The Autumn of the Patriarch

The narrator opens again on the mysterious body. Remembering a memoir written by Ambassador Palmerston, now banned, the narrator describes the advanced age of the General: so old that he’d lost hearing and with a house in utter decay and disarray, covered in animal feces and paper. The narrator then compares this image of decrepitude to the many phases of the general during his regime; from bantering with the townspeople one on one to changing the time of day at will; moving from a believer in omens and dreams to a murderer who kills all fortune tellers and smashes incantations that might bring upon his death, believing that he’ll evade death and be “master” of power.

In one brutish display, the narrator (who becomes the woman whom the General pursues) recounts a time when the General enters the home of a newly wedded couple, rapes Francisca Linero, and murders her husband Poncio Daz to get rid of someone who would have been “a mortal enemy for the rest of his life” (91). These instances aren’t enough to remedy the General’s fear, however. He wasn’t powerful enough to see beyond Manuela’s trick and is still afraid to die—even when he’s already been told of the manner of his death.