"The Incredible and Sad Story of Erendira" by Gabriel Garcia Márquez is a frustrating story. It's full of beautiful images, fascinating characters, and baffling events. The frustration is trying to understand why the characters behave the way they do. Why does Erendira's grandmother prostitute her granddaughter instead of forgiving her debt? Why does Erendira stay with her grandmother after she put her through such terrible experiences? And why, when her grandmother's death finally granted her freedom, Erendira doesn't run away with her lover? The seduction of the text lies in the attempt to answer these questions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The text uses some narrative techniques to confuse and challenge the reader. The tone of the story is very concrete. There is very little judgment on the narrator's part about the character's actions. This makes it difficult for the reader to know where to place their sympathies. Whatever commentary there is, it comes in the form of ironic descriptions. Erendira's forced prostitution is repeatedly referred to as "Erendira's love" throughout the story. The story never returns to a tragic tone and this is one of its strengths. It is difficult to classify evil in history. Clearly what Grandma does is cruel; however, she does so so casually that it is difficult for the reader to hate her. It's fascinating because of its twisted logic. There is also an element of suspense to the story; the reader continues to wonder how the story will develop. The complexity of the story is that you are never sure how the characters will behave. Erendira's acceptance of her grandmother's decision, while troubling, also blurs the line of predictable behavior. She offers very little resistance to her grandmother's iron will and so the reader is torn between sympathizing with Erendira or scolding her for not taking initiative in her life and walking away. Since she continues to be with her grandmother, the reader cannot completely demonize the grandmother because Erendira is also complicit in her own exploitation. Part of the experience of reading this story is the surprising reactions the reader experiences as they decipher these enigmatic characters. It's hard to hate Grandma because she has such a powerful presence. He manages to tame the reader's disgust towards him in the same way he tames the resistance of everyone he comes into contact with in the story. He has an uncompromising character. In the story she is called both a whale and an ox; he has the menacing calm of a whale and the patience of an ox. No one can argue with his logic. The only person who resists his will is the photographer when he refuses to pay for the music. Immediately afterwards he is shot because he was involved in Erendira's escape. Erendira recognizes her grandmother's uncanny power of influence. That's why he doesn't leave her. She chooses to return to her grandmother after the missionaries rescued her due to her grandmother's stubborn solitary vigil outside the mission. The only time Erendira acts against her grandmother is when her grandmother talks about Erendira's future as a respectable woman. Although the text says "Erendira wasn't listening to her", her grandmother's words have an effect on her because in the next scene she attempts to kill her grandmother by pouring boiling water into her bathtub. In reality she doesn't do it because her grandmother, with her clairvoyant powers, shouts her name and distracts her from her task. In this scene Erendira glimpses the incredible power her grandmother has over her. He realizes that despite what he wants, he cannot and will not be able to kill his grandmother because they are related. It is also difficult to dismiss the grandmother as simply onebad.because she also suffers in the story. Based on her actions, one might assume that the grandmother was cold and unfeeling. Yet he clearly contains emotional complexity, as evidenced by his sleep-induced delusions. Her memories follow her and torture her at night. He is not immune to emotional turmoil. This makes his treatment of Erendira even more baffling. There is the idea of ​​the circularity of time in history. In a sense, the grandmother is subjecting Erendira to the same fate she suffered. She was a prostitute herself and has no problem prostituting her niece. The granddaughter is destined to relive her grandmother's experiences. Using a strange sense of logic, the grandmother believes that this will have a positive outcome for Erendira's future. "You will be a noble lady," he told her, "A lady of quality, revered by those under your protection and favored and honored by the highest authorities." (302) This scene is difficult because the grandmother's thinking is very distorted. It is possible that the grandmother is simply disappointed and believes that Erendira can achieve a position of respect after having "loved" half the desert cities. It's also possible that the grandmother realizes the folly of it all, but continues to harbor these false notions as a way to deal with the pain and disappointment in her own life. The grandmother's life is sad and dysfunctional and subjects her granddaughter to those horrors as well. The story presents an extreme picture of the perhaps irrational family obligations that plague the human experience. Erendira is obligated to her grandmother simply because she is her grandmother and she is family to her. Objectively, Erendira's grandmother does a terrible thing to her granddaughter. The story could have forced her to force Erendira to work in some other way to repay the debt and perhaps the reader would not have felt so disgusted towards the grandmother. But instead the story uses prostitution to viscerally move its readers. One shudders when one reads about the young and innocent Erendira “loving” a long line of men while chained to a bed with a dog chain. The story forces the reader to examine the nature of family obligations by presenting a morally repugnant situation of family exploitation. Throughout the story there is the recurring presence of contraband and smugglers. Erendira is the daughter of smugglers and falls in love with the son of a smuggler. She is smuggled out of her grandmother's possession by missionaries, and Ulise attempts to smuggle her across the border to escape her grandmother. “We will cross like smugglers,” he promises her. The nature of contraband is that it is deceptive and blurs the lines of truth. Nonsense acquires its own legitimacy in the world of smuggling. In fact, Ulises' father's oranges are worth fifty thousand pesos each; a grandmother can prostitute her granddaughter without feeling any remorse. The story raises this idea of ​​truth masquerading as absurdity as a way to see the deception inherent in family obligations. Sometimes family relationships can be your worst enemy. In the story, characters work against nature or ignore the signals that nature sends. Three times "the wind of bad luck" visits Erendira and her grandmother and all three times Erendira pays no attention to it or does not recognize that it is bad luck. While with the missionaries, Erendira notes that "the mission was dedicated to fighting not against the devil but against the desert." Nature plays an important role in the events of the story and the characters all act according to certain rules of nature, yet they persist in their indifference towards the forces of nature. This is where the story gets frustrating. On the one hand, this might suggest that natural impulses, such as remaining faithful to a cruel relative, might be.