To what extent has adversity been projected through the symbolism applied in the novella “No One writes to the Colonel”
Adversity has been projected to a great extent in the novella “No One Writes to the Colonel”. The colonel and his wife are shown fighting against grinding poverty, deprivation, loneliness, death of their only son and numerous hardships through symbolism throughout the novella.
In the beginning of the novella, the colonel finds “only one little spoonful” of coffee in the tin. The colonel is seen scraping the coffee tin, to take the last scrapings of coffee out. The couple has no money to buy even basic necessities of life and try to find ways to feed themselves somehow, for just some more time… This projects the idea of loneliness and emptiness in the colonel and his wife’s life. For pressing the colonel’s shirt, the wife heated irons on the coal stove. They could not afford anything more sophisticated, and just managed somehow with coals. Throughout the novella, the couple are seen living life at the brink, with no idea as to where their next meal will come from, and how will they manage to sustain themselves.
The theme of adversity in the story “No One Writes to the Colonel” is said to be inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s own experience of poverty and unemployment, when the newspaper he was working for as a correspondent, El Espectador, shut down in 1955. He spent a hard and penurious year then, not knowing where his next meal would come from, and it was during this time only that he began to write this novella.
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The colonel has no source of income, and had been waiting for his pension to arrive since the last 20 years. But, this hardship does not break the colonel. He never loses hope, which was a stronger feeling inside him than those inflicted upon him during his suffering. He is ready to wait on, in hope of a better future, thinking that the pension will help him live comfortably for the rest of his life once it arrives. His hope, in a way, sustains him through all the hardship.
“You can’t eat hope,” the woman said.
“You can’t eat it, but it sustains you,” the colonel replied. “It’s something like my friend Sabas’s miraculous pills.”
This attitude of his also affects his wife, who also keeps up hope and survives. He has no money to buy either food or medicine for his wife, and he hopes to pay all his dues from his pension once it arrives or from the rooster’s earnings once it wins. The couple piles on debts but people agree to help them on the condition to receive payment once “the rooster” wins. In a way, it is ironical that the colonel asks the people who lend him money for the amount he owes them, as he does not have any money to repay them anyways. But, this also shows that the colonel was too proud to let others know about his poverty.
“So now everyone knows we’re starving”, said by the colonel is also a hint to that. Several times, the colonel’s wife had put stones to boil so that the neighbours don’t know that they were starving. The colonel also feels embarrassed “going around asking for favours” and wants to return money that was lend by his friend Sabas as soon as possible. It could be said that his adverse situation sharpened his self-esteem and made him feel small while asking for favours or money, which he was forced to do countless times. But, he never feels ashamed when he sees the wealth of others, due to his innocence and blind faith in the fact that he will also see better days when the pension arrives or the rooster wins-his hope lives on…
The colonel’s wife thinks more logically than him about their destitute state by wanting to sell their only clock, a painting in their house and the rooster to live on. She already sold her son’s sewing machine for money and wanted to get a loan on their wedding rings. This shows the degree to which their penury had made them helpless, and their urgent need for money.
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This need for money also brings the old couple together, who have to share the suffering, pain and hunger. There seems to something which has “grown old in their love” and they have a lack of understanding. However, incidents in the novella such as the colonel’s wife sewing patches onto torn shirts, the couple putting their heads together to think up ways to get their next meal and the sufferings of old age such as his wife’s asthma, his frequent illnesses and strange murmurings at night still unite the two. So, the theme of adversity serves as a backdrop to the novella, a setting around which many of the events revolve and the mind-set of the characters builds up.
The rooster is used as an important symbol for displaying the couple’s adverse situation. The rooster was a fighting cock and could have got them a good amount of money if it won a cockfight. However, the couple did not have enough money to even feed the rooster. The colonel unsuccessfully tries to sell the rooster many times but at the end of the novella changes his mind. At a point of time, the corn that their dead son’s friends bring for the rooster sustains them. The rooster is of emotional value to them-it was their son’s rooster and this was the reason preventing them from selling him or simply eating him up. At the end of the novella, the colonel gives a more logical reason for keeping him, the fact that he would get them more money if they sell him after the cock fight instead of doing away with him now. But, we must say that beggars must not be choosers, and the colonel could have got at least some money by selling the rooster right away. However, the rooster represents a source of income to them, and a reason to live on in their difficult circumstances. Through the rooster, we can say, the adversity in the novella is reinstated.
The colonel’s only son, Agustin, dies distributing scandalous material under martial law and his wife has still not recovered from this shock. The memories of their son still haunt her and worsen her condition. The death of their only son also adds to their deprivation and loneliness. The colonel and his wife are not named throughout the novella, which adds to the feeling of insignificance of the characters, insignificance of the couple as individuals struggling to survive.
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Thus, through symbols like the rooster and their son’s death, adversity is projected all though the novella “No One writes to the Colonel”, as the colonel and his wife face hunger, disease, age, sorrow and profound loss. But, they do not lose hope to the very end.
