Nobody Writes to The Colonel

  Nobody Writes to The Colonel

Introduction

This novel is by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He was born in

Aracataca, Colombia (1928). He is the most representative figure

of & quot;magic realism & quot; in Latin America. He is considered to be one of

the most important Latin American writers of the twentieth

century. This author also has other classic and very important

works such as: The Autumn of the Patriarch, Chronicle of a Death

Foretold, Love in the Time of the Cholera and several collections

of short stories. In 1982 he received the Nobel Prize for

Literature.

This novel, which has been made into a film by Mexican director

Arturo Rip stein recently, stars the Spanish actress Marisa

Paredes in the role of the patient woman of the colonel. It

reflects the identity of the Colombian people through its cultural

and social elements which are typical also of other Latin

American countries. For example: caudillismo, the pension that

never arrives, economic troubles, the raising and fights of Gauls, the submission of women, the friend

who deceives, among others.

Among the cultural elements that we can cite are the following:

The typical caudillismo of the 19th and 20th centuries in Latin

America. Facts such as the death of Augustine, his son, killed for

distributing clandestine leaves, the curfew, armed resistance, the

censorship of Father Angel, police beatings, the privileges of Don

Sabas and a whole series of situations that undoubtedly show

the political climate of the people.

The retired soldier waiting for a pension that never arrives. The

colonel was waiting for a letter that never came. He was an old

revolutionary fighter. He served under Aureliano Buendía. For

fifty-six years - since the end of the last civil war - the colonel had

waited every day for the pension letter of his retirement. He

wandered through the port to see every Friday if that pension,

which he deserved so much, had arrived on the speedboat. The

colonel was a victim of the abandonment of his superiors and of

the government he defended with his life, as well as millions of

citizens of the nation and neighboring nations.

The economic troubles of those who are not in power or on the

side of the government. The colonel is sunk in misery and

frustrated by the long wait, but difficult situations typical in life,

such as the illness of his wife who suffered from asthma, and he

goes through the need to use loans and sells off his utensils to

stay alive.

The raising and fighting of cockerels, which is an ancient custom

that the conquerors left in Caribbean lands. The colonel was

hoping to earn a lot of money from a rooster who, according to

his friends, is the best. He also trusts that by making

profits he would improve his financial situation to live a better

life with his wife. This is a very common thought in all the

Caribbean countries. It is a custom that comes from ancient

times to still remains in the heart of our population. Today, there

are other means added to this, which lead to our sometimes

living handcuffed by ancient beliefs to consume money in vices in

a desperate search to obtain the means to get out of misery.

Examples of these are: La Lutetia, El Bingo, Casino, act.

Cheating and fake friends. His friend Don Sabas buys the rooster

at four hundred pesos and sells it later for nine hundred, instead

of advising his friend, the Colonel. The Colonel could have got

angrier about the sale of the rooster.

The linguistic component is also evident, in other words the way

the character’s use language. In this respect we can name the use

of well-known clichés in all Hispanic countries, such as the coffee

jar, the cooking pot, the dirt floor, the coffee dust scrapes, the

tea infusion, the burner mud, the fighting cock, the four rocking

chairs around a small table with a mat and a plaster cat, the

harmonica, the trunk, the moths, the horn comb, the women in

black waiting for the funeral, the telegraph, among others.

The submission of woman, in this case the wife of the colonel,

who waited patiently next to her husband and supported him

quietly every difficult situation. Such submissive behavior is

typical of women of macho culture of which all those countries

that were conquered by Europeans are heirs.

conclusion

These cultural features reflected in this short novel connect us

with who we are, because all these customs, personality style

and way of thinking are like those of children: The typical

caudillismo, the pension that never arrives, The economic

deficiencies of the one who is not in power or with the

government, Breeding and cockfighting, the submission of

women, of women, the double-sided and ambitious friend who

does not consider his neighbor, resorting to bets to get out of a

crisis, the request for loans to solve problems, among others, tell

us about our own roots.