One Hundred Years of Solitude
This is the space for commenting on Marquez's Nobel winning masterpiece. While you are welcome to comment on any aspect of the book that takes your fancy, you might want to consider the author's use of magical realism, a literary device honed in Latin American literature where the narrative suggests a purely realistic story - in this case, one about family and war - but, occasionally, fantastic "magical" events occur. What does this device suggest about how we experience life?
This book is also remarkable for its structure. It's non-linear (meaning events are not presented in chronological order) to the point of being circular, with repeating events and names; I've often felt the "tail of the pig" from the Buendia family legend is an excellent metaphor for the way in which the story is presented. What do you notice about this style? How are you coping with it?
So feel free to talk about whatever interests you; I am especially interested to see you respond to each other. Remember, three posts per book - and - dare I say it - there's no limit...
posted by Ms. Clapp @ 10:02 PM
35 comments
35 Comments:
So, I just finished OHYS, and, well, I can't say I know what to think of it yet.
I think that since I already knew how lauded this book is, and how well-respected and brilliant Marquez is, it was difficult to truly discover what I thought of the book. This happens with many things, though, that we as lovers of literature (or music, movies, anything) are supposed to be captivated by some work just because someone with more clout than ourselves says we should.
I am reminded of a moment in my junior English class when we were analyzing a poem by Anne Bradstreet, and then a similar poem. I personally didn't really like the second poem, but when our teacher told us the author was Tupac, he said "Now you have to respect it." But why do we? Is it because he's dead, because his other work was genius, or something else?
So . . . I think what I am trying to say is that I found it difficult to appreciate this work because I already knew I was expected to be profoundly moved by it. There is a pressure to find something that touches so deeply, and I suppose I was looking for it so intently, that I somehow missed it. Sort of like Ursula's fortune of Saint Joseph, I suppose.
AND that really had nothing to do with ANYTHING. I think I need a good night's rest before I can comment on the actual novel. I found it somewhat overwhelming.
Michelle-
What a perceptive comment! I completely sympathize...I have this really ambivalent feeling about reading criticism/reviews of movies or books. On the one hand, it sometimes piques my interest; on the other hand, I often have trouble separating my experience of the work of art from my experience of the review. One of my best movie going experiences of the last few years was going to see Kung Fu Hustle(if you haven't see it, do) knowing nothing about it and just being swept away. Now, I know I gave this book a lot of hype because it's my favorite, but I officially give you permission to think what you will about the book. And, I have to say, while I love it, it's not a book that moved me to tears or rapturous laughter; I like it because I can find so much in it...everytime I read it, I find new dimensions, details of language or symbolism or allusion I've missed before. Other books have provoked far more emotional reaction, but no other has engaged me as much intellectually. So you not knowing what to think I take as a good sign. It's a book you have to think about, to dip into again, to play with. I look forward to your considered opinion! Think of this as your place to figure it out.
Well, I finished the book yesterday morning and found myself writing my blogs on paper while I was on break at work as I was reading, so, here I am finally.
Well, there really isn't too much to say about the book on my part. It was a genius concept in focusing on the foundation of a town through the bloodline of a single family. For me, I found that to be an interesting experience to encounter. I went into the book with the knowledge of what the plot was, unfamiliar with Marquez's style, and I have a sort of mixed emotion about the book.
For me, the book was rich in detail and deep and the history and past of each character, giving me a more intimate feeling about each of them. For example, when people started to die in the community and Jose Arcadio Buendia fell into a depression and they tied him to the tree,(I believe it was a chestnut tree)I felt a sort of sadness for him. I wanted to get into the book, cut him down, and just cheer him up a little bit. Marquez does a great job of going into detail and bringing his characters to life, and it shows me his devotion to his work.
Now, I felt the book to be sort of repetative towards the end. I felt that there was this sort of "well, this character is going to grow older, fall in love with this character, and then sink into a depression from an unstoppable conflict, come out of the depression, then he or she will die suddenly and bring others into a depression until there is no one left." Granted, the ending where the wind took the town away because it didn't "have a second opportunity on earth" (Marquez, 448) was a surprise and rather entertaining to me for the simple reason that it was something different. Although I know if you're going to tell a story of the upcoming of a community through one bloodline, it will get repetative after a while, I believe that something more could have been done to change it up and give some variety to the plot.
All in all, I felt that it was a decent book, one of the better that I have read, but it was rather dry.
Oh, I forgot to comment on the "magical" device used in the story and the non-linear structure. (Sorry Ms. Clapp, I still have trouble reading directions hehe)
To me, the device is coincidental with how we experience life for a few reasons. Some people have said that we experience life through miracles and that the most memorable moments in life are those that can't be explained; those that sometimes are explained by magic. Unexplained phenomenons occur all the time, whether someone is in an accident that should've killed them but it doesn't, and they go on to fulfill their lives and become better people. An example of the destruction of Macondo would be the disappearance of the colonists of Roanoke Island in the early stages of American colonization. These events are unexplained and you could never find any reason of why they happened. Most events in life that change us are the ones that can't be explained, yet we take them as signs to better ourselves. Marquez's incorporation of "magical" events in the story shows the spiritual or supernatural side of life.
I did not like the non-linear structure of the book.(the other side of my mixed emotions as stated above) The jumping back and forth between events and times just threw me off track a lot. It took a while to get into the book and then when I finally caught on, I'd be transferred to another time and I'd have to start all over. It just lost me a couple of times, but I bared through it!
The only reason I could see as this being a plus side and more realistic view of literature is that, in life, we like to live in the past; we like to live "in memory," much like the characters do in the story. When I thought deeper about the "flip-flopping" (as you would say in political terms, nowadays)I realized that Marquez must have been trying to convey this feeling. Like I said, we tend to live in memory because we like to remember how wonderful things were in the past, much like the characters do here. I think the destruction of the entire community, and in some instances, the rain that washed away the memory of the soldiers' massacre, stands for the periods of life that we don't want to remember anymore. We, as humans, have selective memory with the times in life that we enjoyed.
Wow, the more I sit here and think about that the more I do like the book. Well, what can I say, I'm a walking contradiction! Well, thats how I feel about the book. (you could say I just wrote all of that and came to Michelle's conclusion: I don't know what to feel) I am really leaning more and more towards the "thumbs up" review of the book; thinking that Marquez was indeed an intellectual individual, as you might say it, Ms. Clapp. He really infused human nature into his story. Now I sort of see why it won the Nobel Prize. It's a difficult read but with much time and thought anyone(including dumb-old me!) can really understand and enjoy this book.
So, I've had a few days to digest and reread some parts of OHYS. I think it finally got to me.
I have to disagree with Dan on the nonlinear storytelling. I actually really loved that aspect of the novel! It made the whole thing seem like a puzzle. The reader has to put each bit of information into its timeline and suddenly, the whole picture is complete.
After finishing the novel, I thought that it may have been written in such a style to evoke the way Aureliano (um . . . the last one? That family tree pretty much saved my life.) was able to understand his family's past through Melquiade's parchments. He knew about some events, but others were realized much later. I don''t have much to say, really, on that aspect.
The magic of this novel was captivating. Some of the imagery is so stunning. I love Remedios the Beauty's ascent and the yellow butterflies around Mauricio Babilonia's head. I also loved how the magic seemed to wane as time went on. Jose Arcadio Buendia and Melquaide's world was brimming with magic, but Amaranta Ursula and her "modernness" stripped all that away. I think maybe this represents a forgetfulness of the past and a loss of who we are. The biggest and most fantastical event of the entire novel occurs when Aureliano discovers his family's entire history -- and future. As for identity, some of the most magical characters were those who never tried to change or challenge their past as Buendias: Ursula, Jose Arcadio Buendia, Remedios the Beauty. The connection to the past keeps the old ways of magic and magical thinking relevent to the current generations.
As a final thought, Ursula as a tiny blind monkey woman-child was a very disturbing image. It was quite chilling to picture her great (and great-great) grandchildren carrying her around -- all withered and leathery -- as a doll.
Can I also just mention the Wandering Jew? Ok, thank you.
Michelle, the last paragraph is sort of me changing my opinion about the non-linear structure. I saw it as a way to envoke the way we, as humans, live in memory and always reflect to the past.
It was also nice to get some more background on the characters, making me feel even deeper for them.
Alrighty, I have 30 pages left in the book, but I believe I've read enough to comment on everything thus far.
I had no idea what this book was about, and I knew nothing about Marquez when I started. Useless info aside, I thoroughly enjoy(ed) this book, I thoroughly enjoy it to the EXTREME. Getting into it was a bit tough; the beginning seemed a bit boring and hard to follow. I suppose once magic and alchemy came into play, my attention was assaulted by the wonderful plot.
The usage of magic and fantasy in the book separate our reality from the reality present in the book;each magical act translates into something different in terms of our reality. The gypsies in the novel are important because they are the first catalysts of change in Macondo, their arrival sparked Jose Arcadio Buendia's obsession with technology and progress. The magic of ice struck me as hilarious at first but it caused me to think about it how diff. people perceive things. While ice may be stunning and miraculous to people who have never seen it or heard of it, its quite simply boring to us who know it's 'magic'. What I'm trying to say is that the story needed magic in order to bring an extremely different view to the story. I wouldn't be thrilled about reading a story about an incestual family that have too much time to wallow in solitude. The magic spin on things is necessary to explain things that in reality would just be too boring. I understand that all of the Buendias are cursed to a life of loneliness, since there is no other reason to explain their predicament aside from a mental disorder.
The magic present in the book is the only barrier keeping the reality of Macondo from our own. The 'curse' suffered by the Buendias can only be explained by magic, but the curse itself symbolizes the inevitable destruction of mankind. Marquez uses the Buendia's curse to show that mankind can't last forever; no one really wants to contemplate how long they have to live.
Plain and simple: Magic realism was used so readers would become engrosed in the magic of the story and consider Marquez's message(s) more passionately.
While solitude is great and all, I'd personally enjoy 100 minutes rather than 100 years =D.
I hope that was good enough for a 1st comment...
First, may I say that I am about 3/4 of the way through OHYS (thanks for the mneumonic device, Michelle!) and less than enchanted with the book. Maybe I'm just cynical. My way of describing the novel is that everything happens, and nothing happens. In other words, so much happens in every single page that it seems like nothing is significant and it's hard to pick out what Marquez is trying to get across. Not to mention that I get very confused at who the characters are, even thus far into the story, because of their repeating names. I love Dan's description of the repetitive nature of the book- that everyone is just going to age, fall in love, and become solitary and depressed- because that's exactly how I feel about the book. Everything is a cycle.
Speaking of being solitary, I noted about 40 places where Marquez used the word "solitary" or "solitude." For example: "...but[Aureliano] found her only in the image that saturated his private and terrible solitude" (71). I'm not done with the book yet, so I don't know if it ends on a more optimistic note, but the author's repeated usage of these words (plus the obvious connection with the title) seems to underscore Marquez's belief in a lonely existence for human kind; even with so many people as there were in the Buendia family, they always felt such a disconnect with each other and were never able to form strong bonds. Perhaps Marquez was commenting on the effects increasingly modernized world- after all, the village of Macondo was constantly become more advanced with the new gadgets and inventions that the gypsies were bringing in from afar-- and how this affected society, making people drift further apart from each other. Jose Arcadio Buendia, for example, became so obsessed with learning about the newfangled inventions and coming up with new theories that he completely lost touch with reality and his family.
Now back to the repetiveness of the story. Marquez often used that cyclical manner of storytelling, of repeating the names of the characters and their experiences- to portray how life in of itself is really a huge cycle. No one's story is really unique if you think about it; all of human kind has similar experiences and rights of passage- birth, adolescence, love, death, etcetera. It's like the phrase we often hear, that "history is bound to repeat itself." And so it does in OHYS, many, many times.
I was also really struck by what Dana said, about how the magical realism was to show our different perceptions of events. Throughout the book, whenever the author mentioned the miraculous moment of seeing ice for the first time, I always was puzzled and couldn't figure out why it was significant. But what Dana said really makes sense because Marquez could be demonstrating that what for one person is a normal part of life is wondrous for another. It does help to transplant us into this new world, to show us how different Macondia is from our own nation. However, despite these blatant variances in their existences, there are still, as I said before, those human experiences that the "Macondians" go through are common to all. Everyone goes through these experiences, it's just how each person interprets them that makes each person and his life unique.
Something else I was trying to figure out was what was the significance of the firing squad? It was mentioned so many times as foreshadowing but I never really understood its importance...
I finished the book today and I was thrilled / saddened by the ending. On one side, it was a GREAT ending and it fit the overall message perfectly. But on the other side, SPOILER ALERT DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED, I just wanted the newborn to live on and continue the Buendia line. And it was a sick way to end it all... ANTS? Come on... that's horrible! The whole prophecy aspect tickled my fancy because it strengthened Marquez's message about premonitions and such. Throughout the book, many characters had premonitions about future events and fail to stop them, hinting that the human race has such premonitions but ends up in the same boat. I think the most messed up part in the book involves the death of Remedios (Moscote). I wanted the first Aureliano to be happy, but after the death of Remedios I knew that nothing in the book would end well. The book is just so vast that it nearly covers all human pro's and con's. Well... I don't think any of the Buendia's were doctors or lawyers so I suppose so professions were left unfulfilled. I see the the plot seems to be a clump of chances for the Buendias to turn out okay, and they just tend to marry eachother or have a child with Pilar Ternera. The book was very insightful toward manners of the human condition which I have not previously thought about, so I'm uber glad I had a chance to read a masterpiece.
I didn't proof read this (sorry!) so I apologize if there are any grammatical errors and such.
First I must say that what I called a “mnemonic device” in my last post was actually an acronym! Sorry, that was really bothering me.
Anyways, I have exactly 26 pages left in the book and I don’t have the feeling I normally have at this point, that I’ve reached the end of the road and that I don’t want to finish the novel because it has become such a warm, comforting friend. Actually, I’m relieved to be almost done, but I will admit that although I don’t like the book, I have at least come to appreciate it more every time I analyze it.Like Michelle said, the imagery and also the figurative language were amazing, and they made the book at least a little more interesting. One example that I can remember is when Jose Arcadio (the first one) shot himself and the blood trickled all the way from his house to the Buendia residence and stopped at Ursula's feet. It was such a creative and imaginative way to describe a gruesome death. But speaking of Ursula, I can't say I agree with Jill about her being annoying. I think she was my favorite character. I had respect for her; She always spoke her mind and she had a lot of spunk (at least much more so in her younger years),like when Colonel Aureliano Buendia was condemned to death and Ursula pushed through the crowd to see him, declaring "I'm going in in any case. So if you have orders to shoot, start right in" (135).
I’ve been thinking a lot about what “reality” means in OHYS. Each character creates his own reality through his solitude. Marquez describes Aureliano Segundo as having “his head full of fantastical ideas and lacking any contact with reality” (219). Jose Arcadio Buendia loses touch with the world in his endeavor to uncover the secrets of the latest technology and miraculous gadgets and later in his sojourn under the chestnut tree; Fernanda’s reality becomes the world of the invisible doctors with whom she has constant correspondence; Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s life is caught up in the war and in the making of his little goldfishes; Aureliano (the youngest one) and Jose Arcadio Segundo are engrossed in the uncovering of the secret of Melquiades’s antiquated parchments that no longer have any relevance; up until his death Jose Arcadio Segundo is also obsessed with the massacre at the train station that everyone else claims never occurred but which becomes the axis around which his world revolves. Thus, perhaps one of the reasons that Marquez utilized magical realism was to depict how the characters’ solitude affected them, how it set each apart from the other in their own realities and worlds, no matter how peculiar these realities were.
Another thing I was contemplating was how Marquez was trying to point out the idiosyncrasies of human nature through his book, though in an exaggerated and often comic manner. For example, there is the ever amusing affair between Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes, his concubine. He goes back and forth between his wife and his lover over and over, demonstrating the inconsistency and fickleness of humans. Another example of such a quirk is Amaranta’s envy over the imminent marriage of Rebeca and her love, Pietro Crespi, a jealousy so deep that she planned to poison the former. It is situations like these that portray how love and lust cause people to do irrational and ludicrous things. There was also a quotation of Ursula’s that I found droll: “‘How strange men are,’ she said, because she could not think of anything else to say. ‘They spend their lives fighting against priests and then give prayer books as gifts’” (176), which illustrates just how contradictory people can be. In addition, Marquez seems to be pointing out a human tendency toward gullibility and believing what the authorities say in his description of how everyone except Jose Arcadio Segundo believed that the train station massacre had been fictitious and that, despite their long stay in Macondo, there had never been any banana workers to begin with. He also mocks human greed with his description of how Aureliano Segundo paved his house with dollar bills and how he devoted the later part of his life to finding the plaster statue of St. Joseph, inside which was hidden gold coins, but of course which was discovered after his death. There are so many more but these are just some that I was thinking about.
Many folks have said the same thing, and I have to agree: too many details per page. It was exhausting to read every page and remember all the things that happened. For instance, when Remedios got poisoned, I did not pick up on it right away. I got utterly confused and I had to re-read the page where it happened a few times to make sure I was reading it correctly. The vast amount of events that occur within a few pages tend to take away from the story in a few aspects. I understand that the novel HAD to be written this way, for the sake of not making it longer than it is. The vivid episodes that pop up constantly give the story its own little charm.
I suppose the amount of detail is as important to the story as the characters themselves; no one wants to read about a boring Buendia!
The plot itself wasn't hard to follow, just the details used to emphasize the plot. Don't get me wrong, the details are suited for this novel, readers just have to stay 100% alert and focused in the material to really ascertain what is actually going on. While at somepoints the amount of details crammed into each sentence annoyed me, overall I believe the book would have suffered without them.
I loved this book =D
I am finally done with One Hundred Years, and boy does it feel good.My overall critique of the book- well-written, with a creative style, but very monotonous and hard to digest.
I was thinking about the very ending of the book, particularly the last line- "...everything written on [the parchments] was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth" (448). What a depressing fate for the Buendias, to not be granted a second chance, but it does mesh well with the rest of the book. Throughout the novel, the history of the family kept repeating itself in a cycle- with the same pattern of births and adolescence and love and solitude and death. The Buendias should have foreseen their fates through the examples of so many predecessors and tried to prevent them, and as Dana mentioned, the premonitions that they had, but they fell right into the trap of their solitude and failures nonetheless. They had this chance to try to turn things around for themselves, to learn from history so that it DOESN’T repeat itself, but they never took advantage of these innumerable occasions, so now they do not get this “second opportunity on earth.” They ended up cursing themselves and paying the price for it. I did really like the ending; I finally felt like something new was happening, something that broke the unending and mundane cycle.
I was also thinking about other repeating themes in OHYS and the past/nostalgia seemed to be one of them. There is a sense of the constant longing for and not being able to move on from things from the past, but meanwhile Macondo and the rest of the world are pushing forward and becoming more modern and mechanized. For instance- after the railroad brings in foreigners from other parts of the word, the Buendias and the other original citizens long for the days prior to this deluge of people; and Fernanda was taken in by the pangs of nostalgia, feeling "so old, so worn out, so far away from the best moments of her life that she even yearned for those that she remembered as the worst…” (392). A metaphor to describe the Buendias’s condition is the dream that Jose Arcadio Buendia had, that he was trapped in that never-ending house of mirrors. They can’t seem to move on from their every-repeating past. It is ironic how the Buendias are so caught up in their past and yet they can’t seem to learn from it to improve on their future. Even Pilar Ternera, who is supposed to be able to predict the future, does nothing to preclude her destiny of becoming impregnated by many from the Buendia lineage. Thus, despite the passage of so much time during the novel, it just doesn’t seem like time does go on for the Buendias. They are caught up in their web of the past and unable to move forward, which is paralleled by the decline of Macondo as it begins to move once more toward the past, when the gypsies returned and “found the town so defeated and its inhabitants so removed from the rest of the world that once more they went through the houses dragging magnetized ingots as if that really were the Babylonian wise men’s latest discovery” (371). It is finally this trap that causes their downfall, as they are unable to learn enough to escape from the “Buendia curse.”
As a side note, I read the little blurb about Marquez at the end of the book and what struck me was that he actually experienced the “miracle of ice” (450). It was interesting to think that even people from here, could have this experience, that is doesn’t just have to occur in the “magical” world of Macondo. Not just that they could have this experience, because everyone must have seen ice for the first time, but considered such an ordinary event to be a miracle. It goes back to the idea of perspective, that an ordinary event for one person could touch another person’s life.
Alright. First comment for OHYS. I really didn't know anything about the book or Marquez and I generally have mixed emotions about the story over all. As I'm sitting here thinking about all the different aspects of the book I begin to realize how many different ways one can view this book.
The way it is written in the circular format. When I first starting reading the book I thought the format was just going to confuse me. But I gave it a chance (I really didn't have any choice now did I) and eventually became use to the 'loop effect'. By the middle I really liked the feeling it gave off to the overall effect of how the story is viewed. This story is writen as one thinks, in the pass and in the present.
I liked how the story would be telling of Colonel Aueliano Buendia inprisonment then go off on a tangent about how he faced the firing squad then the story goes back to the scene of him being back in his cell. That is how people tell stories. Sometimes they tell the end of the story in the middle.
As I'm writting this Michelle's comment is the first one and I keep reading it and totally agree! This book WAS given so much hype! Any time I read a book by a famous writter or that is loved by someone who gives it such great reviews and I personally end up not liking as much as other people, you feel weird when they give you those funny looks. As if you say, "How in the world can you not like this book? It's a classic!" To be fair, in general, I did like this book - once I figured out the whole loop story -thing.
So like those who have already posted I too generally have mixed feeling about the book.
I just have to say that I'm very impressed with the thought you all have put into this very challenging book! I'm really looking forward to talking about it in the fall...I'm off to China next week, so I won't be commenting until I come back, but keep this up!
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'll come right out and say it: this book is killing me!
I'm only about 250 pgs into it, so I haven't formed my complete opinion just yet, but I am struggling quite a bit. The non-linear, almost cirular, structure is making it more difficult to stay interested in the book bc if my mind drifts for one paragraph, I have to go back and read the whole page again. I guess I'm just complaining because it means I have to work harder. That's only with the events though, because I'm dealing pretty well with the similar names. It's kind of the same situation in my family with names that sound alike or are shared, so I'm getting through that just fine.
ANYWAY! I do looooove the imagery in the book. I think it's pretty amazing. I loved the part where after Jose Arcadio Buendia's death, a shower of yellow flowers rained down on Macondo to announce that a major event in the town's history just occured: their founder has died. It was just such a beautiful image in my mind. I looked up the color yellow to see if Marquez was trying to say something with making the flowers yellow, and I found that the color sometimes signifies the mind and intellect. Jose Arcadio Buendia was very into research and making himself more knowledeable about the world, so I guess that Marquez made the flowers yellow for a reason.
Also, I love how Macondo has a certain innocence about it. I'm up to the part where railroads and movies are being introduced to the town, and the reactions of the citizens just give off such a childlike simplicity. I think it's really charming.
I guess that's all I have to say for now. Oh, one more thing. Ursula sure can stick it out for a long time! She's 100 years old at this point in the book, and still cooking and cleaning! I really like her for some reason.
I have to be honest the story didn't capture me entirely within the first few pages.However, the more i read it the better it got. I loved the magical device and the repetion of events.(Though,I wasn't very fond of the repeating names because I found it difficult at times to keep track of the character, i got by.) The non-linear style was, like tania mentioned, the cycle of life. I completely agree on how we repeatedly make similar mistakes over and over again in life and not realize it.Then, we are bound to repeat the mistake until we figure it out. This was presented by the "tail of the pig" and the child who was born in the end with it.
I personally loved the magical aspect of the story. The mystical events that occured, all seeemed so possible in the story.It was written so that nothing seemed out of the ordinary, as if it could all happen right now. This book made me think that we may go through life remebering or seeing what we choose to.We may go through ife in a daze, ignorant to the things we don't agree with.For example, the train station massacre, that no one seems to remember other than Jose Arcadio Segundo. A lot of people choose to see things the way they want to.
To switch topics a bit,I would like to mention Rebecca, and what a great character I think she is. I found it interesting how she locked herself in her house isolated and away from her family and civilization. It was tragic how she decided to live in solitude. She was such a strange character, and I found it odd how she would eat the earth when things troubled her.
I do like this book despite how difficult it is to read.I know my thoughts are all over the place. promise the next blog will be more organized. I just wanted to get some of the things in my mind down.
I feel as if the magical events that occur in this book are a means of illustrating the way people see and remember things. Just how some people are accused of having selective hearing, the people of Macondo seem to have selective memory. For example, no one but Jose Arcadio Segundo remembers the massacre of the banana plantation workers. Just like Danny said, the rain that fell after the massacre was a way of washing away their memory of this massacre, so that they could live in the happier moments in their memories. The magic was also a way of making the story a little easier to get through. I agree with Dana when he said that the magic helps explain things that would have been far too boring to read.
My personal favorite magical moment was when Remedios the Beauty elevated into the heavens, never to be seen again. I think that her departure from the story was perfect for her character, however abrupt and unexpected. She was one of a kind in the book. She didn't see the point in getting all dressed up everyday and having to go through the trouble of corsets and petticoats, so she preferred to walk around naked at home. Plus, she never understood how beautiful she really was, so that made her more likeable in my eyes. Her exit from the story was just as unique as she was.
At first, I didn't love the non-linear way in which the book was written, but then I realized that it was pretty helpful. When Marquez introduced a new character or a new situation, he gave a little background information on that character in order to explain their decisions and reactions a little better. I think that it helped the reader get to know that character better and feel more involved with them. Also, it mimicked the way in which people start to tell stories and go off on a tangent, but catch themselves before going too far.
I found that I didn't really appreciate the book until I only had about 3 chapters left to read. I got really interested when Aureliano became really wrapped up with Melquiades' parchments. It added an element of thrill to the story because it made me wonder if he would figure everything out before it was too late. Of course I knew the ending wouldn't be happy before finishing the book because it was consistently foreshadowed throughout the novel, but I couldn't help but hope that it would magically change for the better when I reached the end.
I also liked when Amaranta Ursula was reintroduced into the book with her husband Gaston because they seemed like they'd be the salvation of Macondo. They were so excited to start a family and break the cycle of naming all their children Jose Arcadio or Aureliano or Ursula or Amaranta. They were set on breaking the trend and stepping out of the vicious cycle. I was pretty sad when Gaston left and Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano continued with their love affair. I didn't think it was fair though because they didn't know they were related. Aureliano didn't know his parentage, therefore had no idea that Amaranta Ursula was his aunt.
When I finished the book, I didn't feel let down at all despite the fact that it wasn't the happiest of endings.
ISADE. You reminded me of a point I was going to make about Remedios the Beauty, but totally forgot about.
I think she was the only member of the family to break the curse of the Buendias. Whether through mental retardation or divine inspiration, she was able to escape.
Remedios's ascent was very unexpected. It's pretty bizarre. Clearly, Remedios is supposed to be representing an angel; a virginal young woman draped in white. I think this makes the scene a bit more jarring: it's kind of familiar.
Interestingly, though he religious overtones are obvious, religion doesn't play a large role in the rest of the novel.
Colonel Aureliano Buendia is the only person who sees Remedios as something unearthly and special. The rest of the family believe she is special for . . . well, other reasons. For the most part, I was inclined to the latter line of thought. Through her actions and words it is apparent that there are a few switches that aren't clicking in her head. That being said, I was very happy to see the Colonel be right about her, because he is my favorite Buendia.
Speaking of the Colonel (I kept thinking of Colonel Sanders as I typed that), where's the love? He's such a crazed, manic-depressive, obsessive genius. And I love that in his later years he just putzes around the house making fish and being cranky. AWESOME.
I still think that magic and individualism play corresponding roles in this novel.
Alriiighty. So I finished OHYS a few days ago, and I guess I’m all ready to blog. I decided to finish the book completely before blogging so yeah.
I guess I’ll start off with what initially really struck me about Marquez’s literary style. Something I really loved was the way Marquez really expounded upon very universal, abstract emotional and mental reactions so well. He would describe the characters’ human reactions in certain situations, and I really felt he brought out the most raw and fundamental qualities of his characters in that way. The characters’ reactions that Marquez relates to us are very complex and abstract, and yet the manner in which he describes them allows it to be very tangible and even personal. There were many instances in the book where he describes a quality such as ‘spongy curiosity,’ coupling with certain qualities an unconventional adjective and yet it strikes you that the adjective he implements really describes the quality well. Other examples: the women who smelled of dead flowers, autumnal passion, algae of his anxiety, etc etc.. (142,3)
The whole story throughout seemed to be primarily focused on the characters’ reactions, long term and short term, to certain experiences in their lives. It seemed to really put an emphasis on emotional themes that are really universal and applicable to really anyone. It seemed that certain characteristics of the Buendias are just magnified versions of common variations and occurrences in the whole human race. The crises that they experience seem like really just exaggerated (to some degree) parallels to what people go through in their lives all the time. Like the way Amaranta always sort of removed herself from happiness by constantly rejecting her lovers, and letting her deep insecurity inhibit her all the time. (I never wrote the page number down, but there was a line describing the reason why she rejected Pietro and Gerineldo as an insecurity in her heart.) It almost seemed like Marquez could have been instilling certain qualities into his characters that he felt were the most common and tragic flaws (or admirable qualities) with people all over and from any time period.
“Watching the glow of the fire as it gilded the persistent woman who neither then nor in any instant of her life seemed to exist completely…” (264) This line really struck me, not only for the imagery of the fire’s glow gilding the woman, but for the comment he makes in saying that Santa Sofia, in the entirety of her life, never completely existed.
“He was not pained by…any of the insidious traps that nostalgia offered him.” (172) I really enjoyed how Marquez would give emotional aspects tangible qualities. He would describe everything from rage to nostalgia to memories, and he gave them the physically tangible qualities that would so aptly parallel their emotional/mental impacts on people. (262)
OHYS is a great book that can be related to so many aspects of life today. I want to address the idea of repeating events and names. I loved the truth behind the repetition. It makes it seem as if nothing in life is ever unique. In the story all the names of the new borns were names of previous members of the family. In addition to that there were similar traits in all the generations of the Buendia family. All the events are part of the cycle, the non-linear structure, so nothing is one of a kind. Just think of events that occur in our lives. We all think that the things we go through are things only we experience. However, that is clearly not the case. Somewhere out there, someone has already or is in the process of going through the same ordeal. It doesn't make that one drastic event seem so special does it now. I never thought of things that way until I read this book. All the characters eventually fall into their state of solitude, each one goes through it. Yet, it's not so tragic for that character because every member of the family has succumb to solitary or will soon succumb to it.
okay, so i jsut returned from china yesterday so i hope u dont mind that i didnt blog anything yet. i was refrained from writing my ideas in a notebook and post it on later bkuz i wanted to see what others thot of the book and connect it to how i feel about the book.
so this is the very first book of the four books i read during my trip to china. at first i must admit that it was really hard to get into this book. first of all i hated how the characters had simliar names. i remember turning to the first couple pages in the book and seeing the family tree and i knew from that point on i'll most likely become confused throughout the whole book. i even had to photocopy the family tree and use it as a bookmark so as not to confuse the characters and so that i didnt have to always flip back to the first couple pages.
so dont mind me if my thoughts are a bit scattered. and I'm just going to use one entry for the three blogs becuase i feel there is no point in blogging one entry after another since i read all the books during my vacation.
for the first third of the book, i felt like i was reading about absolutely nothing. i agree with nina that so much happens in every page that it seems like nothing is happening at all. Marquez's style of nonlinear writing is what threw me off the most. He would talk about one thing and one character and then he'd change to another character and back.
anyways, i like how Marquez describes people. He gives vivid imagery and descriptions to each of the characters. Like when he describes Rebecca with "greenish skin, her stomach, round and tense as a drum, revealed poor health and hunger that were older than she was, but when they gave her something to eat she kept the plate on her knees without tasting anything." (41) I always found Rebecca to be really odd, but i liked her for that very same reason.
I found it disgusting how throughout the book, all the characters would either engage themselves in an affair or marry a relative. I dont remember how old Remedios Moscote, the wife of the Colonel was, but i do remember she was very very young and did not yet reach puberty yet. And how Pietro Crespi was suppose to marry Rebecca but was stolen away by Jose Arcadio. "She's your sister......its against nature" said Pietro Crespi. And Jose Arcadio replied with a simple "i don't care." (92) Although Rebecca was not in fact the sister of Jose Arcadio but a distant relative, she was brought into the family as though she was a sister. I never could believe how Amaranta would purposely sabotage her sister's wedding. Although she claims she really loved Pietro Crespi, when the time came for her to have him, she didnt want him anymore. Maybe it's that old saying where "you want what you can't have, but then when you have it, you don't want it anymore." And i feel as though every relationship throughout the book was brought on by solitude instead of love.
So about the magical events, i didnt really pay attention to them. I'm reading how Isade mentions the death of Jose Arcadio Budendia and the yellow flowers falling down but i dont exactly remember that at all. What i do remember is the beatiful ascent of Remdios the Beauty into the sky. It was just so sudden and unexpected and i thought for a second that she would come back into the story later on and create some kind of stop to the cycle of solitude that her family seems to be following.
The one thing that struck me the most in this book is the tragic relationship between Renata Remedios (Meme) and Mauricio Babilonia. They seemed to be the only ones who were actually in love with each other but could never be with each other. The tragic death of Mauricio Babilonia shocked me becuase i couldnt believe how evil and inconsiderate Fernanda was. I think it might have been brought on by Aurliano Segundo indecision in staying with his wife or Petra Cotes which caused Fernanda to become i dont know bitter?
anyways this took longer than i expected. I first thought i would have nothing much to say about this book. But when i actually sat down to think about what to say i found that i have more to say then i thought.
I just finished a little more than half the book, and I would not say it’s the best book I’ve read (sorry, Ms. Clapp). It was a pretty fast read in the beginning, but after I got use to the repetition of names, deaths, births, etc, it got kind of boring. Nevertheless, I did find some interesting parts of the book to comment on.
First off, like everyone who read it knows, the events in this book have not been too normal. It’s a chaotic book filled with abnormal events, which is one thing I believe Marquez wanted to focus on. He wants to move away from describing the things that usually happen and actually focus on the events that happen behind the scenes. The characters in this story have been so use to weird things occurring (i.e. gypsies with flying carpets, ghosts, gunpowder smells that never fade, deaths everywhere) that they are actually scared of familiarity. The narrator states, “And normality was precisely the most fearful part…nothing ever happened” (181).
Another theme in this book is the lack of organization of occurrences. Events of the past, present, and future are all mixed together. Things from the past could become part of the present (such as Jose Arcadio Buendia’s sudden appearances and disappearances after his death, and Melquiades reappearance when Jose Arcadio Segundo entered the workshop); the past repeats itself in the future (the repetition of names, and how characteristics of those who died appear in future generations); and the past sometimes disappears (as what happened when they all the Buendias had amnesia). Only Ursula seems to notice all this, though. “Ursula confirmed her impression that time was going in a circle,” (238) when Aureliano Triste made designs for his railroad that were just like the plans of Jose Arcadio Buendia, and Ursula noticed how the all the Arcadios were all similar and the Aurelianos all had similar characteristics.
And I have one last comment. One of the lines in the book reminded me of A Tale of Two Cities. “The innocent yellow train that was to bring so many ambiguities and certainties, so many pleasant and unpleasant moments, so many changes, calamities, and feelings of nostalgia” (239). This sentence is like the first one in A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” These kinds of contradicting statements amaze me. They seem to be impossible, yet they turn out so true.
That’s all for now.
oh yah! i reallie did not like how the book ended. i like books with happy endings and OHYS was definately not a happy ending. When i read the line "The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants" (415) i was llike..that is messed up. its sad how all the characters have to end up alone. This book is depressing.
From the "about the author" section, Marquez seemed to incorporate much of his life into OHYS. Like how his grandfather would tell him stories which made him "unable to distinguish between the real and the fabulous". Also the event in the book with the miracle of ice is also taken from Marquez real life experiences. And honestly i never really realized how much the book relates to people's emotions in real life until i read part of the "about the author section". Even though the book is so tragic and hard to read, i think it's one of the best books that i can use to incorporate in essay questions becuase it has so many different themes and aspects.
I do agree that this is a depressing book. Since everyone eventually falls into that inevitable state of solitude. Yet, i still love this book. It was sad to see things go wrong for so many people, and have them suffer for it and isolate themsleves. Like Rebecca. It was horrible to see her arrangements to marry Pietro Crespi fall through. The selfishness of Amaranta for doing everything in her power to stop the wedding. When she finally succeeded in doing it, she wou;dn't even marry Pierto. She was teasing him and playing with his mind, until he couldn't take it anymore, and committed suicide. I liked how when Amaranta was upset about Pietro's death Ursala did not show her any sympathy. She brought the physical and mental pain upon herself. I did feel bad for Amaranta, since she feared every man that showed interest in her. She wouldn't allow anyone to get close to her, even if she loved them.Everything is so tragic. I wish something worked out for at least one person.Reading this book just makes me feel for all the characters. They way it's written is just so personal and when i read it i felt such a connection to the characters. Everything they experienced, it seems like i was there watching it all happen, like i was apart of the whole experience.
I guess I'll spend my second OHYS blog on how I felt about the non-linear style of the book and the whole cyclical theme that haunted the Buendias.
To be quite honest, I actually enjoyed the non-linear telling of the story, I can't really recall a time when it had confused or annoyed me. I thought it was really nice in that it strayed from a really one-dimensional, straight timeline of the Buendia family history. I actually found it to be pretty brilliant of Marquez to present his story throughout in that way. It seems to parallel the way the stories themselves are repititions of a cycle.
Something that always seemed to me to plague the family is the animal characteristics that were perhaps a subsequent result of the incestual relationships. At one point Ursula says to her son Aureliano: "It's the same as if you'd been born with the tail of a pig." (169) I think that quote really confirmed my conviction that Marquez had in fact instilled magnified qualities in his characters. Apart from the last of the family tree (Aureliano, who was eaten by ants), it seemed the ominous animal characteristics were constantly manifest in the personal qualities of the characters as opposed to physical qualities.
Now I couldn't find the quote page, (I really failed to write page numbers down for this book as I did for ROD) but I believe it was Fernanda contemplating the behavior of a family member, and she was wondering if that certain family member was repeating history along the same path of the Colonel and his golden fish, etc etc. Anyways, there seemed to be a certain number of vices in the family that were invariably present to the very last of the family.
As far as the names go, I have to say that although there were a dozen or so times when I had to flip to the family tree, I got along pretty fine. Initially, I had dreaded it, but it was much better than I had anticipated.
And here I'm going to leave a little addition to my previous blog about the adjective/quality combinations: "lyrical voracity" (405).(I had found it on my paper with words I didn't know just recently).
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About the whole family tree, I think I was pretty clever in photocopying it, so that I didn't have to keep flipping through the front. I kept it right next to my page while reading, and I even jotted down notes about each character on that sheet, which really helped me figure out who was who. So, for all those who didn't start reading or are just midway, I advise you to do that.
Anyways, I noticed a lot of personification and similes in this book that were very well written. For example, "The light creaked like a fishing boat. The air, which had been washed by the three-day drizzle" (286). Marquez's descriptions make everything so much easier to picture.
And I think the Colonel's death was a very satisfying one. Like most of the others, he just died all of a sudden and Marquez did not go into much detail over his death, but I think the Colonel died contently. He had been trapping himself in the workshop everyday for years making little gold fishes, trying to not think about anything. By never sharing his feelings and never letting himself think about it, he was only making himself more lonely and depressed. But when he finally let himself watch the circus, I believe he had at last released some of his burden. He tried to think again. "He went to the chestnut tree, thinking about the circus, and while he urinated he tried to keep on thinking about the circus" (287). It was then, I think, that he was able to let go of the pressure he had given himself to never think, and so he left the world that had caused him so much pain.
One last comment. The brainwashing that occurred after the massacre was so realistic and deep. Because the people of Macondo never witnessed death except once before and never wanted to, it was easy for them to get tricked and at the same time deceive themselves. They are such a gullible bunch, but yet, when you think about it, I think it could really happen. I know that some people today still deny the Holocaust ever happening. It’s just so freaky.
i think that if i have any time left in the summer, i might just read this book again. i feel like i missed a lot of important information that i should have written down.
when i first heard about this book from the seniors last year, i was a bit skeptical about reading it. Even the title doesn't welcome readers to read it. But after i read it, im glad that i did.
Okay, so I guess I'll spend this blog on the magical realism of the book.
I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Although at first I didn't because I felt it took away from the story's potential to be remotely true (in some sort of way?) or believable but then I realized that despite some of the unrealistic events and characters, there were still a lot of aspects that maintained a sense of reality. I think that as the story progressed, instead of taking away from the believability of the story, it rather brought on a more realistic twist to the magical events. I don't believe I have ever read a book that involved the style of magical realism--I wasn't even aware of the technique itself, but I'll say my first encounter with it was very appreciable.
As far as the greater significance of this technique and the overarching themes that Marquez may have wanted us to take from it, I would say that it relates to the unpredictability and at times incredulity of life itself. Sometimes it seems like we just sleepwalk through life as if it were a dream or mirage. We don't always register the significance of events that take place in our lives and the people that we will encounter. Maybe he wanted us to realize that the unrealistic events in the book are not always so far from what actually occurs in our daily lives. He may have magnified the scope of the events and the degree to which they occurred but solely for the purpose of making them more conspicuous and enabling them to have a greater impact on the reader.
I also wanted to make a comment on his mentions of the banana company and such. It really reminded of some of the revolutionist writings of the time--about how greedy capitalists from imperialist countries were really invading other countries and degrading and reaping benefits from a land that wasn't theirs. The scene described with the train filled with thousands of bodies running on the tracks in the nighttime, I felt was really powerful. Although I don't feel Marquez centered the book around a contempt for these imperialists, I have to say that I really admire his incorporation of the theme into his book.
I finally finished the whole book and I really felt some relief knowing that no more Aurelianos or Arcadios would pop up.
Anyways, I really enjoyed Janna's comment on how "sometimes it just seems like we sleepwalk through life as if it were some dream or mirage." That was how the life of the Buendias was. It seemed like we were just witnessing their dreams the whole time, and at the end, they all left because the dream came to a close. And like the idea of a dream, no one would remember them because they never existed.
One thing I noticed about all the Buendias before the last Aureiliano and Amaranta Ursula was that they all faced solitude, but was never willing to share that solitude or express it to other members of the family. They all chose to face their years of solitude by themselves. The Colonel enclosed himself in the workshop. Ursula never admitted her illnesses and blindness, but let herself suffer alone. Amaranta never married and let her pain sink into her soul. But it was only Aureiliano and Amaranta Ursula who found “the paradise of shared solitude” (365). That was how they were actually truly happy during the times they were together. This shows that even the deepest feelings of solitude can be relieved when those affected are open enough to express it. With this satisfactory closing (besides the ants that ate the newborn baby), I believe that the ending was relatively happy.
So lets talk about these characters. How each of them worked themselves into their own solitude's. Aureliano II is the best example of solitude in "One Hundred Years of Solitude." He is utterly isolated by his grandmother, Fernanda del Carpio, because she is ashamed that he was born out of wedlock; he never even leaves the house until he is fully grown. As he lives in solitude, he acquires a store of knowledge that is almost magical. He knows far more than he could have read in his family’s books and seems to have miraculously accessed an enormous store of universal knowledge.
Aureliano II is one of a few of the people who had 'interesting' relationships with their relatives. The whole incestuous relationship with some of these people - I can't come up with the right word to describe the feeling I have about that.
It is strange that the incestuous relationship of the Buendía Family seem to happen more than you would think it would. I mean Úrsula was so scared about the spirtual conquences of incest that you would think that she would drill that into her children's heads so well that everyone else would be so scared of the spirtual conquences they would even think of the idea. She examed her children's flaws so often infear of a pig's tale to show up. Or something worse.
One of the aspects of OHYS that is so apparent is the circular motion of the story. This is not only show through the narration but through the charaters themselves. One such charater would be Colonel Aureliano Buendía.
Aureliano is a very complex charater, like many of the other charaters, but posibably at an even deeper level than the others. He seems to be uneffected by any thing that happens to him. He is very artist but at the same time consumed but war.
In the beginning he seems to be effected by his child-bride Remedios Moscote. But when she dies he find out that he is not as sad as he thought he would be.
Then taking part in the civil war that is going on Aureliano becomes even more harden to his emotions. Then the lost of time really begins to take hold. Aureliano makes gold gold-fish. As time passes he loses his memory. Aureliano will make twenty-five gold-fish and then melt them down and use the same gold to make the next twenty-five gold-fish.
Since his memory and sense of time is gone the last batch of twenty-five gold-fish is the first batch of gold-fish as far as he is concerned.
Aureliano's life is how people live in the present. What you have right now is what a person concentrates on - just like the gold-fish that Aureliano all ways will be making and remaking.
OK, I finished this book a while ago, and there is some obvious post-catching up to do. Like other people claimed, I also found that there was a numerous amount of details surrounding each character that almost dragged the story along. The non-linear pattern didn't drive me too insane, until the children and grandchildren were brought into the picture. Then there was mass confusion in my head and I took to notes. Despite that, I loved the way that the stories would weave into the past and show you how the characters had developed and changed.
With that all said, the book grew too repetitive with its characters(although that was probably on purpose). After a while, I was merely imagining the way that the next male Buendia was going to die (sounds morbid, I know). It just reminds me of a curse, it'll linger until something is done to undo what has been cast. This somewhat reminds me of Things Fall Apart because of the way that this great family was once so well respected and then found itself and its name diminishing among the people, the same way that Okonkwo ended up.
One of the characters that I felt the most sympathy for was Pilar Ternera. Every lonesome man in the town of Macondo flocked to her and she was willing to do anything. Nobody ever dared to stay though, and she would go in day in and day out just waiting for somebody to stay with her. She would come face to face with a Buendia and not even know that they were related by blood. She had no family and had no idea to who she was related to. Pilar may have been constantly surrounded by people, but her heart was never satisfied.
Sorry, I digress, I'll get more to the real thing next post.
Post two: Melquiades.
Melquiades was pretty much the technological giant of today for Macondo. He brought so much to the town of Macondo with all of his gadgets and toys. He mesmerized the town every time he came with the gypsies. He gave the primitive town the only 'technology' it would ever find. it strikes me though, if he had never shown up in macondo, would the events still end up as they had? After all, he was the one who first inspired the buendias with his gifts.
i agree with isade's previous statement about the scrolls that he left behind in a 'secret language'. it brings about a too late/just in time feeling when the translations is begun. when i think about this, i think about nostradamus when he predicted that one day two giant birds would shake the world, or to that aspect. this was connected to 9/11 only after it had happened. nobody could have known that this was what he meant because at that time, airplanes had not existed and for nostradamus, his 'vision' probably looked like two giant birds.
Post Three: Random
I have to say the magical realism confused me from time to time. I didn't know if somebody had really died or if Melquiades was really brought to life. It hurt my head a lot, but I guess that's what made this book unique. One of the biggest things that stuck with me was when they tied jose arcadio buendia to the tree for years and he would speak in nothing but latin. i think if i read the book again, i could understand it more. Either that, my head would hurt - a lot. it kept me on my toes though, it made me think about what actually happened throughout the book.
This book was just too sad for me, as for other people. Nothing seemed to go right for the family, and anything that good happened, bad would happen at any moment. Everybody had shut themselves up alone when anything bad happened, as if it would erase all of their troubles.There was so much heartache and deceit, especially by Amaranta. This book would put me in a down mood whenever i read it because every page, another tragedy would occur.
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