I found it idiotically distressing that a sharp finger whistle could no longer summon them outdoors into a playful twilight. An ancient discovery was now mine to make: to leave is to make nothing less than a mortal action. The suspicion came to me for the fist time that they were figures of my dreaming, like the loved dead: my mother and all these vanished boys. And after Mama's cremation I could not rid myself of the notion that she had been placed in the furnace of memory even when alive and, by extension, that one's dealings with others, ostensibly vital, at a certain point become dealings with the dead. .Joseph ONeill
About This Quote
In the poem, “The Dead” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author expresses his regret at seeing his mother pass away. The speaker asks himself where his mother has gone and if she still exists after being cremated. It seems she is a symbol of the speaker’s past and present. It seems that all the time the speaker has spent with his mother has been a waste of time.
The speaker is aware that his mother was a person who had a definite role in his life but that she has been replaced by the memory of her death. This is because what is important in life is not to control how you live but to learn from your mistakes and move on. In life, it is vital to get up every day and not get disheartened by how things have turned out.
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