The General's careful cultivation of his own legend shows his preoccupation with his mythology and his lack of acceptance of his reality. He knows the influence and impact he has had on history, and he is careful not to represent himself as anything other than the strong, domineering force that he believes himself to be. This desire to preserve a legendary reputation presents the General with a problem because he is dying; The General's decrepit body does not correlate with the strong, romantic, mythic figure that he wants to be. As a result, the General fights against his own weakness in an attempt to preserve his self-image. This leaves the General raging against reality and places him in a nervous, delusional state that, ironically, exacerbates his health problems. Nearly all his actions are self-destructive. When he refuses medical help or refuses to sleep and eat well, he is hastening his own demise.

The General is carefully attuned to the ways in which other people perceive him. When he begins to lose popular support and is driven from Bogotá, he becomes desperate. Not only is his political project on the verge of collapse, and not only is he being driven from his homeland, but the public has begun to question the mythic persona that he has spent so long cultivating.