"When José Arcadio Segundo came to he was lying face in the darkness. He realized that he was riding on an endless and silent train and that his head was caked with dry blood and that all his bones ached. He felt an intolerable desire to sleep. Prepared to sleep for many hours, safe from the terror and horror, he made himself comfortable on the side that pained him less, and only then did he discover he was lying against dead people" (306)
This excerpt was pretty wild to read about because as soon as José becomes conscious, he is automatically traumatized with what has happened. Márquez doesn't beat around the bush at all about how José is feeling; he makes it seem like a couple hours of rest will save him from reality, but again he gives José the thought of about where he actually is. Marquez continues to show how much of an impact the massacre had on Jose because of how it made him become a hermit; It was unbearable for José that so many people have lost their lives for fighting in what they believed in. I think Marquez is writing this way to show readers how an event so tragic can cause somebody to lose their sanity and that this conflict effects many generations after the generation involved just because its within the family's history.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Blog Post #9 100 Years of Solitude
"Then he skipped again to anticipate the predictions and ascertain the date and circumstances of his death. Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since the immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth."(417)
This the ending of the book when Aureliano Babilonia is finally discovering that the deciphered parchments were a description of the history of Macondo. I chose this quote because it reminded me of the show "Black Mirror". Throughout an episode of Black Mirror you are understanding what's going on but then at the end it does a complete 360 and your mind is completely blown. The ending of this book had a similar effect on me. I understood this book as I was reading it but then the ending totally surprised me. I had to read it a few times to fully understand what actually happened. Was the whole story just a mirage?
Blog Post #9 100 Years of Solitude
Page 310: "During the day the soldiers walked through the torrents in the streets with their pant legs rolled up, playing with boats with the children. At night, after taps, they knocked doors down with their rifle butts, hauled suspects out of their beds, and took them off on trips from which there was no return. The search for and extermination of the hoodlums, murderers, arsonists, and rebels of Decree No. 4 was still going on, but the military denied it even to the relatives of the victims who crowded the commandments' offices in search of news. 'You must have been dreaming,' the officers insisted. 'Nothing has happened in Macondo, nothing has ever happened, and nothing ever will happen. This is a happy town.' In that way they were finally able to wipe out the union leaders."
This part of the chapter really caught my attention. As I was reading this section, I wondered if Jose Arcadio Segundo was really alive. We had just read that he was part of the protests, then taken away on the train with the rest of the dead, and then he managed to walk all the way back to Macondo only to find out that "nothing happened" and there were no "dead." I couldn't help but think, did all of that not just happen? Was it a hallucination? Was Jose Arcadio Segundo dead and in another Macondo? Then we find out that the military was lying to the residents of Macondo. Just by saying that something like that never happens in Macondo shouldn't work the way it did, even though almost all of the protesters died. The military was able to keep their actions secret and feed lies to the town. These lies might have worked, but I had another thought about it. What if the people were not believing these lies, but they were in so much fear from the military that they don't talk about the incident. This shows what kind of control the military can have over a city-state like this. Macondo cannot be that large, and the military comes in and enforces martial law. The military has almost complete control of the people's actions and what is said. They pretend to be likable by playing with the kids in the day, but that is just a front for what they really are. They are making sure that they can appeal and control the people of Macondo. They even tried to hunt down Jose Arcadio Segundo, but somehow didn't recognize him. The military is a scary force at this point in the book, and what makes them so terrifying is the control that they have over people's thoughts and actions.
This part of the chapter really caught my attention. As I was reading this section, I wondered if Jose Arcadio Segundo was really alive. We had just read that he was part of the protests, then taken away on the train with the rest of the dead, and then he managed to walk all the way back to Macondo only to find out that "nothing happened" and there were no "dead." I couldn't help but think, did all of that not just happen? Was it a hallucination? Was Jose Arcadio Segundo dead and in another Macondo? Then we find out that the military was lying to the residents of Macondo. Just by saying that something like that never happens in Macondo shouldn't work the way it did, even though almost all of the protesters died. The military was able to keep their actions secret and feed lies to the town. These lies might have worked, but I had another thought about it. What if the people were not believing these lies, but they were in so much fear from the military that they don't talk about the incident. This shows what kind of control the military can have over a city-state like this. Macondo cannot be that large, and the military comes in and enforces martial law. The military has almost complete control of the people's actions and what is said. They pretend to be likable by playing with the kids in the day, but that is just a front for what they really are. They are making sure that they can appeal and control the people of Macondo. They even tried to hunt down Jose Arcadio Segundo, but somehow didn't recognize him. The military is a scary force at this point in the book, and what makes them so terrifying is the control that they have over people's thoughts and actions.
Blog Post #9
"The certainty that his day was assigned gave him a mysterious immunity, an immortality for a fixed period that made him invulnerable to the risks of war and in the end permitted him to win a defeat that was much more difficult, much more bloody and costly than victory." (pg. 170)
Last week, I read past the point we were supposed to and I ended up doing a blog post for the wrong section. This week, I'm going back to previous section. This passage really spoke to me. Throughout the book, Marquez (the author, not the Colonel) has a very unorthodox and interesting way of setting the rules for death. Last week, my post dealt with the concept of death and I am starting to notice that death follows very unusual rules in this book. The passage above implies that everything is set in stone. Since Colonel Aureliano Buendia's, "day was assigned" he death was inevitable, but in a special way. His death is a sort of prophecy that is going to occur at a predetermined time, not a moment before, not a moment later. He knew when he was going to die therefore up until the actual moment of his death, he was invulnerable. This raises an interesting question as to what this means. Is Colonel Aureliano Buendia literally invulnerable at this time? If someone were to shoot him in the head during his "immortality for a fixed period", would he die? This take on death is so fascinating and it seems so unusual, but in a weird way it almost makes sense. If this passage isn't meant to be taken literally, is this Marquez's way of describing the sudden rush of courage people get if they already know they are going to die? Think about it: if you were told you had six months to live, you would probably go out into the world and do a bunch of death defying things like skydiving, bungee jumping, etc. I thought about both of these interpretations, and both seem perfectly viable in the context of this book. I would expect something as crazy as a man literally becoming immortal for a short time from this book as death doesn't seem very final in this book. On the other hand, it seems just as likely that Marquez conveyed the illusion of temporary immortality humans get when told they only have so long to live in such a way that it speaks volumes on how humans work. I'm totally torn on which one I think is the intention; the figurative approach is more realistic, but the literal approach makes perfect sense based on the book. I think me being indecisive also adds to the magic this book holds as it constantly makes you question not only the book, but yourself.
Last week, I read past the point we were supposed to and I ended up doing a blog post for the wrong section. This week, I'm going back to previous section. This passage really spoke to me. Throughout the book, Marquez (the author, not the Colonel) has a very unorthodox and interesting way of setting the rules for death. Last week, my post dealt with the concept of death and I am starting to notice that death follows very unusual rules in this book. The passage above implies that everything is set in stone. Since Colonel Aureliano Buendia's, "day was assigned" he death was inevitable, but in a special way. His death is a sort of prophecy that is going to occur at a predetermined time, not a moment before, not a moment later. He knew when he was going to die therefore up until the actual moment of his death, he was invulnerable. This raises an interesting question as to what this means. Is Colonel Aureliano Buendia literally invulnerable at this time? If someone were to shoot him in the head during his "immortality for a fixed period", would he die? This take on death is so fascinating and it seems so unusual, but in a weird way it almost makes sense. If this passage isn't meant to be taken literally, is this Marquez's way of describing the sudden rush of courage people get if they already know they are going to die? Think about it: if you were told you had six months to live, you would probably go out into the world and do a bunch of death defying things like skydiving, bungee jumping, etc. I thought about both of these interpretations, and both seem perfectly viable in the context of this book. I would expect something as crazy as a man literally becoming immortal for a short time from this book as death doesn't seem very final in this book. On the other hand, it seems just as likely that Marquez conveyed the illusion of temporary immortality humans get when told they only have so long to live in such a way that it speaks volumes on how humans work. I'm totally torn on which one I think is the intention; the figurative approach is more realistic, but the literal approach makes perfect sense based on the book. I think me being indecisive also adds to the magic this book holds as it constantly makes you question not only the book, but yourself.
Blog Post 9
"and he began to decipher the instant that he was living, deciphering it as he lived it"
Melquiade's sandscript seems to be working as Aureliano is reading it, basically writing itself, but the one thing I find confusing is, did this happen throughout the story or were the characters fates already predetermined? I just do not know how this sandscript worked, is it basically eliminating the characters free will and already predetermining their fates or is the sandscript writing itself as the characters make their choices throughout the story.
Melquiade's sandscript seems to be working as Aureliano is reading it, basically writing itself, but the one thing I find confusing is, did this happen throughout the story or were the characters fates already predetermined? I just do not know how this sandscript worked, is it basically eliminating the characters free will and already predetermining their fates or is the sandscript writing itself as the characters make their choices throughout the story.
Blog Post #9
"After his shout something happened that did not bring on fright but a kind of hallucination. The
captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once. But it all seemed like a
farce. It was as if the machine guns had been loaded with caps, because their panting rattle could be
heard and their incandescent spitting could be seen, but not the slightest reaction was perceived, not
a cry, not even a sigh among the compact crowd that seemed petrified by an instantaneous
invulnerability."
Having watched the crash course and some separate supplementary material, I understand the significance of the massacre scene better and it stood out to me immediately. Marquez's commentary on the real-life Banana Massacre is a very interesting addition to the novel, and it is a theme seen often in Latin American authors of the period; writing about the social injustices occurring in South America/Latin America in their magical realist novel. This scene also has some elements of magical realism to it, when he writes the gun had apparently been "loaded with caps," as for a moment, no one reacted in the slightest to the wave of bullets, until a few lone screams break the silence. It is definitely one of the most exciting and significant scenes in the novel.
captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once. But it all seemed like a
farce. It was as if the machine guns had been loaded with caps, because their panting rattle could be
heard and their incandescent spitting could be seen, but not the slightest reaction was perceived, not
a cry, not even a sigh among the compact crowd that seemed petrified by an instantaneous
invulnerability."
Having watched the crash course and some separate supplementary material, I understand the significance of the massacre scene better and it stood out to me immediately. Marquez's commentary on the real-life Banana Massacre is a very interesting addition to the novel, and it is a theme seen often in Latin American authors of the period; writing about the social injustices occurring in South America/Latin America in their magical realist novel. This scene also has some elements of magical realism to it, when he writes the gun had apparently been "loaded with caps," as for a moment, no one reacted in the slightest to the wave of bullets, until a few lone screams break the silence. It is definitely one of the most exciting and significant scenes in the novel.
Blog #9
"It had not rained for three months and there had been a drought. But when Mr. Brown announced his decision a torrential downpour spread over the whole banana region" (Márquez 309).
The years of rain caused the downfall of Macondo and reflected the disasters that were occurring within the civilization. The rain began right after the unjust massacre, and it ended up causing the destruction of the majority of the town. After the rain, many people and buildings did not survive. Following the rain, an extreme heat wave takes over. These sequences of natural disasters mirrors the state of Macondo. Before this, Macondo was a place of harmonious consonance, with the citizens getting along and no natural disasters occurring. However, following the many injustices that occur, such as the civil war and the massacre of the workers, Macondo begins to fall apart. The comparison between the state of the town in the beginning of the novel and the state of it towards the end reveals a hugely severe contrast. Even the characters seem to be less and less vivacious and more passive than the characters in the beginning of the novel. The plot parallels the slow crumbling that a once perfect town experiences, which allows the reader to draw comparisons to real historical events and other real aspects.
The years of rain caused the downfall of Macondo and reflected the disasters that were occurring within the civilization. The rain began right after the unjust massacre, and it ended up causing the destruction of the majority of the town. After the rain, many people and buildings did not survive. Following the rain, an extreme heat wave takes over. These sequences of natural disasters mirrors the state of Macondo. Before this, Macondo was a place of harmonious consonance, with the citizens getting along and no natural disasters occurring. However, following the many injustices that occur, such as the civil war and the massacre of the workers, Macondo begins to fall apart. The comparison between the state of the town in the beginning of the novel and the state of it towards the end reveals a hugely severe contrast. Even the characters seem to be less and less vivacious and more passive than the characters in the beginning of the novel. The plot parallels the slow crumbling that a once perfect town experiences, which allows the reader to draw comparisons to real historical events and other real aspects.
Post. #9 One Hundred Years of Solitude
"After his shout something happened that did not bring on fright but kind of hallucination. The captain gave the. order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once. But it all seemed like a farce." (Márquez 305).
This excerpt really shocked me. At first I assumed this was something that was real to José Arcadeo Segundo but not to others, as if the massacre really hadn't happened. For example, in the beginning of the novel Úrsula continued to see Prucendio Aguilar after her husband, José Arcadio Buendía had thrown a spear through his throat for making fun at him. Also, this novel is filled with just things that seem out of the normal being normal so expecting this to not have actually happened is somewhat of a normal reaction. Also, the soldiers shot to kill, as if it really wasn't meant to disperse the protesters but to actually kill them instead, "They were penned in, swirling about in a giant whirlwind that little by little was being reduced to its epicenter as the edges were systematically being cut off all around like an onion being peeled by the insatiable and methodical shears of the machine guns." (Márquez 306). Something that this makes me think of is the killing of protesters at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard. Like the workers, the Kent students were unarmed and protesting the bombing of Cambodia. Instead of getting the students to disperse, the armed Ohio National Guard opened fire on the protesters, killing four.
This excerpt really shocked me. At first I assumed this was something that was real to José Arcadeo Segundo but not to others, as if the massacre really hadn't happened. For example, in the beginning of the novel Úrsula continued to see Prucendio Aguilar after her husband, José Arcadio Buendía had thrown a spear through his throat for making fun at him. Also, this novel is filled with just things that seem out of the normal being normal so expecting this to not have actually happened is somewhat of a normal reaction. Also, the soldiers shot to kill, as if it really wasn't meant to disperse the protesters but to actually kill them instead, "They were penned in, swirling about in a giant whirlwind that little by little was being reduced to its epicenter as the edges were systematically being cut off all around like an onion being peeled by the insatiable and methodical shears of the machine guns." (Márquez 306). Something that this makes me think of is the killing of protesters at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard. Like the workers, the Kent students were unarmed and protesting the bombing of Cambodia. Instead of getting the students to disperse, the armed Ohio National Guard opened fire on the protesters, killing four.
Blog Post #9 - 100 Years of Solitude
"She was tying a colorful string of chatter together, commenting on things from many separate places and many different times, so that when Amaranta Ursula returned from school and Aureliano grew tired of the encyclopedia, they would find her sitting on her bed talking to herself and lost in a labrinth of dead people. "Fire!" she shouted once in terror and for an instant panic spread through the house, but what she was telling about was the burning of a barn that she had witnessed when she was four years old. She finally mixed up the past with the present in such a way that in the two or three waves of lucidity that she had before she died, no one knew for certain whether she was speaking about what she felt or what she remembered" (341).
In this moment we can see that Ursula is succumbing to the cyclic events that occur in the Buendia family as she reaches old age (old age for her being between 100 and 122 years old). The degradation of Ursula's mind towards the end of the book was really shocking. Throughout the novel she is the most level-headed of the family and kept it together. She constantly mentions that she felt like she was living in a cycle and that events were repeating over and over again, and yet now she is stuck suffering through a cycle of her own memories. This part is disappointing and sad because it seemed like she would be the one to help break the cycle and show her family what not to do. In addition to the fact that she is stuck in her memories, she physically also gets sent back in time. She isn't turned into a baby, but she shrinks and shrivels into a tiny form that is the size of the basket Aureliano was dropped off in. Ursula not only goes back in time in her mind but also in her body. I think this part of the book is telling of how important Ursula was to the Buendia family. After the 4 years of rain she is the one who help fix up the house and put it back together. She also raised most if not all of the children that were brought into the home. Her dying might break the household apart. Another important part of her death and losing her lucidity is how some people in the family treat her. During the time it rained and as she was dying little Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula treat her like a thing rather than a person. This part was extremely worrying because they don't seem to grasp the fact that she is old and shouldn't treated like that, she helped raise them. I can't tell if this is a lack of respect for her or if it just because they are young and don't know any better. But even in the latter case no one else in the house (Fernanda or Aureliano Jose) stopped them from treating Ursula poorly. It may be a contrast to how Ursula raised and took care of the children but they didn't care of her. Either way, I think Ursula's death could end up being a turning point for the Buendias, whether it be bad or good.
In this moment we can see that Ursula is succumbing to the cyclic events that occur in the Buendia family as she reaches old age (old age for her being between 100 and 122 years old). The degradation of Ursula's mind towards the end of the book was really shocking. Throughout the novel she is the most level-headed of the family and kept it together. She constantly mentions that she felt like she was living in a cycle and that events were repeating over and over again, and yet now she is stuck suffering through a cycle of her own memories. This part is disappointing and sad because it seemed like she would be the one to help break the cycle and show her family what not to do. In addition to the fact that she is stuck in her memories, she physically also gets sent back in time. She isn't turned into a baby, but she shrinks and shrivels into a tiny form that is the size of the basket Aureliano was dropped off in. Ursula not only goes back in time in her mind but also in her body. I think this part of the book is telling of how important Ursula was to the Buendia family. After the 4 years of rain she is the one who help fix up the house and put it back together. She also raised most if not all of the children that were brought into the home. Her dying might break the household apart. Another important part of her death and losing her lucidity is how some people in the family treat her. During the time it rained and as she was dying little Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula treat her like a thing rather than a person. This part was extremely worrying because they don't seem to grasp the fact that she is old and shouldn't treated like that, she helped raise them. I can't tell if this is a lack of respect for her or if it just because they are young and don't know any better. But even in the latter case no one else in the house (Fernanda or Aureliano Jose) stopped them from treating Ursula poorly. It may be a contrast to how Ursula raised and took care of the children but they didn't care of her. Either way, I think Ursula's death could end up being a turning point for the Buendias, whether it be bad or good.
Blog 9
“She was seeing Colonel Aureliano Buendia once more as she had seen him in the light of a lamp long before the wars, long before the desolation of glory and the exile of disillusionment, that remote dawn when he went to her bedroom to give the first command of his life:the command to give him love. It was Pilar Ternera. Years before, when she had reached one hundred forty-five years of age, she had given up the pernicious custom of keeping track of her age and she went on living in the static and marginal time of memories, in a future perfectly revealed and established, beyond the futures disturbed by the insidious snares and suppositions of her cards” (Marquez, 395).
Time is not a single line in this novel and instead is an endless loop which results in themes in the Buendia family to repeat itself. The figures that constant in this never ending loop are Pilar Ternera and Ursula. They both guide the family in some way and they both do it through the use of time and memories. Pilar is the woman that all the Buendia men continuously are drawn to and it is because of inherited memory. This was a constant pattern of the book when characters constantly repeated their mistakes even though they had memory on their side. Their life comes off like a prophecy of unending debauchery that keeps the Buendia family from succeeding. As the town moves into the future they are restrained to their past. The end of the Buendia family was the end of life in Macondo. The Buendia family repeated habits that destroyed their family and succumbed to the temptation of lust, envy, greed, pride, gluttony,wrath, and sloth, . There are several instances of these but just to name a few:
- Lust runs rampant through the family as they divulge in forbidden incest and through the death of several men who die lusting over Remidios the beauty
- Envy through love relations between multiple people like Rebeca and Amaranta on fighting for the attention of the same man and results in Amaranta burning her own hand
- Greed is seen through the death of Jose Arcadio (II) after he relies upon getting an inheritance he comes back to town and finds the money Ursula hid and is murdered and robbed by local kids
- Pride when Arcadio is in charge of Macondo during the uprising and becomes a vicious dictator who is obsessed with order and is killed for it
They succumb to the seven deadly sins which collapses their life and all life. This also plays into the religious undertones of the novel with the destruction of mankind through devious temptations as shown in the Bible.
blog 9: One Hundred Years of Solitude part 3
“The
captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once”
(Marquez 305).
The
entirety of the banana massacre scene still surprises me. Upon reading this
section of One Hundred Years of Solitude,
I assumed that this massacre was simply Marquez writing about unrealistic
events as we have seen throughout the novel. I mean who would get killed over
bananas essentially? However, when using the internet and utilizing Shmoop in
order to clarify the text I found out that this did indeed happen. From what I’ve
gathered from researching the event, Marquez’ writing is not too far off from
what actually happened. In 1928 Colombian banana plantation workers went on
strike for unfair treatment in terms of wages, compensation, health benefits,
etc. The government then sent in an army to deal with these strikers. In the
novel Marquez states that there were around 3,000 fatalities, however, the
actual number is unknown. All of this makes me question how Marquez was
personally affected by the massacre. Was it so significant to him personally
that he felt it had to be mentioned? But also, he was a toddler at the time of
the horrific event, so maybe it is just a vital part of Colombian history. Maybe
it’s also possible that he had family involved the tragedy. Either way I
believe that incorporating this piece of history into the story puts things
into perspective for readers that although Marquez uses a ton of magical realism,
the points he is making about society and war are not made up. I have found
that when reading this book, it is important to not view everything as “magic.”
Monday, October 28, 2019
Blog Post 9
“Macondo was in ruins… The banana company tore down it’s
installations. All that remained of the former wired-in city were the ruins.
The wooden houses, the cool terraces for breezy card-playing afternoons, seemed
to have blown away in anticipation of the prophetic wind that years later would
wipe Macondo off the face of the earth.” (330)
Throughout many points of the text
Marquez uses religious parallels. I was curious as to why this is so, because
the people of Macondo don’t believe in typical religious practices. One
possible reason that matches the genre in which the story is written (magical
realism) is that the religious occurrences, such as the years of rain, are
shared phenomenons that may occur in both religious and magic realist texts. By
utilizing the religious events such as the rainfall, it allows Marquez to
create a previously exposed to chain of events that are then more easily accepted
and enjoyed by the reader.
The rain, matching it’s cleansing
properties in religious readings, seems to be doing the same for Macondo. The
tension and impurity that has occurred with more outsiders coming in has
culminated with a necessary cleanse. Why were original Macondo inhabitants not
warned or spared in some manner? It seems that if there were to be a cleanse
the original inhabitants that didn’t necessarily contribute to the alteration
of the land and their ways would be spared from the catastrophe.
If no one was spared then it may be
an indication that all inhabitants were of equal blame, the original Macondo
people as well as the foreigners that came to reap benefits from the people and
land. This creates questions about when, exactly, Macondo people established the
poor fate for themselves. I feel that Marquez is trying to show the reader that
no matter what outside intervention and corruption takes place, it is
impossible to remove yourself from the scenario, requiring that you assign
yourself some of the blame.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)