Lecture Notes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Brief Bio:

 

  • Born 1928 in Columbia
  • Raised by grandparents
  • Grandmother an avid storyteller
  • Initial writing career as a journalist
  • Published his highly regarded One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1967
  • Awarded Noble Prize in Literature in 1982

 

Discussion Questions to Consider:

 

  • How does Kafka influence the work of Marquez?

 

  • How does Marquez deal with issues of politics and corruption?

 

  • How does Marquez intermix fantasy and realism?

 

Discussion Quotes:

 

“It was an unavoidable stop in the election campaign he made every four years” (2849).

 

“[H]e the happiest of all until they told him, three months before, that he would be dead forever by next Christmas” (2850).

 

“’We are here for the purpose of defeating nature,’ he began, against all his convictions” (2850).

 

“There was a pattern to his circus” (2850).

 

“As he spoke his aides threw clusters of paper birds into the air and the artificial creatures took on life, flew about the platform of planks, and went out to sea” (2850-51).

 

“For the first time in twelve years, Nelson Farina didn’t go to greet the senator” (2851).

 

“Nelson Farina had begged for his help in getting a false identity card which would place him beyond the reach of the law” (2851).

 

“A short while later an aide of his brought a good pack donkey to the woman’s house and on the rump it had a campaign slogan” (2852).

 

“The senator was in the next room meeting with the important people of Rosal del Virrey, whom he had gathered together in order to sing for them the truths he had left out of his speeches” (2852).

 

“The senator when on speaking with a control aided by the complicity of death” (2853).

 

“Remember, he remembered, that whether it’s you or someone else, it won’t be long before you’ll be dead and it won’t be long before your name won’t even be left” (2854).

 

“It’s good to be with someone when you’re so alone” (2855).

 

“Six months and eleven days later he would die in that same position, debased and repudiated because of the public scandal with Laura Farina and weeping with rage at dying without her” (2855).

 

 

Sample Short Essay Answer Questions: Explain why you agree, agree in part, or disagree with the following statements. Make sure you explain your answer, using textual evidence. You may use your textbook to locate quotes; do not use any outside sources.

 

  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story, “Death Constant beyond Love,” accurately portrays the political process.

 

  • The senator does not grant Nelson Farina false identity papers because Nelson has nothing to trade for the papers.

 

  • Because the senator knows he is going to die, he is truthful for the first time in his life.