Sea Of Lost Time Analysis

Destruction of Culture in “The Sea of Lost Time” Gabriel García Márquez once said in a novel that, “Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest.” Márquez was a Colombian writer during the time when much of the world was escaping from the grasp of traditional colonial powers. Much of his work reflects this, and the troubles that ensued once the colonizers left. “The Sea of Lost Time” is one such story. It is about a village that is surrounded by a cruel sea that is growing ever harsher and viler. A man named Mr. Herbert then arrives in the town, and tries to use his vast wealth to repair problems that the villagers didn’t know that they had until his initial appearance. Because this situation closely mimics

Herbert has come to represent the West. Márquez relies heavily on magical realism, which is when a story has a realistic setting but incorporates fantastical elements and hyperbole, as well as symbolism to portray his themes. In “The Sea of Lost Time,” it is made evident that Márquez believes that his culture ought to be respected, but instead is being convoluted and abolished due to Western influence, as is exemplified by his use of magical realism, and symbolism, particularly the sea, the smell of roses, and the turtles. Perhaps the most obvious and important symbols in “The Sea of Lost Time” would be the sea, which represents the state of the culture of the village, and by extension Latin America, over time. Márquez personifies the sea, by saying that it “sent” the smell of roses, and that, “…the sea was growing harsh, it was beginning to dump its heavy garbage on the town, and a few weeks later, everything was contaminated with its unbearable mood” (Márquez 27). Not only is this quote an exemplar of magical realism, it also demonstrates how the sea is separated into layers chronologically. The top layer thus represents the present state of Latin American culture. Before the West, as represented by Mr. Herbert, even arrived in the town, it was

Márquez also utilizes magical realism in reference to the turtles via the extremely unrealistic journey that Mr. Herbert and Tobías had undertaken in order to get to them in the first place. “Beneath the sea of the drowned there are turtles with exquisite meat on them” (Márquez 36). Since everyone is starving anyways because of Mr. Herbert, he cites science as a way to feed the people, but in the process they have to sacrifice their heritage in order to survive. While this is completely unreasonable on the part of Mr. Herbert, it is characteristically Western, and has been done in several Western colonies over the course of the Age of Imperialism. “…the turtles were there. There were thousands of them, flattened out on the bottom, so motionless they looked petrified” (Márquez 36). The turtles are absolutely ancient, and passive, which is what allows them to be killed by Mr. Herbert. This also further supports the claim that the sea is divided into layers, because the heart of Latin American culture is at the bottom of the sea, and the convoluted, Western version is at the top. “Mr. Herbert butchered the turtle, but it took all three of them to chase and kill the heart a second time as it bounced out into the courtyard while they were cutting the creature up” (Márquez 36). The West killed the body, but it took the cooperation of everyone to truly destroy the culture.