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Setting
Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Wars Like Oxen:
García Márquez uses simile and situational irony to expose the dehumanizing nature of war and the indifference of the middle class to its consequences. The moment occurs during a conversation about Florentino’s engagement to Fermina, when his godfather dismisses the idea that Colombia’s ongoing civil wars should pose any real obstacle to their courtship. The narrator explains:
His godfather, the homeopathic practitioner who happened to be taking part in the conversation, did not believe that the wars were an obstacle. He thought they were nothing more than the struggles of the poor, driven like oxen by the landowners, against the barefoot soldiers who were driven in turn by the government.
The godfather’s remark strips the wars of heroism or ideology. The simile comparing the poor to “oxen” reduces them to beasts of burden, yoked and forced forward without choice. Both the peasants and the soldiers, described as “barefoot,” appear powerless, manipulated by elites who benefit from their suffering. The image emphasizes the exploitation of the lower classes, turning war into a system of coercion rather than conviction.
The irony lies in how casually war is dismissed in this domestic context. Civil conflict—normally a force that disrupts families and shapes destinies—is here treated as irrelevant to Florentino’s romance. For his family, the exchange of love letters carries more weight than the bloodshed consuming the country. This inversion underscores García Márquez’s critique of class divisions: for the middle and upper classes, war is an abstraction, while the poor endure its devastation directly.
At the same time, the passage subtly reflects on Florentino’s own ideals. While he imagines love as transcendent and world-defying, the godfather’s words remind readers that both love and war are shaped by the same social hierarchies. Just as peasants are driven into battle without agency, Florentino and Fermina’s relationship is constrained by family expectations and class structures. Through the simile of oxen and the ironic dismissal of war’s supposed grandeur, García Márquez portrays both political conflict and private passion as arenas dominated less by ideals than by entrenched systems of power.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Ocean of Ashes:
To convey Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s shock of disillusionment upon returning home with his mother, García Márquez employs imagery and a simile. Expecting nostalgia and continuity, he instead finds his city transformed, its grandeur eclipsed by poverty, decay, and the harsh realities of time:
The ocean looked like ashes, the old palaces of the marquises were about to succumb to a proliferation of beggars, and it was impossible to discern the ardent scent of jasmine behind the vapors of death from the open sewers.
The simile of the ocean looking “like ashes” transforms what should be a scene of vitality into one of desolation, as though the very lifeblood of the city has been burned out. Through sight, smell, and atmosphere, García Márquez layers sensory detail to depict decline: aristocratic palaces crumble, beggars crowd the streets, and the fragrance of jasmine—a symbol of romance and beauty—is suffocated by the stench of death from the sewers. The city overwhelms Urbino not with familiarity but with ruin.
The imagery emphasizes stark contrasts: jasmine versus rot, palaces versus beggars, beauty versus poverty. In each pairing, the symbol of refinement is overtaken by filth and deprivation, dramatizing the collapse of both material splendor and romantic idealism. Urbino’s comparison of his city to Paris, associated with elegance and modernity, only heightens the sense of disappointment, underscoring the gulf between expectation and reality.
This passage also links the city’s decline to Urbino’s recognition of mortality in more intimate terms. Just as the urban landscape bears the marks of age and erosion, so too does his mother’s face reveal the passing of time. The parallel between the city’s decay and his mother’s aging underscores García Márquez’s broader concern with impermanence and loss.
Ultimately, the simile and sensory imagery work together to dismantle Urbino’s nostalgic vision. Instead of a return to stability, he finds a confrontation with fragility—of cities, social classes, and generations alike. Through these images of rot, the novel insists on the inevitability of decline, reminding readers that grandeur and romance cannot withstand the corrosive forces of time and poverty.
Related Themes:
