The Colonel seeks an alternative to his reality in the excitement and hopes of his rooster winning the cock fights still to come for another two months. At times. he seems distant enough in his mind, he appears to have forgotten he has a house and wife to feed and support. However, his wife's physical conditions do not allow him to get lost in these illusions for more than a few seconds. Her asthma, her gravely and heavy breathing, and recurring physical descriptions such as, 'She was scarcely more than a bit of white on an arched, rigid spine' (Garca Marquez, 2), are a constant reminder that death, poverty and starvation are haunting the plot and the characters. The whistling of her lungs the reader can almost hear through the effects of sibilance, is a reminder of the dark sinister times they are living. Death lurk the aging couple.
Women in Garca Mrquez's No One Writes To The Colonel merge into one - the Colonel's wife who is the practical, realistic complementary half to the Colonel. She suggests selling the clock , and rooster and asks for a loan on their wedding rings. She no longer has as much faith in Fridays as the Colonel has, and has come to understand that eternally waiting for something that hasn't come for the past fifteen years will only culminate in death, which was 'The only thing that comes for sure' (Garca Mrquez, 41). She is aware there are, unfortunately, physical and material needs to eating is probably her main concern. The wife, unlike the Colonel, is aware 'You can't eat hope' (Garca Mrquez, 43). Her presence in the Colonel's everyday life is, therefore, a constant force behind a gradual shift towards understanding what frightens the Colonel the most; reality. The Colonel is tom between his and the town's hopes of the rooster winning the upcoming cock fight and his wife's awareness of their critical situation.
Little Alba also seemed to grow tom between the my~ world of magic, dreams, and imagination, and the system~ medical treatises traditional of the rational, more practical world of her uncle Jaime and Esteban Trueba himself. Though 'Alba's childhood was a mixture of vegetarian diets, Japanese martial arts, Tibetan dance, yogic breathing ... and many other interesting techniques' (Allende,267), there were in fad times 'when she would have been delighted to escape her grandmother's clairvoyance, her mother's intuition and the clamor of eccentric people who were constantly appearing and disappearing' (Allende, 269). All of the above stand for the illusory world of fantasy, and magic, which she seemed to enjoy occasionally. However, at times she would much rather take refuge 'sitting on the balcony reading the medical treatises her Uncle Jaime lent her' (Allende, 270). The reality to which she was instructed through the logic and rationality implicit in her Uncle Jaime, would prepare her for the reality she was bound to encounter at times of horror and torture.
Allende uses Uncle Marcos's books from his enchanted trunks and his fantastic anecdotes to preserve the continuity of magic through Trueba generations. However, these are also the same forces behind a continuous shift towards reality and practicality, and the inspiration behind a role reversal in women, serving as their main source of unity, hope and strength evident in the epilogue. Allende describes Bianca taking Albas hand and how she 'began to tell her stories from the magic books of the enchanted trunks of her Great-Uncle Marcos, which her memory had transformed into new tales' (Allende,303). Alba hears these stories through the voice of an oppressed woman yearning to break free from the chains restraining her. Blanca now told about a prince who slept a hundred years, damsels who fought dragons single-handed, and a wolf lost in a forest who was disemboweled by a little girl for no reason whatsoever (Allende, 303). The mythical strength of the stories' heroines reflect the mesmerizing courage Alba later demonstrated at the time of the Coup, fearless and courageous, a more realistic role for the times of change, transition and progress that were yet to come in the narrative.
Clara's stories become the female voice in Allende's novel, a family legacy which helped Alba 'reclaim the past and overcome terrors of her own' (Allende,433). By the end of the novel Clare's habit of writing and Great-Uncle Marcos's tales become Alba's sharpest weapon against the passage of time, oppression and imprisonment. In a notebook given to her by Ana Diaz, she tried to record the small events of the women's section of the jail, how she sat with a child in each arm and told them magic stories from the enchanted trunks of [her] Great-Uncle Marcos until they fell asleep(Allende 427). Alba has changed since the first time she read these magic stories, thus the versions she now tells to the prisoners are bound to have changed as well, they have become fen of a fairy-tale and more of an inspiration and source of strength to survive their reality.
The mosquito netting appears to be the most pronounced barrier between the Colonel's world and the Wife's world. This is probably the most effective motif to convey its connotation - division between the couple's thoughts and feelings, needs and wants. Even though constipation and October are haunting the Colonel, his world is built on hope and dignity, whilst the wife is 'fed up with resignation and dignity (Garca Mrquez, 46). In a cold manner, the wife points out to the Colonel, Twenty years of waiting for the little colored birds which they promised you after every election, and all we've got out of it is a dead son. With constant references such as And you're dying of hunger , You should realize that you can't cat dignity (Garca Mrquez, 46), the Colonel's wife attempts to make some sense in her husband and push him towards reality and not further away from it, as he himself does when he begins to recall Colonel Aureliano, Buendia's camp and Neerlandia in delirious fevers and dreams.
Uncles and Stories in Allende's epic novel serve both as the forces behind Alba's alternating shifts towards and away from reality. Uncle Marcos and Nicols provide Alba with peculiarities to discover, Uncle Jaime intellectually prepares her for the turbulent times to come. Uncle Marcos' fantastic tales become by the end of the book, the ultimate source of strength and escape for Alba in prison. The wife's physical and health conditions should be the most effective vehicle to shatter the Colonel's hopes and illusions, and drive him to realize they am death's victims. However, the Colonel shifts towards illusions, preferring to remain ignorant and absent from reality. Both authors inventively use key characters to exert key influences on those torn between the worlds of magic and realism.
