list of Nobel

Prize winners for the reason of his exceptional way of telling his stories. It is a style of literature

known as magical realism. Whereas he tells stories that are supernatural and fantastic with

complete naturalness. Thus making the readers believe completely in what he says in his

stories. To make a story believable to readers views, the writer should first be the one who

believes it while making it. Marquez tells his stories with a brick face, an unchanging facial

expression, thus making his fantasies seem realistic. Contrary to what readers presume of his

works, they are not purely fiction but is tied and connected to life; which mostly is about

mankinds absurdities, and political issues and corruptions (politics itself).

Statement of the Problem

This study seeks to establish that Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel Prize in Literature

winner, is a great author. The student researchers deem to provide facts of his prominence

through his literary works.

Importance of the Problem

This paper is of relevance so as to attest to the greatness of the author Gabriel Garcia

Marquez through some of his works that the students had preferred to analyze.


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Scope and Limitations

The study is conducted in libraries and confines of the mind of the student researchers

in a short period of time. The extent of this study are a number of selected literary works of

Gabriel Garcia Marquez namely 3 short stories, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Death

Constant Beyond Love, and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World; and his greatest

novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. The sources are limited only to books found in libraries.

Definition of Terms

Catechism a book of religious doctrine consisting of a series of questions and answer.

Celestial conspiracy According to the New Testament, Satan was originally an angel who led a

rebellion in heaven. He and his followers, called fallen angels, were exiled to hell.

Great Author - are great on account of how much they have contributed to the world of

fiction/non-fiction or literature. Being great also has much to do with how successfully a writer

is able to get his/her message across to those who are able to read his/her works, and/or how

successfully a writer is able to meet his "writing objectives" (to inspire, to entertain, to make

people laugh, to teach something, etc.) no matter how few the readers.

Ingenuous nave, to easily persuaded to believe.

Nobel Prize in Literature - awarded annually to an author from any country that has, in the

words of the will ofAlfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work

in an ideal direction.

Primate a high-ranking bishop.

Sidereal- of or pertaining to the stars

Supreme Pontiff- the pope.

Solitude state of being alone or withdrawn from society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel


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SELECTED LITERARY WORKS

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

In the story, Marquez stimulates the readers instinct to interpret without offering the

reader a clear interpretation. It is a short story in which Death and Rebirth is a reoccurring

theme. The angel starts off nearly dead but he is getting attention. Then one day gets no

attention and grows its wings and flies away.

In the beginning, the angel is found dying in the rain, his wings, dirty and half plucked.

The family who finds him takes him in to try to lessen his suffering and anguish; to prevent him

from dying. The priest looks at him in a pitiful manner. This symbolizes the death of the angel. It

is hard for him to move, For he had been motionless for so many hours that they thought he

was dead. He lies in the chicken coop, motionless to be tormented by the spectators trying to

get him to move. He was as good as dead.

The angel also experiences to time of neglecting. As the angel died, more and more each

day, people stopped being interested in him. To prove it Marquez wrote, ruined the angels

reputation when the woman who had been changed into a spider finally crushed him

completely. The angel went from high popularity at the beginning of his time in the coop to a

constant, boring angel who sat around dying all day. This is vital to death and rebirth making you

pity the angel and wanting something good to happen to him.

As the dying angel suffers, alone and neglected, something positive happens. The

season changes from fall to winter. At the beginning of December some large, stiff feathers

began to grow on his wings, representing rebirth. He starts flapping his wings after his feathers

are grown. His first attempts were clumsy, like a baby walking, but as Elisenda watched, he flew

away off into the distance.


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is wearing a chastity belt, the key in the hands of the father, to be assured of the freedom of

his father. The Senator and Laura never had been intimately linked, only sleeping on her

shoulders. And he in the same position died after six months in the arms of Laura Farina,

debased and repudiated because of this public scandal, both dishonored and further isolated

from people.

The story reveals the idea of isolation in certain situations, for the Senator, Laura, and

her father. And this also clearly shows mankinds powerlessness to make some change in such

situations, the peoples inability to change ones fate or destiny especially love to death.

Furthermore, Marquez gave way to some political corruptions common to politics and

politicians. Rosal del Virrey is an illusory village which by night was the furtive wharf for

smugglers ships; and in broad daylight looked like the most useless inlet on the desert.

Politicians make anomalies, such as smuggling to earn greater amount of money, accepting

sexual bribes to appease desires, and deception by giving false promises to the people in order

to win positions they do not deserve, to suffice their personal ambitions.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez vividly portrays the loneliness and carelessness that some

people experience due to unfortunate circumstances, in this story. The story is about his

obsessive theme, erosion of death. Along comes the pain and loneliness a person undergoes,

by knowing his upcoming death. Also, love is nothing against the unmovable death. Again like

the title plainly says, death is constant beyond love.

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

At first the village we're introduced to a dry, bleak little village with no ambition to be

anything other than a dry, bleak little village. But the drowned man's arrival brings any number

of conflicts or questions with it: where did he come from? To whom does he belong? Who is he?


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What will his arrival mean for the village? This is no ordinary body. The various conflicts from

the previous stage take on greater weight now that the drowned man is of such great

importance. When the women decide that he is Esteban, the plotline is further complicated by

the mythical implications of such a name. The final paragraph of "The Handsomest Drowned

Man" is a climactic one. The body is returned to the sea, and as it falls the villagers realize that

they will never be the same. In this moment they "realize the narrowness of their dreams" and

resolve to do better, live larger, and make their village matter.

"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" explores what it means for a person to

be great, and what effect such a person can have on those who admire him or her. Admiration

can be directed outward, but at some point, the story teaches us, it turns inward, toward the

self, and manifests as a desire for self-betterment.It also explores the transformative effect of

one dead man on an entire village. It argues that a truly great person has the power to change

others, to inspire them to be better, to make them want to be extraordinary. It's interesting

that, in this story, the villager's transformation originates entirely from within. The dead man is

dead, after all, which means the villagers are responsible themselves and for the changes that

they make.

Through the genre of magical realism, this story explores the blurring between myth and

reality. What happens when a larger-than-life figure meets the ordinary villagers of an

unexceptional little town? "The Handsomest Drowned World" reminds us that we turn to myths

as a way of explaining the unexplainable. There's something comforting about having stories

that interpret and make accessible the unknown. Myth is also very much a collective experience,

shared and carried on by a community.


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One Hundred Years of Solitude


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CONCLUSION

The student researchers conclude that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is indeed a great

author/writer this according not only from him having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982

and being famous; but also from reflections upon his short-stories and novels, his wholly

effective style of literature writing, and his perspective of life and how he connects it to his

works and readers..


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Secondary Sources

Marquez, Gabriel G. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Art of Fiction No. 69 the Paris Review.

By Peter H. Stone. Web. 10 Mar. 2012.

Primary Sources

Marquez, Gabriel G. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Elements of Literature: 4th Course.

R. Anderson et al., USA: Holt, Rinehart & Winston Inc, 1993: 187-192.

Marquez, Gabriel G. Death Constant Beyond Love. The World of the Short Story: A Twentieth

Century Collection. C. Fadiman, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986: 638-645.

Marquez, Gabriel G. The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.

Marquez, Gabriel G. One Hundred Years of Solitude. US: Harper & Row, 1998.


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APPENDICES

Authors Biography

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Xerox Copies of Selected Works

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Death Constant Beyond Love

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Researchers Profile

Abbigail Derige

April Ivy T. Escota


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APPENDIX A

Authors Biography

Gabriel Garca Mrquez (1927 - ) is one of the most preeminent writers of Magical

Realism. Marquez resists predetermined plot structures. His writing forces readers to actively

engage with it to provide essential details. Some critics view this technique as deriving from

Gabriel Garca Mrquez readings of the dramas ofSophocles since in these plays action often

happens off stage. Marquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Although Gabriel Garca Mrquez is known as a master of Magical Realism, reality is a

central theme in much of his work. Marquez claims much of his early work, all reflect the reality

of life in Colombia and this theme determines the rational structure of the books. "I don't regret

having written them, but they belong to a kind of premeditated literature that offers too static

and exclusive a vision of reality." His later work he experimented with different way of

addressing reality. One method that Gabriel Garca Mrquez used was to describe the bizarre

and unsettling details of a story with the deadpan expression. Solitude is another key theme

that is thread throughout of much of Gabriel Garca Mrquezs literary work. His acceptance

speech for his Nobel Prize was entitled Solitude of Latin America. Marquez uses the civil conflict

LaViolenciathe war between the liberals and conservatives in Colombia that continued until

the 1960s. Marquez never allowed his writing to devolve into a mere platform for political

commentary.

Gabriel Garca Mrquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia on the sixth of March. 1928.

His mothers father was a retired colonel who had strong left leaning political views. Garcias

father had dropped out of medical school and maintained a very conservative stance. Garcias

father had sired four children out of wedlock and seemed like a poor prospect for marriage. His
http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/


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persistence eventually wore down the colonels objections and the marriage was allowed.

Gabriel Garca Mrquez was the first of twelve children to come from this union. Marquez would

use the inspiration of his parents romance as the basis forEl Amor en los Tiempos de

Colera or Love in the Time of Cholera.

Until Marquez was eight, he lived with his maternal grandparents in Aracataca. His

grandmother, Tranquilina Iguaran Cotes, was an avid storyteller. She gave Marquez a deep

reservoir of folkloric knowledge about omens, premonitions, dead ancestors and ghosts. The

sincere manner in which she told her stories would have a profound effect on the mature

writings of Gabriel Garca Mrquez. His grandfather, Ricardo Marquez Mejia, had fought in at

least two Colombian civil conflicts. His stories of battle and conflict captured Gabriel Garca

Mrquezs imagination.

When his grandfather died in 1936, Gabriel Garca Mrquez was returned to the custody

of his parents in north central Colombia. Marquez only stayed with his parents for only a short

time before being sent to boarding school. Marquez was a studious boy who his classmates

called The Old Man. He avoided athletics, but drew comics at an early age as a way of

expressing stories he did not yet have the language skills to express.

The Jesuit Liceo Nacional gave Gabriel Garca Mrquez a scholarship when Marquez was

fourteen. This secondary school was located near Bogot in the city of Zipaquira. He graduated

from this school in 1946. Marquez wanted to pursue a career in journalism.

He attended the National University of Colombia in Bogot. At his familys insistence, Gabriel

Garca Mrquez studied law. Marquez detested this study. In 1947, the literary supplement ofEl

Espectadorpublished one of Marquezs short stories. This marked the first of ten storiesEl

Espectadorwould print.


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In 1948, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan Ayala, a prominent Colombian Liberal Party member, was

assassinated. This act would incite a decade long period of civil strife known as La Violencia. La

Violencia, which engulfed every Colombian, took the lives of over three hundred thousand

individuals and led to the flight of over one million Colombians to neighboring countries. In the

second year of the conflict, the National University of Colombia shut its doors. Marquez

relocated to Cartagena. At the University of Cartagena, Marquez continued to pursue his legal

studies. As Marquez pursued his education, he began to write pieces of journalism. He never

completed his degree.

In 1950, Gabriel Garca Mrquez relocated to Barranquilla. Marquez wrote columns for

El Heraldo, a daily paper. In Barrangulla, Marquez lived in a small room that was located in a

four-story brothel. Despite his limited resources, his literary life took root. He consumed the

literature which was to inspire his later work: Virginia Woolf, Sophocles, William Faulkner, Franz

Kafka, James Joyceand Ernest Hemingway. Marquez wrote his first novella, which in 1952 he

would revise as La Hojarasca or The Leaf Storm. In 1955, the friends of Gabriel Garca Mrquez

would find this manuscript and would have it published.

This first novella shows a clear lineage from William Faulkner in the gothic tone and

complex structure. In addition, Gabriel Garca Mrquezs use of the village of Macondo is used

and returned to as his version of Faulkners Yoknapatawhpa County. However, the irreal

elements and accessibility of the story mark it as a text that has come out from the shadow

ofWilliam Faulkners work.

Marquez returned to Bogot in 1954. He found work at El Espectadoras a reporter and

film reviewer. Marquez used his position to expose government ineptitude and corruption

including the wreck of a ship. This expose came at the expense of irritating the Colombian
http://www.egs.edu/library/virginia-woolf/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/franz-kafka/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/franz-kafka/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/james-joyce/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/ernest-hemingway/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/ernest-hemingway/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/james-joyce/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/franz-kafka/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/franz-kafka/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/william-faulkner/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/http://www.egs.edu/library/virginia-woolf/biography/


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dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. In 1989, this story would be published in English as The Story of

the Shipwrecked Sailor..

El Espectadorfeared the backlash from the government for the embarrassing nature of

the expose. In order to stave off any true violent or political revenge, the paper sent Gabriel

Garca Mrquez to Europe as a foreign correspondent. While in Europe, the government

closed El EspectadorGabriel Garca Mrquez was reduced to poverty. Marquez worked hand-to-

mouth during the days and spent his nights writing fiction.

In 1957, Gabriel Garca Mrquez finished El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escribaor No One

Writes to the Colonel. Marquez then traveled back across the Atlantic Ocean and found a

position at the magazine, Momento, in Caracas, Venezuela. Until 1959, Marquez continued to

live and work in Venezuela. In 1958, Marquez married Mercedes Barcha Pardo in Barranquilla,

Colombia. Their first son was born in 1959.

Gabriel Garca Mrquez founded a Bogot branch of Prensa Latina, the Cuban press

agency. In 1961, Marquez moved to New York City to work in the office of Prensa Latina. The

same year, he would travel New Orleans, Louisiana before finally settling his young family in

Mexico City.

In 1967, Editorial Sudamericana in Buenos Aires, Argentina, published. One Hundred

Years of Solitude. Gabriel Garca Mrquezs novel was immediately, and has continued to be,

successful. Marquez was awarded with international prizes including the French Prix du Meilleur

Livre Etranger, the Italian Premio Chianciano, the American Neustadt Prize, and Venezuelan

Romulo Gallegos Prize.

With such success Gabriel Garca Mrquez moved his family to Barcelona, Spain, where

he continued to write. By 1973, Marquez returned to political activism. He supported many left

wing causes in Latin America. His political affiliation aligned him with the Communist Cuban


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government, and the United States Department of State forbade him from entering United

States without special permission.

Gabriel Garca Mrquez returned to Columbia in 1974. Marquez created the

newspaperAlternativa based in Bogot. In 1975, he released the novel The Autumn of the

Patriarch. In this novel, Marquez writes of a nameless dictator who clings to power in a

Caribbean nation.

Gabriel Garca Mrquez would flee from Colombia after a trip to Cuba in 1981. The

Colombian government had planned to arrest Marquez and charge him with financially

supporting M-19, a left-wing military group. Mexico granted Marquez asylum, the French

government awarded him the Legion of Honor. Adding to the international shaming of

Colombia, Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

When Belisario Betencur became the new president of Colombia, he asked Marquez to

return home and offered the writer many political appointments. Gabriel Garca Mrquez

rejected the political appointments. Marquez continued his prolific writingalthough he

considered himself a journalist who wrote fiction.

In 1995, he created the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism in Cartagena,

which received UNESCO funds. This organization helps young journalists learn the craft of

journalism. In 1999, Gabriel Garca Mrquez was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. His

production of literary and journalistic work has subsequently declined.

Carlos Fuentes claims that Gabriel Garca Mrquez is the most popular and perhaps

best writer in Spanish since *Miguel de+ Cervantes. Marquez views his own work as part of a

tradition of Latin American writers. He claims that his Nobel Prize for Literature represented an

acknowledgement of the greatness of Latin American literature.


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APPENDIX B1

A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS


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APPENDIX B2

DEATH CONSTANT BEYOND LOVE


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APPENDIX B3

THE HANDSOMEST DROWNED MAN IN THE WORLD


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APPENDIX B4

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE


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APPENDIX C

RESEARCHERS PROFILE

Abbigail Derige

April Ivy T. Escota

A student in Polytechnic University of the Philippines

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Term Paper: Gabriel Marquez