“Death Constant Beyond Love” & “The Man from Mars”

In the story “Death Constant Beyond Love,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author chooses to make wise craft choices on theme.  What I got out of this story as the controlling idea, or major theme, is that you only live once, so live it up.  The main character, Senator Onesimo Sanchez, only has six months and eleven days until his death.  As the story goes on, we see his duties as a senator, and it isn’t until the very end of the story where we see the theme.  When the senator gets the chance to be with Laura, he soon finds out she is pad-locked up, a chastity belt.  In order to get the key to unlock her, he has to help Laura’s father straighten out a situation that he didn’t necessarily want to do.  But, seems how he only  has such a short time to live, he gives in,  once Laura hears this, she asks if he wants the key, but instead, he just wants her to lay there with him and keep him company.  The author chooses to make the decision of the theme coming out in the end so that’s what the audience is left with thinking about.

In the story “The Man from Mars,” by Margaret Atwood, she decides to make good decisions on character development.  In the beginning of the story, the oriental man seems like a normal tourist, or someone who is new to the area where Christine lives.  While the story progresses, we soon realize that he is nice (always smiling) and just wants a friend, but soon takes it too far.  After awhile, he becomes what I would consider a stalker.  This development of character helps the audience better understand the story.  Imagine if the oriental man stayed flat, the story would go no where, or at least it wouldn’t be interesting.