The Influence Of Light Is Like Water By Gabriel Grquez

In the thousands of years of humanity’s existence, literature has shaped the ideas and ambitions of cultures, countries, and individuals. Literature has connected people all across the world, and has provided an outlet for many to express their opinions and beliefs with the world around them. Latin America holds testament to these ideas, and has given rise to some of the most prominent authors around the world. Gabriel Gracía Márquez, author of Light Is Like Water, and Julio Cortázar, author of Continuity of Parks, are incredible examples of how literature has influenced their own lives, and in return, shaped the lives of others. They believe that their ideas and opinions hold value, and thus influence on the lives of those around them.
For example, in Light Is Like Water, the children of the story were originally from Colombia, but had moved to Madrid, Spain. The children had befriended some of the other children of Spain, but when the Colombian children ended up flooding their apartment building with light, the other children “drowned on the fifth floor of 47 Paseo de la Castellana… whose land-bound indigenous population had never mastered the science of navigating light” (362). The light that they flooded the house with represents the ideas of the Colombian people as well as their culture, and how the people of Spain are so different that they could not keep up with that, accentuating the reason why the Colombian children, Totó and Joel, survived the cascade of light, and why the other children did not. The author wished to convey his point of connecting culture and healing societal wounds through the catastrophic events that could arise if these issues are not addressed. In continuance with the topic, another common theme in Latin American literature is the idea that cultural disconnect occurs within the upbringing of
Throughout both Light Is Like Water and Continuity of Parks, the idea that words hold power and influence over others is a prominent idea throughout the texts. A good example of this idea is presented in Light Is Like Water, as something the narrator once told the boys completely altered their life and reality forever. In a thoughtless whim, the narrator told the boys that “light is like water… you turn the tap and out it comes” (360). Only with later events does the narrator realize how just a few words can alter someone’s reality, and that people must remain aware of the power words hold, for better or worse. Accordingly, the literature of Latin America holds testament to the idea that new inventions, ideas, and movements can grow from a single thought or image. In Continuity of Parks, the main character ended up letting himself become so wrapped up in a different reality that he paid the ultimate price for it - death. The author describes the scene, emphasizing that the character “[let] himself be absorbed to the point where images settled down and took on color and movement, he was witness to the final encounter in the mountain cabin” (363-364). The author is trying to express that life can only be what one makes of it; the character chose to immerse himself so thoroughly in his novel that he became part of it, and