Love in The Time of Cholera: A Reflection on Magical Realism Anonymous College

“Forever” (Marquez, 1988: 352). Thanks to this simple word -- Florentino Ariza’s answer to the Riverboat captain’s question when asked how long he intends to keep the boat going -- it is not hard to understand why many critics would label Love in the time of Cholera a love story of astonishing power. Ariza’s answer as the last line in the book and its placement as the conclusion to the tale make it, for less romantically inclined readers, all the more cringe-worthy. Even the story's main plot points appear to have been lifted directly from a shallow romantic novel or even its film adaptation -- a love triangle that survives the test of time, a protagonist who makes it his life’s work to make himself worthy of his beloved, an ending which is ultimately a happy one. The novel’s short length does nothing to discredit these accusations of frivolity either. Yet if one were to fully examine the novel, one would find that Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s hailed masterpiece is exactly that, a masterpiece.

Thus, this essay will attempt to prove the credibility of the novel as a work of postmodernism. This will be done by examining various excerpts from the book and identifying the use of magic realism within them. Special attention will also be...