Why did Marquez choose to begin his autobiography with an unexpected trip when he was 23? "Living to Tell" begins with "My mother asked me to accompany her to sell that house." At that moment, the young law student at a prestigious university had just decided to abandon his enviable studies for an uncertain career in literature. His decision distraught his mother. "To sell that house" was just the mother's excuse for her son to accompany her to her home town. What my mother really wanted was for her family and friends back home to join her in persuading the prodigal son to return. And Marquez's choice to begin his autobiography at this point is certainly not because he is accustomed to the half-way narrative that has shocked literary history. He had another reason, a bigger one: that unexpected trip was actually the doomed journey of a life he had "lived to tell". This fateful journey first takes young Marquez back to his melancholy past. As the train neared the end, the door sign of Macondo, a banana plantation, caught his eye again. His imagination and curiosity were struck by nostalgia. Marquez looked at his hometown in a different light: the water that ran through it was crystal clear, and the rocks on the riverbed were as white and large as dinosaur eggs in prehistoric times... Many years later, "Macondo," which is located on the river of my hometown, became the village filled with the stories in "One Hundred Years of Solitude." More importantly, this fateful journey paved the way for Marquez to have a great future. The Bulldozer is in the hands of the town doctor. Marquez remembered the doctor as a fearsome ghost, as his skinny figure would pop up when he and his colleagues were sneaking into his garden to steal mango fruits. This time, it was his mother who brought Marquez to the "spirit." Marquez, who had a powerful imagination, certainly thought of the doctor's first question. That's the question all grown-ups ask. Marquez, who had just decided to drop out of college, was likely to give only oblique answers to questions from doctors about his studies at the university. His answer was interrupted by his distraught mother. She told the doctor that this whimsical young man was going to be a writer instead of a lawyer. Marquez, with his powerful imagination, could never have imagined the doctor's reaction to his mother's complaint. That's a reaction no other adult would have. The doctor looked at him in surprise. Then he exclaimed, "This is a blessing." Then the doctor talked excitedly to Marquez about writers and works. His attitude thrilled Marquez, and the ghost of the past became the friend of the moment. Is this reality or magic? After a heart-to-heart conversation, the doctor had taken great faith in the young man, who used to go and steal mango fruits from his garden as a child. "I haven't read your work, but you talk like a writer already." "He said encouragingly. The unexpected scene alarmed the mother who had come for help. She took a step back, saying she did not disagree with her son's choice. But like any responsible parent, she believes that young people should study a reliable major so that they can have a reliable life in the future. The doctor, who had also aspired to write when he was young, responded that his own parents had used the same method to persuade him to abandon literature and pursue medicine. Then he went on, launching an unexpected attack on "reliability" : "Now that I'm a doctor," he said, "I don't know how many of my patients have died because of God's will and how many because of my skill." The mother was pushed to the last line of defense by the doctor's ingenuity. She lamented that her son's abandoning his law studies at university meant giving up "everything." The doctor took advantage of the victory and stressed that this "giving up" is exactly "unshakable determination." He said that the mystery of art is that the dedicated person is willing to devote his life to it without expecting anything in return. He said that in this world, only love has equal magic. He concluded, in the end, with the authority of a doctor, that to thwart this resolution would cause "fatal injury" to the body. Many years later, Marquez still marveled at the strange and powerful reasoning of the ghosts of the past. This reasoning covers art, spirit, fate, love, and finally death, and its special effects bear witness to its power. The distraught mother never obstructed her obstinate son again. But she could not yet have known the historical significance of the trip she had arranged that backfired. She had seventeen years to wait in remorse and regret. She still has to wait for Macondo to appear and disappear in One Hundred Years of Solitude... This is a journey without end. Its journey will be read on and on and on, into the hundred years beyond, into deeper loneliness.

Why did Marquez choose to begin his autobiography with an unexpected trip when he was 23? "Living to Tell" begins with "My mother asked me to accompany her to sell that house." At that moment, the young law student at a prestigious university had just decided to abandon his enviable studies for an uncertain career in literature. His decision distraught his mother. "To sell that house" was just the mother's excuse for her son to accompany her to her home town. What my mother really wanted was for her family and friends back home to join her in persuading the prodigal son to return. And Marquez's choice to begin his autobiography at this point is certainly not because he is accustomed to the half-way narrative that has shocked literary history. He had another reason, a bigger one: that unexpected trip was actually the doomed journey of a life he had "lived to tell". This fateful journey first takes young Marquez back to his melancholy past. As the train neared the end, the door sign of Macondo, a banana plantation, caught his eye again. His imagination and curiosity were struck by nostalgia. Marquez looked at his hometown in a different light: the water that ran through it was crystal clear, and the rocks on the riverbed were as white and large as dinosaur eggs in prehistoric times... Many years later, "Macondo," which is located on the river of my hometown, became the village filled with the stories in "One Hundred Years of Solitude." More importantly, this fateful journey paved the way for Marquez to have a great future. The Bulldozer is in the hands of the town doctor. Marquez remembered the doctor as a fearsome ghost, as his skinny figure would pop up when he and his colleagues were sneaking into his garden to steal mango fruits. This time, it was his mother who brought Marquez to the "spirit." Marquez, who had a powerful imagination, certainly thought of the doctor's first question. That's the question all grown-ups ask. Marquez, who had just decided to drop out of college, was likely to give only oblique answers to questions from doctors about his studies at the university. His answer was interrupted by his distraught mother. She told the doctor that this whimsical young man was going to be a writer instead of a lawyer. Marquez, with his powerful imagination, could never have imagined the doctor's reaction to his mother's complaint. That's a reaction no other adult would have. The doctor looked at him in surprise. Then he exclaimed, "This is a blessing." Then the doctor talked excitedly to Marquez about writers and works. His attitude thrilled Marquez, and the ghost of the past became the friend of the moment. Is this reality or magic? After a heart-to-heart conversation, the doctor had taken great faith in the young man, who used to go and steal mango fruits from his garden as a child. "I haven't read your work, but you talk like a writer already." "He said encouragingly. The unexpected scene alarmed the mother who had come for help. She took a step back, saying she did not disagree with her son's choice. But like any responsible parent, she believes that young people should study a reliable major so that they can have a reliable life in the future. The doctor, who had also aspired to write when he was young, responded that his own parents had used the same method to persuade him to abandon literature and pursue medicine. Then he went on, launching an unexpected attack on "reliability" : "Now that I'm a doctor," he said, "I don't know how many of my patients have died because of God's will and how many because of my skill." The mother was pushed to the last line of defense by the doctor's ingenuity. She lamented that her son's abandoning his law studies at university meant giving up "everything." The doctor took advantage of the victory and stressed that this "giving up" is exactly "unshakable determination." He said that the mystery of art is that the dedicated person is willing to devote his life to it without expecting anything in return. He said that in this world, only love has equal magic. He concluded, in the end, with the authority of a doctor, that to thwart this resolution would cause "fatal injury" to the body. Many years later, Marquez still marveled at the strange and powerful reasoning of the ghosts of the past. This reasoning covers art, spirit, fate, love, and finally death, and its special effects bear witness to its power. The distraught mother never obstructed her obstinate son again. But she could not yet have known the historical significance of the trip she had arranged that backfired. She had seventeen years to wait in remorse and regret. She still has to wait for Macondo to appear and disappear in One Hundred Years of Solitude... This is a journey without end. Its journey will be read on and on and on, into the hundred years beyond, into deeper loneliness.