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Childhood:
Historical Background of the Time:
A. 1. Banana Massacre:a. Workers on Colombian banana plantations went on strike demanding better pay and working conditions
b. on December 6th, 1928 an army regiment sent from Bogota by the conservative government massacred the striking workers and their families. They took claim for 47 of the killings but historians say it was up to 2000.
2. Thousands Day War (1899-1902)
a. A war between the liberal and conservative factions of Colombia.
b. the conservative government was accused of keeping their power through false elections.c. the Conservative side won the war. The causalities are listed around 100,000
Birth
A. 1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6th, 1928 in Aracataca, Columbia.2. His mother Luisa Iguaran was born to a wealthy family, her father was a colonel and helped found the town they lived in.
3. She married Gabriel’s father, Gabriel Eligio Garcia, without her parents permission. He was below her station and a conservative.
4. After the birth of her children Luisa sent them to live with her parents while she and her husband lived in a different town. A common practice for poor couples.
Early Childhood
A. 1. Gabriel was raised by his grandparents in Aracataca.
2. His grandfather- Nicolas Ricardo Marquez Mejia was an outspoken man who spoke out against the massacres that had occurred during his time in the army. He was a hero to those in the town and had lived a complex life.
3. He had killed a man in a duel when he was younger and told Gabriel that ‘there was no greater burden then to have killed a man’ which became an important lesson that he would place in his writing.
4. His grandmother- Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes. She was a very superstitious woman who taught Gabriel stories about ghosts and curses and traditional superstitions.
5. His grand aunts also lived in the house with them and they too would tell him superstitions. Their story telling style would later be one he would adapt for his writing.
6. This is when he would be told stories of the Civil War and the Banana Massacre.
"I feel that all my writing has been about the experiences of the time I spent with my grandparents."
Education:A. Early Education
2. 1. Gabriel was sent to boarding school in Barranquilla. He was known as a very shy and serious child to the point where the others nicknamed him “old man”.2. As a young boy he was known to write poems and draw cartoons.
3. At the age of 12 he was awarded a scholarship to study at a school 30 miles north of the capitol.
4. He was exposed to the capitol for the first time and found himself hating the oppressive atmosphere. It would affect his view of who he was.
5. In school he found his love for literature growing and he would continue to write short stories and draw for the other students.
6. Due to his parents wishes for a better life for him, when he graduated in 1946 he went to study to become a lawyer in the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá.
5
Education:
B. College Education
1. Due to his lack of passion for what he was studying Gabriel skipped most of his classes while in college.
2. He began to find a crowd around the city that he enjoyed, he spent time with other writers, socialists and journalists. 3. It was at this time that he read Metamorphosis by Kafka and found his life transformed. He found himself realizing that writing could have a distinct style.
4. “"I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago."
5. He began to write again and published his first story “The Third Resignation” at this time in 1946. 6. When political upheaval occurred after an assassination Gabriel transferred to the Universidad de Cartagena. 7. He quite his law degree in 1950 and devoted himself to writing after moving to Barranquilla. He met a literary group called el grupo de Barranquilla and they helped him form his writing. He read Hemmingway, Faulkner, Woolf, and he began to read the classics such as Oedipus Rex.
Late Life: A. Exile
1. He published a story in 1955 that was the story of the Caldas, a Columbian destroyer that had sunk and had only one survivor. The survivor was held as a hero by the government but later told Gabriel that the ship held illegal cargo.2. Gabriel published the true story as a ghost writer his editor, worried that he would be found by the government, sent him to Italy.3. He ended up traveling around Europe, his writing being influenced by what he would see in France, Ukraine, and Italy.4. He moved to Venezuela where he continued to write and became more politically active.
3. After marrying his childhood sweetheart he moved to Mexico, where he began to write for a newspaper on very anti-american stances
4. After leaving Mexico he moved to Cuba where he would become personal friends with Castro while covering the Cuban revolution.
5. He moved to New York City but was forced to leave due to his communist beliefs. He moved back to Mexico. He would be denied entrance to the US until 1971.
6. He published his most popular works during this time that would earn him his fame including Love in the Time of Cholera (1986), and One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
7. He continued to write and be politically active until his death on April 17th, 2014 due to lymphatic cancer.
Writing Life:A. Inspiration
1. Gabriel was inspired the most by Faulkner and Sophocles.2. After reading Faulkner, Gabriel found himself wanting to write about what he felt close to. He found his early writing too abstract.3. He was inspired by Sophocles to write stories with plots revolving around politics and abuse of power in society.4. He was also greatly inspired by his childhood and his grandparents stories of war and superstition.
5. As he grew older he was inspired by the political upheaval that he witnessed in his country.6. He also found himself inspired by his communist beliefs.7. To write “love in the time of cholera” he was inspired by his parents courtship
Writing Life:
B. Types of Writing He Published
1. Short stories: “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” , “Big Mama’s Funeral”2. Novellas: “Leaf Storm”, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”3. Novels: “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “Love in the Time of Cholera”
Writing Style:
Realism
A. 1. What is realism: “representing familiar things as they are”
2. Many of his earlier works were written with the history of Colombia in mind
Big Mama’s Funeral is an example of his realism style. It’s a satire on latin American life and culture.
B. Magic Realism
2. 1. What is magic realism: “a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.”
2. He used to tie together religious imagery into his story. (in AVOMWEW he brings the old man into the story and has him set up as an angel)
3. Many of the supernatural elements in his story would be written in very seriously.
4. “the most frightful, the most unusual things are told with the deadpan expression” (McMurray, George R. (1987) Critical Essays on Gabriel García Márquez Boston: G.K. Hall & Co.)
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