REPRESENTING POWER AND POWERLESSNESS IN GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ’S SHORT STORIES BIG MAMA’S FUNERAL AND A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/ShodhPrabandhan.v1.i1.2024.200Keywords:
Social Inequality, Excessive Power, Powerlessness, Exploitation, Human DignityAbstract
Latin America, especially Colombia was always troubled with a chaotic history. The concentration of wealth and resources in the hands of the elite and the powerful, had made the place a turbulent one for the underprivileged. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short stories provided a platform for the common man to recognize the harsh realities endured by them. Social inequality and power relations constitute the central theme of many of his short stories. The short stories selected for discussion in this paper, Big Mama’s Funeral and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings are centred around the questions of power and powerlessness. Marquez encourages his readers to question the unequal distribution of power, resources, value and human dignity and also to challenge the corrupted social systems that generate inequality and hierarchies.
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