Of Love And Other Demons-Love, desperation and conflicts

Marquez depicts the violence and abuse meted out to 12-year
old rabid girl Sivera Maria for exorcising her. On the other hand Marquez has penned
down the subtle love of a priest for that girl.
Maria has been raised by the slaves. The slaves of her
parents have inculcated some of their tribal religious practices in her. Like
for much alike tribals for Maria drinking the blood of roosters before breakfast
is a normal thing. She is bitten by a rabid dog. On bitten by the dog she
develops rabies, and she is taken to numerous doctors and healers who attempt
to cure her of the rabies. Later the Bishop
of church convinces her father that in order to save her soul she must be
confined to a convent.
Church in due course of time declares that she is possessed
by demons and starts the exorcising. But one of the priests, Delura who is
close to Bishop and is given the task of exorcising, falls in love with her.
Marquez as he is known, has beautifully pcitured all the
conflicts, emotions, tussles on both the subjects be it love, desperation or
the conflict of a rational mind debating between existence and non-existence of
god.
Marquez says, ‘“Disbelief is more resistant than faith
because it is sustained by the senses”—here lies the subtle sarcasm, if
disbelief is sustained by senses, then what sustains faith? He leaves the
readers to ponder and answer this.
Again, he says, “One never quite stops believing, some doubt
remains forever", here what is doubt, it is faith (religion) or did
Marquez wanted to say that religion is just a doubt? He again leaves this to
the readers to decide the exact meaning of his words.
There are several lines where Marquez delivers highest
levels of philosophy in one liners, like, ‘Crazy people are not crazy if one
understands their reasoning’.
Marquez also beautifully narrates the desperation of
Delura’s love, in one context he says, “Do not allow me to forget you”—this
line with all its simplicity can touch anyone’s heart. In another lines, Delura
says, “No medicine cures what happiness cannot”, how much true the line is given
to the fact of today’s fast paced life.
In all ‘Of Love And Other Demons’ – is a masterpiece by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez and is a must read.
Buy Books Online and avail great discounts. The book is available
at almost all the online bookstores and carries huge discounts.
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