Numbers are an important symbolic aspect of the novel . The book is divided into eight chapters , almost all of equal length , which represent the eight @-@ year love affair between the General and Manuela Sáenz . The General 's last hours are marked by an octagonal clock . Allusions to the number three are even more common in the novel . As García Márquez scholar Isabel Rodríguez Vergara note , the number three — the Trinity which occupy a vital place in the symbology of the Catholic Mass — is repeated 21 times throughout the book . She quote Mircea Eliade : " In the novel it represent a symbolic sacrifice aimed at redeeming humankind — that of Bolívar , a misunderstood redeemer sacrificed by his own people . "