So far I like the book although I fear it will get a little monotonous at some points because of how in depth it goes into the lives of each character. The first chapter has covered much of the life of Jose Arcadio Buendia, an eccentric man who started a village and attempts alchemy. In direct contrast with Beloved this man believes only in moving forward and refuses to travel back across the mountains because, "It was... a route that did not interest him, for it could lead only into the past" (19). This mans life is dominated by a fight between his dreams and reality. His life has been laced with magical events in such a way that they don't seem out of the norm for the reader. Marquez clearly uses magical realism, but unlike in Like Water For Chocolate the magic is much more subtle and integrated into daily life. However this character who has been explained in depth in the first chapter is actually only the beginning of a long family tree. In the future I'm looking forward to hearing about Aureliano the Colonel whose death by firing squad is foreseen on page 1. I predict there will be many of these references to future events within the text, that Marquez will address later on.
I agree with Maria about how the book might quickly become monotonous. However, I am really looking forward to the book because, personally, I really like books where the characters are well developed and have a lot of personality. I think Marquez’s use of magical realism is really interesting, and I’m actually really glad he didn’t make the events that are magical realism stand out so much because I am not a huge fan of it personally. I also think that his use of detail is great because it makes the writing really beautiful and allows you to feel and understand what this man is going through. Like Maria said, the Colonel is the first in a really long line of a family tree so I think many of the other characters will be defined like this as well. Finally, I think Marquez has a really interesting way of actually telling the story. By using a lot of details, he makes it sound almost like a spoken story. For example, on the first page, he writes, “…built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs” (Marquez 1). The descriptions he uses allow you to really place yourself inside the story and imagine what he is saying, and it reminds me of a grandparent telling a legend or a myth to a grandchild or something like that.
I have a gotten a lot more into the book now, although at times it can be hard to follow that characters because someone will be brought up, and you will think they are insignificant, however they end up relating to the story somehow. Like Maria said earlier, Marquez uses a lot of magical realism. I think its really interesting that the way he uses this literary technique is not in a way that is really obvious, and the subtlety of it makes the reader accept it as the way it is, and not as something strange. I also find it strange that gypsies are brought up so much in this story. There is one group of them, and then another. No matter which group of gypsies, they always bring something new for the town of Macondo to witness. I think they are meant to show how behind Macondo is in the times. When Jose Arcadio, “wrapped a red cloth around his head and left with the gypsies” (34), it marks a turning point in the story, as it allows for a change in the town that makes it much more modern. It also makes it seem as though the town is living a life of ignorance, as they don’t truly understand what is going on elsewhere. The contrast between reality and imagination, or almost ignorance, is really interesting, which is one reason why I think Marquez chooses to use magical realism as part of his writing style, because the subtlety of the magical realism blurs the line between what is real and what is not.
So far this book has failed to present a main character and instead presents an entire cast that are falling out of the picture one by one, although only one has actually died off. The persistent avoidance of death is perhaps one of the biggest displays of magical realism in the book, but also one of the most subtle. Age is rarely an issue and Jose AB tends to ignore it except when it is shoved in his face, like with the death of Melquiafes, which seeing as it occurred in his home he can't ignore. Macando has since its creation existed as a separate, almost magical entity, free from the blights of civilization, including death. I predict that as the town becomes more of a city and merges with the rest of the world death and other 'plagues' will appear as well. Julie is right in saying that Marquez is blurring the line between reality and illusion, but I believe this is a state that can only exist as long as the town remains separate and free, and once people "come to cause disorder by making people paint their houses blue"(62), and bring conflict the magic will dissolve.
As far as I can tell this book is working its way down the family tree provided in the beginning. However to my surprise people have died and there was no immediate change in style or events in the town. Remedios death was a shock to everyone in the family and drove Aureliano to leave for the military, but this transition into mortality was much more subtle and sudden then I thought it would be. Nonetheless once Remedios died so did Pietro, Arcadio, and the seventeen Aurelianos. War brought about death both in battle and at home, but it has yet to hit the immediate family. Jose Arcadio Buendia lives on even though he's been tied to a tree for years and Aureliano survived the firing squad. Marquez is continuing to present this nuclear family as immune to death, but not to sorrow. They continue on as witnesses to everything that comes to pass in the town. Family remains the most important theme throughout and even though it seems ignored at times it reappears in the end, like with Arcadio whose last words were "'Tell my wife...to give the girl the name Ursula.....like her grandmother'" (118). Arcadio allowed power to distract him from the mother of his children and the women who raised him, but when his cruelty finally caught up with him he only thought of his family and their future without him. I have no idea what direction this book is going to go in or what it will take to kill off our original characters, but nonetheless family will remain omnipotent, as mostly clearly shown by the passing on of names to honor other family members.
I agree with almost everything that Maria said so far, however I will say that Arcadio is technically part of the family. He was raised as a son, and is technically the son José Buendía. I understand what you are saying about the family being immune to death because towards the end of his life, I would say that he separated himself from the family, however the first death in the family would be Arcadio. It is also important to note, that in the family tree at the front of the novel, it is Arcadio that will continue the Buendía family, and so his death is also a weird paradox with the idea of the rebirth of the family.
On another note, I think it is important to note the sudden change in the town of Macondo. Before the government was present, “no one was upset that the government had not helped them. On the contrary, they were happy that up until then it had let them grow in peace, and he hoped that it would continue leaving them that way” (56). After José AB claimed this, the town started having all kinds of problems. Marquez seems to be sending a political message about the government interrupting the lives of citizens who were better off before. In the liberal vs. conservative fight, the conservatives seem to be an oppressive power. However, the liberals seem no better. I take this to show Macondo’s struggle to find a good form of government, which leads us back to the idea of leaving things the way they are. I am curious if the idea of government and its problems will continue or if it will merely stay the same, leading to “the last centers of the liberals being wiped out”(115).
Like Julie I noticed a relationship between the government and chaos, but now that the war is supposedly over I wonder how life in Macondo is going to shift and if they'll ever be able to return to the "solitude" they once had. I think that out of all the characters Aureliano (the original) has changed the most because he "had had to start thirty-two wars and had had to violate all of his pacts with death and wallow like a hog in the dungheap of glory in order to discover the privileges of simplicity almost forty years late" (163). He original representation as a quiet, intelligent boy with a good heart has changed to a cruel man who is only made to see reason when his mother tells him "as soon as I see his body I swear to you by the bones of my father and mother, by the memory of Jose Arcadio Buendia, I swear to you before God that I will drag you out from wherever you're hiding and kill you with my own two hands" (163). Ursula has remained strong throughout her life and she seems to ignore the fact that she's getting older, despite the loss of her husband, children, and grandchildren. I don't feel like Marquez is making a statement about feminism or supporting it because Amaranta's presence would go against any pro-feminism claim, but I think he is saying something about motherhood. Motherhood for Marquez seems to overcome all boundaries and create a bond of blood between mother and child that can't be broken by time or growth. For example when Jose Arcadio died a "string" of blood travelled all the way to his home and to find his mother, much like an umbilical cord, showing that mother and child were ultimately joined together no matter what.
I agree with Maria that Marquez seems to be sending a very strong message about the meaning of motherhood, which is also representative of the mother archetype. I think Ursula does represent the mother archetype because she seems to go through everything and stop at nothing to keep her children. When the original Aureliano finally died, he was ashamed of who he was, and so he burned every thing that would make it seem as though he was in Macondo. However, Ursula “spent the whole morning looking for a memory of her son in the most hidden corners, but she could find none” (176), where it is clear that Ursula will forever love her children. With that being said, I think Marquez is also sending a strong message about a woman’s place in the family. The women tend to be the ones that not only live longer, but also are the drivers of morals in the family. Continuing with Ursula, she runs and supports her house while her husband stays at a tree all day. Amaranta raises the children. As Marquez is writing about a very male dominated society as it is based in Latin America where there is a lot of machismo, I think it is interesting that the woman is given such a central, powerful role in this story. Marqeuz seems to be trying to prevent people from forgetting about the importance of mothers and women in a family.
I think the importance of women is perhaps one of Marquez's most important messages in this book, but I also want to comment on the power of names. This family tends to pass both male and female names down through the generations, almost to the point of being ridiculous, especially in terms of Aurelianos of whom there are around 20. I assumed at first that this was a cultural norm and that Marquez was simply commenting on the importance of family and the past, but he does in fact acknowledge this tradition as being slightly out of the ordinary with the birth of Aureliano Segundo's first child. "When Ursula realized that Jose Arcadio Segundo was a cockfight man and that Aureliano Segundo played the accordion at his concubine's noisy parties, she thought she would go mad....It was as if all the defects of the family....had been concentrated in both. Then she decided that no one again would be called Aureliano or Jose Arcadio" (180); Ursula tries to end the cycle of death and chaos that seems to come with these names, but she cannot. The transfer of fate that comes with the name is a clear message about family and blood determining ones future, and that names are more than titles. Names become one with the person they represent and cannot be separated from them even when passed on. Ursula's inability to stop another Jose Arcadio from being born also shows that familial fate is a cycle that cannot be broken, and that all are bound togther and no one can escape the future of the Buendia family.
Ms. Jones, I apologize for the late response. My computer wouldnt let me post this until today. I've been trying for the alst couple of days.
Interestingly enough, a little further in the book Fernanda and Ursula get into an argument about using family names for the first born girl of Aureliano Segundo and Fernanda. Ursula is actually the one who suggests naming the girl Remedios, however Fernanda insists on naming her Renata, after her own mother. The girl is given the name Renata Remedios, but most people call her Meme, which is a nickname for Remedios. Again we find ourselves back into this idea of women vs. men. The men are the ones who are seemingly cursed by a name. Marquez almost makes the passing of names comical as all those who have the name Aureliano end up one way, and those with the name Arcadio or Jose Arcadio end up another way. However, on another note, Marquez is referencing the idea of solitude a lot more, which has reminded me of trying to figure out why the book is named One Hundred Years of Solitude. Most easily, it is because the town was left alone for the most part. However, it becomes clear that the town does not get left alone. Marquez has recently been discussing the solitude of individual characters. In Amaranta, “ solitude had made a selection in her memory and had burned the dimming piles of nostalgic waste that life had accumulated in her heart, and had purified, magnified, and eternalized the others, the most bitter ones”(219). Here, I think it shows a lot about how Marquez is showing that all the years gone by had poisoned her own brain, so that she is left unhappy. Solitude seems to not be such a great thing.
So far I like the book although I fear it will get a little monotonous at some points because of how in depth it goes into the lives of each character. The first chapter has covered much of the life of Jose Arcadio Buendia, an eccentric man who started a village and attempts alchemy. In direct contrast with Beloved this man believes only in moving forward and refuses to travel back across the mountains because, "It was... a route that did not interest him, for it could lead only into the past" (19). This mans life is dominated by a fight between his dreams and reality. His life has been laced with magical events in such a way that they don't seem out of the norm for the reader. Marquez clearly uses magical realism, but unlike in Like Water For Chocolate the magic is much more subtle and integrated into daily life. However this character who has been explained in depth in the first chapter is actually only the beginning of a long family tree. In the future I'm looking forward to hearing about Aureliano the Colonel whose death by firing squad is foreseen on page 1. I predict there will be many of these references to future events within the text, that Marquez will address later on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maria about how the book might quickly become monotonous. However, I am really looking forward to the book because, personally, I really like books where the characters are well developed and have a lot of personality. I think Marquez’s use of magical realism is really interesting, and I’m actually really glad he didn’t make the events that are magical realism stand out so much because I am not a huge fan of it personally. I also think that his use of detail is great because it makes the writing really beautiful and allows you to feel and understand what this man is going through. Like Maria said, the Colonel is the first in a really long line of a family tree so I think many of the other characters will be defined like this as well. Finally, I think Marquez has a really interesting way of actually telling the story. By using a lot of details, he makes it sound almost like a spoken story. For example, on the first page, he writes, “…built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs” (Marquez 1). The descriptions he uses allow you to really place yourself inside the story and imagine what he is saying, and it reminds me of a grandparent telling a legend or a myth to a grandchild or something like that.
ReplyDeleteI have a gotten a lot more into the book now, although at times it can be hard to follow that characters because someone will be brought up, and you will think they are insignificant, however they end up relating to the story somehow. Like Maria said earlier, Marquez uses a lot of magical realism. I think its really interesting that the way he uses this literary technique is not in a way that is really obvious, and the subtlety of it makes the reader accept it as the way it is, and not as something strange. I also find it strange that gypsies are brought up so much in this story. There is one group of them, and then another. No matter which group of gypsies, they always bring something new for the town of Macondo to witness. I think they are meant to show how behind Macondo is in the times. When Jose Arcadio, “wrapped a red cloth around his head and left with the gypsies” (34), it marks a turning point in the story, as it allows for a change in the town that makes it much more modern. It also makes it seem as though the town is living a life of ignorance, as they don’t truly understand what is going on elsewhere. The contrast between reality and imagination, or almost ignorance, is really interesting, which is one reason why I think Marquez chooses to use magical realism as part of his writing style, because the subtlety of the magical realism blurs the line between what is real and what is not.
ReplyDeleteSo far this book has failed to present a main character and instead presents an entire cast that are falling out of the picture one by one, although only one has actually died off. The persistent avoidance of death is perhaps one of the biggest displays of magical realism in the book, but also one of the most subtle. Age is rarely an issue and Jose AB tends to ignore it except when it is shoved in his face, like with the death of Melquiafes, which seeing as it occurred in his home he can't ignore. Macando has since its creation existed as a separate, almost magical entity, free from the blights of civilization, including death. I predict that as the town becomes more of a city and merges with the rest of the world death and other 'plagues' will appear as well. Julie is right in saying that Marquez is blurring the line between reality and illusion, but I believe this is a state that can only exist as long as the town remains separate and free, and once people "come to cause disorder by making people paint their houses blue"(62), and bring conflict the magic will dissolve.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell this book is working its way down the family tree provided in the beginning. However to my surprise people have died and there was no immediate change in style or events in the town. Remedios death was a shock to everyone in the family and drove Aureliano to leave for the military, but this transition into mortality was much more subtle and sudden then I thought it would be. Nonetheless once Remedios died so did Pietro, Arcadio, and the seventeen Aurelianos. War brought about death both in battle and at home, but it has yet to hit the immediate family. Jose Arcadio Buendia lives on even though he's been tied to a tree for years and Aureliano survived the firing squad. Marquez is continuing to present this nuclear family as immune to death, but not to sorrow. They continue on as witnesses to everything that comes to pass in the town. Family remains the most important theme throughout and even though it seems ignored at times it reappears in the end, like with Arcadio whose last words were "'Tell my wife...to give the girl the name Ursula.....like her grandmother'" (118). Arcadio allowed power to distract him from the mother of his children and the women who raised him, but when his cruelty finally caught up with him he only thought of his family and their future without him. I have no idea what direction this book is going to go in or what it will take to kill off our original characters, but nonetheless family will remain omnipotent, as mostly clearly shown by the passing on of names to honor other family members.
ReplyDeleteI agree with almost everything that Maria said so far, however I will say that Arcadio is technically part of the family. He was raised as a son, and is technically the son José Buendía. I understand what you are saying about the family being immune to death because towards the end of his life, I would say that he separated himself from the family, however the first death in the family would be Arcadio. It is also important to note, that in the family tree at the front of the novel, it is Arcadio that will continue the Buendía family, and so his death is also a weird paradox with the idea of the rebirth of the family.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I think it is important to note the sudden change in the town of Macondo. Before the government was present, “no one was upset that the government had not helped them. On the contrary, they were happy that up until then it had let them grow in peace, and he hoped that it would continue leaving them that way” (56). After José AB claimed this, the town started having all kinds of problems. Marquez seems to be sending a political message about the government interrupting the lives of citizens who were better off before. In the liberal vs. conservative fight, the conservatives seem to be an oppressive power. However, the liberals seem no better. I take this to show Macondo’s struggle to find a good form of government, which leads us back to the idea of leaving things the way they are. I am curious if the idea of government and its problems will continue or if it will merely stay the same, leading to “the last centers of the liberals being wiped out”(115).
Like Julie I noticed a relationship between the government and chaos, but now that the war is supposedly over I wonder how life in Macondo is going to shift and if they'll ever be able to return to the "solitude" they once had. I think that out of all the characters Aureliano (the original) has changed the most because he "had had to start thirty-two wars and had had to violate all of his pacts with death and wallow like a hog in the dungheap of glory in order to discover the privileges of simplicity almost forty years late" (163). He original representation as a quiet, intelligent boy with a good heart has changed to a cruel man who is only made to see reason when his mother tells him "as soon as I see his body I swear to you by the bones of my father and mother, by the memory of Jose Arcadio Buendia, I swear to you before God that I will drag you out from wherever you're hiding and kill you with my own two hands" (163). Ursula has remained strong throughout her life and she seems to ignore the fact that she's getting older, despite the loss of her husband, children, and grandchildren. I don't feel like Marquez is making a statement about feminism or supporting it because Amaranta's presence would go against any pro-feminism claim, but I think he is saying something about motherhood. Motherhood for Marquez seems to overcome all boundaries and create a bond of blood between mother and child that can't be broken by time or growth. For example when Jose Arcadio died a "string" of blood travelled all the way to his home and to find his mother, much like an umbilical cord, showing that mother and child were ultimately joined together no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maria that Marquez seems to be sending a very strong message about the meaning of motherhood, which is also representative of the mother archetype. I think Ursula does represent the mother archetype because she seems to go through everything and stop at nothing to keep her children. When the original Aureliano finally died, he was ashamed of who he was, and so he burned every thing that would make it seem as though he was in Macondo. However, Ursula “spent the whole morning looking for a memory of her son in the most hidden corners, but she could find none” (176), where it is clear that Ursula will forever love her children. With that being said, I think Marquez is also sending a strong message about a woman’s place in the family. The women tend to be the ones that not only live longer, but also are the drivers of morals in the family. Continuing with Ursula, she runs and supports her house while her husband stays at a tree all day. Amaranta raises the children. As Marquez is writing about a very male dominated society as it is based in Latin America where there is a lot of machismo, I think it is interesting that the woman is given such a central, powerful role in this story. Marqeuz seems to be trying to prevent people from forgetting about the importance of mothers and women in a family.
ReplyDeleteI think the importance of women is perhaps one of Marquez's most important messages in this book, but I also want to comment on the power of names. This family tends to pass both male and female names down through the generations, almost to the point of being ridiculous, especially in terms of Aurelianos of whom there are around 20. I assumed at first that this was a cultural norm and that Marquez was simply commenting on the importance of family and the past, but he does in fact acknowledge this tradition as being slightly out of the ordinary with the birth of Aureliano Segundo's first child. "When Ursula realized that Jose Arcadio Segundo was a cockfight man and that Aureliano Segundo played the accordion at his concubine's noisy parties, she thought she would go mad....It was as if all the defects of the family....had been concentrated in both. Then she decided that no one again would be called Aureliano or Jose Arcadio" (180); Ursula tries to end the cycle of death and chaos that seems to come with these names, but she cannot. The transfer of fate that comes with the name is a clear message about family and blood determining ones future, and that names are more than titles. Names become one with the person they represent and cannot be separated from them even when passed on. Ursula's inability to stop another Jose Arcadio from being born also shows that familial fate is a cycle that cannot be broken, and that all are bound togther and no one can escape the future of the Buendia family.
ReplyDeleteMs. Jones, I apologize for the late response. My computer wouldnt let me post this until today. I've been trying for the alst couple of days.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, a little further in the book Fernanda and Ursula get into an argument about using family names for the first born girl of Aureliano Segundo and Fernanda. Ursula is actually the one who suggests naming the girl Remedios, however Fernanda insists on naming her Renata, after her own mother. The girl is given the name Renata Remedios, but most people call her Meme, which is a nickname for Remedios. Again we find ourselves back into this idea of women vs. men. The men are the ones who are seemingly cursed by a name. Marquez almost makes the passing of names comical as all those who have the name Aureliano end up one way, and those with the name Arcadio or Jose Arcadio end up another way. However, on another note, Marquez is referencing the idea of solitude a lot more, which has reminded me of trying to figure out why the book is named One Hundred Years of Solitude. Most easily, it is because the town was left alone for the most part. However, it becomes clear that the town does not get left alone. Marquez has recently been discussing the solitude of individual characters. In Amaranta, “ solitude had made a selection in her memory and had burned the dimming piles of nostalgic waste that life had accumulated in her heart, and had purified, magnified, and eternalized the others, the most bitter ones”(219). Here, I think it shows a lot about how Marquez is showing that all the years gone by had poisoned her own brain, so that she is left unhappy. Solitude seems to not be such a great thing.