The Autumn of the Patriarch

The General’s body, as a motif, is the site of the story; it is the vessel through which power lives and fate orchestrates death—either his own or others. His feet are one of his most pronounced physical attributes. The narrator repeatedly describes the “great feet of an illusory monarch” or the “great feet of a senile elephant” (206, 221). In both cases, while his feet are monstrous and validate his physical presence, they are but a symbol of the encasement which will be his inevitable demise.

The General’s body is easily imitated by Patricio or José which suggests that the physical presence of the General is of no consequence to power—instead his body only represents power. Márquez emphasizes this by continually returning to a dead body that may or may not be the General. In fact, when people do encounter the General’s actual body, like when Manuela sees him for the first time, she sees “his baggy linen suit as if there was nobody inside, his enormous dead man’s shoes” (70), further demonstrating that his body is only a vessel for power and does not constitute power.