The General in His Labyrinth

The General is the title character of the novel and the central protagonist. His character is an interpolation of the South American leader Simón Bolívar, viewed through a fictionalized lens. As with the real-life Bolívar, the General succeeds in winning independence for many countries in South America and seeks to unite them into a single republic called Gran Colombia. At the point where the audience is introduced to the General, however, this dream has faltered. The General is an old man who has been ousted from the presidency, and he is being sent into exile, far away from the country he helped to found. One of the General’s defining traits is his obsession with self-image. As he approaches the end of his life, he becomes keenly aware of how the people of Gran Colombia view him. He wants them to see the swaggering, conquering, romantic hero of his youth, but his body and his status no longer match this image. As his political project falls apart and his body fails him, the General is forced to reckon with his own limitations. This reckoning turns him from a conquering hero into a tragic figure, a man who is unwilling to abandon his idea of himself as a grandiose legend.