Monday, March 17, 2008

the general in his labyrinth, part 2

i cannot help but focus on the general... yet it is hard for me to exactly figure out how i feel about him. he seems so kind and loving, yet it is not with one woman (his wife), it is with many women. also, again, the image of him being pitiful continues to come up, and i cannt help but feel sorry for him, for the way he goes crazy with all of his thoughts. yet, at the same time, it was his choice to do everything he did, so in a sense he brought it upon himself, so then why should i feel sorry for him? ...when all he wanted was to be accepted?
thats the thing, marquez does such a good job of making me feel sorry for him! but i feel its a trap that i dont want to get into! after all, marquez is an amazing writer!

1 comment:

Aliyah said...

your post made me think of a book called the Zahir by Paulo Coelho. It's about a man whose wife leaves him. Before that he had numerous afairs and so did she but they had a special relationship. He spends years searching for her and has to strip himself of everything in order to find her. In the process he goes absolutely mad, but he's determined to find his obsession. I feel like the general is like this in many ways... so busy searching through his mind. He's obsessed. Also, the Zahir demonstrates how someone can be with many women, but still just love one, also somewhat similar to the General.