Characterizations of a Hero

I am having great difficulty uncovering Velasco’s character and seeing past his experience labeled “heroic”. Because the story is written from his point of view I can only judge his character by his experience as he remembers it; this is difficult because there are times I question the author’s narrative involvement and the accuracy of Velasco’s memory. I think that his character can be uncovered throughout his approach to the experience he survived. How did he employ mind over matter because he knew he needed to survive? On the other hand, how did he succumb to the elements that faced him?

Velasco survives a traumatic ordeal. Throughout his ten days on the raft, readers delve into his quest for survival and the strain his mind endures to live. First, I began to realize Velasco’s hallucinations without him acknowledging that he was imaging seeing people and possibly the planes in the sky. Velasco describes his visits from a shipmate, Jaime, noting that he visits frequently and he points Velasco toward Cartagena. He says, “…I knew I was fully awake, completely lucid, and I could hear the whistling of the wind and the sounds of the sea. I felt hungry and thirsty. And I hadn’t the slightest doubt that Jaime Manjarres was with me on the raft” (40). I could start to see the weakness in Velasco; I knew he survived the days at sea from reading the “The Story of this Story,” but I wondered what would come of him if his hallucinations proved injurious. I think these are the moments in the narrative where I questioned the strength of his character. He appeared to decline from his lack of water or food.

On the contrary, he exhibited great physical and mental strength at other moments. When he catches the sea gull, he recalls a moment when an experienced sailor told him not to kill sea gulls. But, that didn’t matter to Velasco at this point in his experience because “hunger was more powerful than anything else” (51). Here, he regains his bearings for a time. He knows he must eat to survive, and he’s hungry. His mind is still sharp as he cunningly catches the gull and overcomes the struggle he feels to take its life. I think that in these moments of tense desperation, he develops humanistic features to his character. Velasco’s sailor experience and human instincts gear into overdrive; he needs to eat and overcome feeling in order to survive.

At the end of the story, Velasco questions his title “hero.” Marquez recounts Velasco saying, “I did nothing heroic. All my effort went toward saving myself. But since salvation came wrapped in a glow and with the title of hero as a prize, like a bonbon with a surprise inside it, I had no choice but to accept my salvation as it came, heroism and all” (101). I do not think that Velasco develops himself as a hero throughout the story, nor does he convey himself as a newfound hero. I assume that this depends on one’s definition of a “hero.” He didn’t save another individual (although he tried), and the ship did not thrust the men overboard in the course of treacherous hurricane. Whatever “heroism” he displays lies within his strength to ensure he survived. Throughout his own account of his character development, he did not portray any notion that he should be praised for his survival.