Final Siesta
In the short story, “Tuesday Siesta”, Gabriel Garcia Marquez does not incorporate magical realism, as obvious when compared to other short stories such as, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”. Instead, Marquez approaches magical realism with a political view through personal perspective as he underscores the internalized oppression of the lower echelon in the social classes by those occupying the upper tiers. Throughout “Tuesday Siesta” Marquez inadvertently alludes to historical developments which has led to the exploitation of the so called, “3rd class citizen” in what is already considered a third world country.
Marquez makes constant references to the heat and shade throughout the short story. This is paralleled to the mentioning of banana and almond trees in the opening paragraph. Almond trees actually possess huge leaves, which allows one to be able to stand under the tree during the hottest times of the day and feel no heat, as opposed to the banana trees which posses small leafs. The area from where the alleged thief lived was littered with vast banana plantations opposite to the town where he had been killed. The more prominent tree in this town was the almond variety, which shadowed the sidewalks throughout the town. It seems to portray the inhabitants as those not only being sheltered from sweltering heat, but also protected from exploitation faced by those occupying the banana district.
Abject poverty also highlights the plight of this 3rd class as the mother who is seeking honorable burial rites for her son is described as wearing “severe and poor mourning clothes,” while “she bore the conscientious serenity of someone accustomed to poverty”(465). Equally important is the daughter who keeps taking off her shoes because she seemed unaccustomed to wearing them due to their poverty. In addition, there also seems to be a strict regime of defining lines between the classes which...