García Márquez depict the General 's body itself as a labyrinth . His doctor observe that " everything that enter the body , add weight , and everything that leave it is debased . " The General 's body is described as a " labyrinth coming to a literal dead end " . The labyrinth is also expressed in geographical and architectural imagery . The country 's destiny is imagined as a break @-@ up , a folding of north into south . The seas offer the hope of a new life and a new world , but the closer the General is to Colombia , the less chance he have of moving on . García Márquez describe buildings as " daunting , reverberating ( if not exactly reiterating ) with the echoes of a bloody past " . The portrayal of the General 's world as a labyrinth is underlined by his constant return to cities and towns he have visited before : each location belong to the past as well as to the present . The General in his Labyrinth blur the lines between perdition in a man @-@ made world and wandering in the natural world .