Analysis of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's "Death Constant Beyond Love"
analysis by Sarah Lawall

A close textual analysis of one sentence from "Death Constant Beyond Love" which demonstrates Garcia Marquez's use of the techniques of magical realism. Note how the author suggests possible stories beyond the one he is telling, while at the same time he sets a mood and deepens our understanding of the main character.

Senator Onesimo Sanchez was placid and weatherless inside the air-conditioned car, but as soon as he opened the door he was shaken by a gust of fire and his shirt of pure silk was soaked in a kind of light-colored soup and he felt many years older and more alone than ever. (2589)
This we might break down as follows:
Senator Onesimo Sanchez was placid and weatherless inside the air-conditioned car,
In what way can someone be weatherless? The word certainly suggests calm, but it is a calm which is almost unnatural, almost artificial. This "weatherlessness" could be attributed to the air-conditioning, but it further suggests that Sanchez is, by his own choice, unaffected by the unpleasant world of hot weather and, by implication, shabby poverty through which it is his duty to ride. The suggestion is that to be "weatherless" is to be somehow separated from life in Rosal del Virrey. The opposite, then, would also be true--to enter into the weather suggests a fundamental connection with life there.
but as soon as he opened the door he was shaken by a gust of fire
We expect "hot air" or its equivalent here; we ge "fire," perhaps because it is more elemental and attacks our own senses more aggressively. The word "shaken" first suggests a physical response, but by the end of the sentence it can be seen to suggest an emotional or spiritual response as well.
and his shirt of pure silk
He is rich; he shines in the blistering heat. The shirt suggests that the Senator is used to separating himself from the conditions in which his constituents pass their lives.
was soaked in a kind of light-colored soup
The weather attacks him; it has a life of its own, it's own magical properties and effects. The word "soup" is particularly suggestive. The peculiar pungency and viscosity of "soup," in this context, compels the reader to participate in Sanchez's sensations. If we assume that this "soup" is caused by the weather, rather than being an aspect of the weather itself, we immediately translate "soup" into "sweat." But to say "Onesimo Sanchez sweated profusely" would hardly suggest the energy with which Garcia Marquez wishes to endow the atmosphere of Rosal del Virrey.
and he felt many years older and more alone than ever.
Sanchez's feelings appear to derive from his transition from "weatherlessness" to his immersion in the hot, soupy, and sordid world of Rosa1 del Virrey-- that is, from rose to Rosal, from illusion to disillusion. These feelings of age and solitude are inescapable for Sanchez in his life just as they are inescapable in this sentence.