the question of death in márquez' strange pilgrims

Death has always been an important factor in the process of many stories and the unfolding of their characters’ mentality regarding their confrontation with the world and consciousness of their being. such consciousness of one’s existence, overtly or covertly, echoes an existential outlook towards death and life, since it is through existentialism and its consideration of death as a concept to live fully that life as it is absurdly lived can be meaningful. in this light, existentialist writers have tried to foreground death as an essential theme in their fiction to portray humans who try to cope with the existential crisis of facing death. in other words, when death is accepted as an inevitable experience to manage one’s life, one’s life becomes more meaningful. márquez’ strange pilgrims presents us with the lives of such people who are struggling with their own or others’ deaths to make sense of their lives. an existential investigation into these characters’ lives in márquez’ collection of twelve tales is thus undertaken in this paper to highlight his view of a better life in the face of death and absurdity and to explore how these characters’ strategies of survival before the cruelty or indifference of the world can be existentially authentic and meaningful.