 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 . <unk> to the number three are even more common in the novel . As García Márquez scholar Isabel Rodríguez Vergara notes , the number three — the Trinity which occupies a vital place in the <unk> of the Catholic Mass — is repeated 21 times throughout the book . She quotes <unk> <unk> : " In the novel it represents a symbolic sacrifice aimed at redeeming humankind — that of Bolívar , a misunderstood <unk> sacrificed by his own people . " 
