Essay Questions

How does the Death instinct manifest after Mr. President’s cause of pain is diagnosed? - “Bon Voyage, Mr. President”

Marquez elucidates, “Following his doctors’ orders, he had given up the habit of coffee more than thirty years before, but had said, ‘If I ever knew for certain that I was going to die, I would drink it again.’ Perhaps the time had come. ‘Bring me a coffee too,’ he ordered in perfect French. And specified without noticing the double meaning,’ Italian style, strong enough to wake the dead.” Here, Mr. President engrosses in a consumption that would be injurious to his subsistence; his conduct is accredited to the Death Instinct which plainly rouses after discriminating that he would be required to endure a hazardous surgery to confront his agony.

How does Marquez utilize Homero Rey to demonstrate the pervasive ethical hazards that plague patients’ confidentiality? - "Bon Voyage, Mr. President”

Marquez explicates, “What Homero Rey did not tell the President, but did tell for years afterward to anyone willing to listen, was that his original intention was not so innocent. Like other ambulance drivers, he had made certain arrangements with funeral parlours and insurance companies to sell their services inside the hospital, above all to foreign patients of limited means. The profits were small and had to be shared with other employees who passed around the confidential files of patients with serious illnesses.” Homero and other negligent workers at the hospital mishandle the patients’ intimate records for their financial gains. Evidently, the patients’ discretion is not a definite assurance considering how it is misused by outsiders such as the funeral parlours. Hospitals employees’ unprofessionalism could jeopardize the patients’ privacy; hence, it is vital to restraint all the loopholes that would sustain selfish appropriation of patients’ details.

What is the irony of Margarito’s daughter’s remains? What is the implication of the irony?- “The Saint”

Marquez elucidates, “His (Margarito Duarte) wife was dust. But in the grave next to hers, the girl was still intact after eleven years. In fact, when they pried the lid off the coffin, they could smell the scent of the fresh cut roses with which she had been buried. Most astonishing of all, however, was that her body had no weight.” First, it is ironic that her body has not degenerated after about a decade. Second, the supposed freshness of the rose is ironic because routinely they would have rotten. The irony of the little girl’s tomb offers testimonies which qualify her for sainthood. Her body dodges the familiar deterioration which is universal for the standard creatures.