Lindsay Millerick

This is a picture of the newspaper in which Marquez’s “The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor” was published (https://sejacomoflor.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/le-se-relato-de-um-naufrago-gabriel-garcia-marquez/)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, is the survival story Luis Alejandro Velasco who was a member of the Colombian Navy. Velasco was lost at sea aboard a life raft without food or drinking water, wearing only the clothes on his back. He managed to survive this way for ten days until washing up on the shores of Colombia.

Although you cannot deny that the sea was void of any opportunity for clean drinking water, or means of protecting himself from sunburn, it did present Velasco with means to quench his hunger.

Twice in his journey he had the chance to capture food, and twice he struggled to complete the task. Perhaps he struggled to capture the seagull and the fish was not due to his physical depravities, but can be attributed to his psychological state. Velasco saw he seagull and the fish as more than a meal. They were a representation of what he himself was enduring, displacement and solitude at sea.

The only living beings that could relate to Velasco’s struggle and desperation were the two creatures he killed. Velasco tried repeatedly to kill the fish that had flipped onto its life raft, but despite the heavy blows the fish would not die. Even when Velasco began to skin the fish, it was still fighting for its life, able to feel each gash. This is similar to what Velasco experienced, confined to a life raft, continuously struggling to stay alive, and still never giving up. Velasco too was skinned alive, by the suns merciless rays.

The seagull that Velasco captured, but could not eat was an even stronger self-representation. Not only are seagulls in general associated with sailors, but also this particular seagull was lost at sea with the rest of his flock, aimlessly searching for a boat to point them towards land. Velasco along with many of his men (flock) had been flung overboard by a giant wave swallowed by the ocean, and was also in search of a boat to bring him to land.  When Velasco killed the seagull he recognized the same fear and struggle that lay within him, which is why he could not bring himself to eat it. Later in the story he captures another lone seagull but has no intent to harm him, only to frighten him. Velasco does this so he momentarily does not have to experience fear in solitude.

A young Luis Alejandro Velasco in his Naval uniform. (elaguademar.wordpress.com)