 García Márquez depicts the General 's body itself as a labyrinth . His doctor observes that " everything that enters the body , adds weight , and everything that leaves it is <unk> . " 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 has of moving on . García Márquez describes buildings as " daunting , <unk> ( if not exactly reiterating ) with the echoes of a bloody past " . The portrayal of the General 's world as a labyrinth is <unk> by his constant return to cities and towns he has visited before : each location belongs to the past as well as to the present . The General in his Labyrinth <unk> the lines between <unk> in a man @-@ made world and wandering in the natural world . 
