The events in Gabriel García Márquez’ novella No one writes to the Colonel take place in a particular town in Columbia and in a definite time period, autumn 60 years after The War of Thousand Days. Despite of this, all readers can relate to the phenomenon of purposeless waiting depicted in the novella. In my opinion, this phenomenon is skillfully portrayed through plot and illustrative details that evoke a feeling of resistance.

The novella portrays several months from the life of a retired colonel and his wife who are waiting for pensions to arrive, hoping that the money will elevate them from poverty. They also hope that their cock will win a cockfight and bring them wealth. The space in novella is divided between the internal world of the colonel and his wife’s house and the external world of post office, the lawyer’s office, the politician’s office, pit for cockfights. The internal world is filled with purposeless conversations, such as about how bad October is and indications of unbearable poverty: the colonel “lacked a mirror for a long time”. The external world is filled with irony from the postmaster about colonel’s confidence that pension will arrive – “The only thing that comes for sure is death”. Another reality of external world is corruption – “That retirement law has been a lifetime pension for lawyers”. When the colonel attempts to interact with the external world, he is uncapable of taking agency to achieve happiness and instead chooses to tolerate suffering. When he has an opportunity to sell the cock to one of rich people in the town, he fails to bargain a satisfying cost and keeps the cock despite of having no food left in the house. He chooses to wait in vain for miracles.

I believe that the plot as a depiction of a period from life, without definite beginning and end, together with vivid descriptions of poverty inspire on reflection about the interactions between internal and external world and leave with a question whether agency is possible in any circumstances.