Questions for Literary Reports: Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s

The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother

“The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother”

  1. Explain the importance of the desert as a setting.
  2. Explain the significance of the quote, “people who die in the desert don’t go to heaven but to the sea” (20).
  3. Explain the significance of the ending for this story.
  4. What is the significance of the grandmother’s blood?
  5. What is the significance of the grandmother’s dreams?

“The Sea of Lost Time”

  1. Explain the importance of the sea as a setting.
  2. What is the significance of the “fragrance of roses”?
  3. Why does Jacob’s wife want to be buried alive, and why doesn’t she get her wish? What is the significance of this?
  4. What is the significance of the absence of children in this story?
  5. What role does Mr. Herbert play for the townspeople?
  6. What is the significance of the undersea city?

“Death Constant Beyond Love”

  1. What is Nelson Farina’s desire? How does this parallel the Senator’s visits?
  2. What is the significance of the rose?
  3. Why is the donkey an ironic gift from the terminal senator?
  4. Explain the significance of the story’s title.

“The Third Resignation”

  1. Define and explain the significance of the three deaths.
  2. Explain the paradoxes on 96-97 that the speaker dies of death after he has experienced “simply ‘a living death.’”

“The Other Side of Death”

  1. Compare and contrast the opening of this story with the previous one. Why are these openings significant?
  2. Explain the significance of the pronoun inconsistency in the second paragraph.
  3. Explain the biblical allusions to Isaac, Rebecca, and Jacob on pages 113-114.

“Eva Is Inside Her Cat”

  1. How is beauty described and explained in this story? What is the significance of this?
  2. Explain the significance of the boy.
  3. Explain the significance of Eva’s transformation.

“Dialogue with the Mirror”

  1. Compare and contrast this story with “The Other Side of Death.”
  2. Explain the significance of the allusion to Pandora.
  3. Explain the significance of the dog in the final line.

“Bitterness for Three Sleepwalkers”

  1. Explain the significance of this line: “we realized that above her fearsome subworld she was completely human” (141).
  2. Explain this simile: “her shouts were like a revelation somehow; as if they had a lot of remembered tree and deep river about them” (141).
  3. Explain the significance of the line, “I’ll never smile again” (141).

“Eyes of a Blue Dog”

  1. Explain the title of the story.
  2. Explain the dichotomy between heat and cold.

“The Woman Who Came at Six O’clock”

  1. Explain the bear motif.
  2. Explain the significance of disgust.

“Someone Has Been Disarranging These Roses”

  1. Compare and contrast the male/female relationship in this story with the one in “Eva Is Inside Her Cat.”

“The Night of the Curlews”

  1. Explain the theme of the story as it pertains to perception.
  2. Explain the theme of the story as it relates to isolation/integration.

Questions for the text as a whole

  1. Explain the significance of flowers (especially the rose) as a motif.
  2. Explain the significance of the lamp as a motif.
  3. Explain the significance of the mirror as a motif.
  4. Explain the significance of the cricket as a motif.
  5. Explain the significance of the cat as a motif.
  6. Explain the significance of the garden as a motif.
  7. Explain the significance of dreaming as a motif.
  8. Explain the significance of the orange as a motif.
  9. Explain the significance of cancer/tumor as a motif.
  10. Explain the significance of time/clocks as a motif.
  11. Explain the significance of science as a motif.
  12. Explain the tension between confinement/freedom.
  13. Explain the importance of deception and seduction as a theme and motif.
  14. Explain how the theme of solitude/isolation operates in this collection.