"The Man from Mars" and "Death Constant Beyond Love"

"The Man from Mars" by Margaret Atwood and "Death Constant Beyond Love" by Gabriel Marquez were odd stories about perverse behaviors by older man to younger girls. Each one comes away with a twist, the stories expose insecurities and pain that the main character was feeling.

"Death Constant Beyond Love" Senator Sanchez who was a very happy man until he found out he was dying and only had a short time to live. His pain and feelings toward his impeding death color the story. The author has painted this picture of cheerful parade but behind the imagery of the parade was the stark existence and despair of the people living there. But not just their despair it was also the Senator's disillusions that are evident. His impeding death made him less sympathetic to their plight after all he was the one dying not them, Senator Sanchez's promises were empty and meaningless like his promises of rain machines, portable breeders and oil of happiness to make things grown. His earlier interactions with Nelson Farina were ones of disdain and refusal to help Nelson get a false id in order to travel about - as Nelson was a wanted man - one got the impression that Senator Sanchez had been a man of good character. But when he sees Nelson's young daughter he changed his tune he was willing to help Nelson in order to have access to his daughter. The author makes the reader question whether or not Senator Sanchez would have made the same decisions were he not dying, that Laura was this beautiful flower in his stark existence. Like the rose he tried to preserve coming across the desert.

"The Man from Mars" was an odd story about a older Japanese man - that we don't get until later in the story -that is obsessed with following Christine, a young college student. Christine is plain ordinary girl from a good family, but she doesn't feel particularly exciting or beautiful. The author tells us this about Christine for us to understand why Christine might not have initially done anything about his following her, it made her feel attractive. The author gives us details about the stalking and Christine's feelings, but we don't know the stalker's feelings in this story.
The plot in this story was two fold, the conflict between Christine and her stalker, as well as the conflict within Christine.