The General in His Labyrinth

The General in His Labyrinth starts in media res, meaning that the narrative begins after the plot is already in motion, and it is written in the third-person past tense. The General has already driven out the Spanish colonialists, established the Republic of Gran Colombia, and grown old with his achievements. When the novel begins, he is on the cusp of being driven into exile, and his life is almost over. In a structural sense, the decision to begin Bolívar’s story at the end of his life shifts the focus of his story from a heroic epic to a tragedy. In this telling of events, his great military conquests are part of the past. They are resigned to history and appear only as traumatic fragments of memory, which become increasingly irrelevant as the General's health fades and everything he built begins to crumble. Rather than the story focusing on how Bolívar defeated the Spanish, the story focuses on the General's last days, as he is forced to reckon with his past and the mythical idea of himself that has become a legend. For this reason, his full name—General Simón José Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios—is used only once in the novel. The use of the General's title to signify his character, rather than his name, creates a sense of distance between García Márquez's fictional character “the General” and the historical figure of Bolívar. The General is not the historical figure who is recorded in the history books; Rather, the General is a more nuanced, flawed, and reflective presence in a narrative, which focuses on tragic decline rather than epic victory.

José Palacios is a vital figure in the novel. He is so important that his name opens the novel and guides the audience into the General’s diminished world. Rather than the presidential palace or the splendor that might be befitting of a conquering hero, the quiet, humble José sets the tone for the presentation of the General: he himself has been humbled, driven into exile, and forced to relinquish the trappings of state that are expected of a man who has nearly united an entire continent. Instead, the General's status has been reduced through politics and paranoia. People have conspired against him and driven him out, so now he surrounds himself only with the people that he truly trusts. José and Manuela are not important individuals on the historical stage, but their presence in the General's life sets the tone for the novel: these are the people he loves and trusts the most; they are all he has left.

This introduction to the General and the way in which his departure from Bogotá unfurls establish a key theme in the text of Mythology and the Self. This theme is explored through the General's fame and his self-identity versus his life’s historical reality. For the general population of the soon-to-collapse Gran Colombia, Bolívar is the country’s founder and the chief opponent of Spanish colonialism. The General likes to think of himself this way, as a legendary figure whose strength and heroic qualities are never in doubt. The legendary figure of Bolívar the Liberator clashes with the more vulnerable character of the General. The greatly diminished General is tired, sick, and increasingly powerless. Wherever he goes, the legend precedes him and provides him with a measuring stick against which he must judge himself. When he leaves Bogotá and visits the villages, towns, and cities on his journey to Europe, he must contend with the ever-increasing disparity between the mythological Bolívar and his current reality. This disparity is made particularly apparent when, on arrival in one town, the locals do not recognize him. They assume that one of the younger, fitter generals must surely be the man who freed them from Spanish rule. This mistake hurts the General, who desperately wants to be the man he once was. Over the course of the novel, he struggles to resolve the conflict between his mythology and his reality.