The General in His Labyrinth

“He always considered death an unavoidable professional hazard.”

The General is, first and foremost, a military man. To him, death is an "unavoidable professional hazard" (8). To the younger General, however, death was always associated with battle, fighting, and glory. As he approaches old age, he faces the prospect of fading from the world in a quiet way. He believes that dying alone in exile is pathetic, especially compared to the glorious, near-mythical death he envisioned in his youth.

“The time he has left will hardly be enough for him to reach his grave.”

After being toppled from political power, the General is sent into exile. The further he goes from his presidential palace and the further removed he is from power, the more he feels his time slipping away. Without the prospect of ruling Gran Colombia and freeing millions of people from colonial control, he has lost his reason to exist.

“Life had already given him sufficient reasons for knowing that no defeat was the final one.”

The General has won victories throughout his entire life. His military conquests are part of his legendary reputation. Now, however, he is facing a different kind of battle. His military genius is renowned, but he cannot win against the march of time. This battle is different, but as a military commander, the General cannot view it in any other terms.

“I'm at the mercy of a destiny that isn't mine.”

Wilson admits that his destiny is now linked to the destiny of the General. Given the General's health, however, both their destinies rely on factors outside their control. The General has exhausted his political power, a strain which has taken a toll on his wasted body. For men like Wilson and the General, recognizing that they are not in control of their fate is difficult and terrifying to admit.

“Nothing in this world can stain your glory.”

Throughout his journey, the General meets many people who are still loyal to his cause. One of these people assures him that there is nothing that can diminish the "glory" (72) he has achieved throughout his life. Despite their intention, these words provide no comfort for the General. Not only is he losing his health and family, but the nation he built is coming apart before his eyes. He is keenly aware of his legacy and fears what will happen to that legacy when the country falls apart.

“I am condemned to a theatrical destiny.”

When the General claims he is "condemned to a theatrical destiny" (81), he means it in a romantic sense; He is trying to seduce a woman and the allusion to the theatricality of his life is a part of his seduction. At the end of his life, however, his statement takes on a different meaning. The General's slow decline, laden with pathos and embarrassing details, is still theatrical but with a tragic twist. The General has become the protagonist that he never expected to become: the tragic hero who is faced with his own demise.

“If we leave the monopoly in the hands of the Germans, they will end up transferring it to the United States.”

The General in his Labyrinth was written in the 1980s, at a time when the involvement of the United States in Latin American affairs was at a peak. Given this context, the General's words are a prophetic warning of the century to come. Rather than establishing a powerful Gran Colombia which can push back against the colonial powers, the General warns that the emphasis of colonial control will simply shift west, from Europe toward the United States.

“Spare me this humiliation.”

The interplay between mythology and the self is a key theme in the novel, as the General seeks to assert control over the way in which people view him now and how they will view him in the future. Anything that presents him as less than a hero, any act or situation that reveals him to be a frail and flawed human, he sees as ruining his myth. The General’s sense of shame is his defining emotion during his journey because at each step, he must devise a way to hide the reality of his condition, which inevitably makes his situation worse.

“On this occasion the General arrived so disillusioned with his glory and so disenchanted with the world that he was caught off guard by the crowd waiting for him in port.”

The last time the General visited the town, he came as a conqueror. Now, he people view him as a legend, a title that has mixed connotations. The crowd has come to see the myth, more than the man. They view him with the morbid curiosity of a crowd who has come to see an era at an end, rather than one at its beginning.

“Many mothers preferred that their children be exposed to the risks of contagion rather than the dangers of prevention.”

Under the General's rule, a smallpox vaccine was distributed throughout the country, but certain people decided that the cure was worse than the disease, so refused to allow their children to be inoculated. The General laments their lack of foresight. To him, the decision is a metaphor for the people's views of independence. He has tried to give the people independence, which he believes is a genuine social benefit, but certain parts of society reject what is best for them for their own misguided reasons.

“He was so sensitive to everything said about him, true or false, that he never recovered from any falsehood, and until the moment of his death he struggled to disprove them.”

The General is very "sensitive" (114) to whatever is said about him because he is concerned with his legacy. He may lack the fortune needed to leave a financial or material legacy, but his deeds have ensured that he will be written into the history books. As a result, he wants to ensure that this historical version of himself is as positive as possible. He obsesses over what he believes to be lies and untruths because these contravene the version of himself that he hopes will form the foundation of his legacy: Any perceived lie is an attack on his legacy.

“He could not master his soul.”

Throughout his declining health, the General struggles to maintain his physical independence. He insists on shaving himself every day and refuses the help of litter chairs in public. Though his efforts to control his physical decline are somewhat successful, he cannot control his moral and spiritual world. His soul is in agony as his country crumbles and his health fades. As much as he tries, he cannot hide this inner torment from the world.

“It was true she always stayed behind, not because she wanted to but because the General would leave her on any pretext in a foolhardy effort to escape the servitude of formalized love.”

The General invents a grandiose explanation for his inability to commit to any relationship. Phrases such as "the servitude of formalized love" (149) present him as a lone warrior against a totalizing institution, framing him as an arch individual rather than as a licentious and unscrupulous man. Aware of his reputation, he must frame himself as the hero even when he is simply trying to justify the brevity of a love affair. 

“There's nothing more dangerous than a written memoir.”

To the General, a biography or an account of his life is "dangerous" (154). The danger resides in the fact that he is not the person in control of his own narrative. To relinquish control of his reputation is to relinquish control of his legacy, which he is loath to do. Ironically, the phrase appears in a novel which is an embellished and fictionalized version of his life.

“Only my master knows what my master is thinking.”

José Palacios is the General’s confidant. As such, he is the person best placed to know the General's state of mind. It is exactly because of this that José repeats his mantra, reaffirming that no one other than the General could possibly guess what the "master is thinking" (178). Given the General's desire to tightly control his own reputation, José knows better than to project ideas, reasons, or motivations onto the character of the man he knows so well; To do so would be a betrayal.

“Then she gained thorough knowledge of the most ravaged body one could imagine: the meager belly, the ribs pushing through the skin, the legs and arms reduced to mere bone, all of it enclosed in a hairless hide as pale as death except for the face, which was so weathered by exposure to the elements that it seemed to belong to another man.”

The General's ailing body provides an objective account of his health. With so many rumors spreading that his declining health is a lie designed to elicit sympathy from the public, the General decides to reveal the truth to a young woman. He makes her examine his frail and deteriorating body so that she can see reality for herself. In a world where mysteries, lies, and legends are all deeply entwined, the General uses his fragility to cut right to the truth of the matter. Unfortunately for him, he cannot use this same method in every city, town, and village in the country.

“The damn problem is that we stopped being Spaniards and then we went here and there and everywhere in countries that change their names and governments so much from one day to the next we don't know where the hell we come from.”

In the post-colonial state, identity is in constant flux. The people of Gran Colombia have ceased to be Spanish only recently, but they have not yet established a unified national identity of their own. As a result, rebellion is frequent. The General realizes that destroying an oppressive national identity is easier than creating an affirming, positive one.

“A short while later, in Potosi, trying to hold back the gale winds of fugitive youth escaping between his fingers, he shaved off his mustache and sideburns.”

The General shaves his mustache and sideburns in an attempt to assert agency over his body. As his health declines, his physical condition rapidly spirals out of control, and he cannot hide his ill health from the world. When he cuts off his facial hair, he is doing what he can to project his agency into the watching world.

“Well, all of that is true, but circumstantial.”

The narrative of The General in His Labyrinth has a strained relationship with the truth. On the novel’s release, García Márquez was criticized for embellishing or rewriting parts of history. The novel addresses this particular depiction of the truth: all the novel is true, but it is also circumstantial. Truth is a nebulous concept, especially in a world where the public perception of truth is more important than objective fact.

“Viewed in the proper light, he was no longer a defeated pensioner fleeing into exile but a general on campaign.”

The sudden sense of purpose given to the General briefly restores his vitality. However, this feeling is fleeting. From one perspective, he seems back to his old self. From another perspective, when seen in the improper light, these are the death throes of a man on the brink of his own demise.

“Now it's clear: debt will destroy us in the end.”

Occasionally, García Márquez gives the General insights about the future that correspond with the predicaments of the present-day; In the 1980s, the debt of Latin America was considered a form of post-colonial control. The General's warnings about debt also comment on his own life, in which the emotional debt of his past weighs so heavily on his present that he worries it will destroy him.

“Once again he became despondent at the sorrowful thought that everything of his would turn into goods for sale.”

Knowing that everything he owns will be sold forces the General to confront the aftermath of his death before he is even dead. Nothing will be passed along, as he has no heirs. As much as he would like to control his legacy, from his reputation to his possessions, he must reckon with the material reality of the world he will leave behind.

“But that soothing taste, associated in so intimate a way with his earliest memories, disturbed his bile and devastated his body, and his prostration was so pronounced that Dr. Night sailed earlier than planned in order to send a specialist from Jamaica.”

As he lies dying, the General seeks out a soothing memory from his past. He sips a drink that healed him when he was young but that, in his old age, only makes him sicker. The General tortures himself with nostalgia, but he cannot escape the lure of his own memories.