You must post 2 times before next Monday, November 22nd. Your first post should be submitted by Thursday, November 18th. It is to be in response to one of the prompts below. The second time you post, it must be in response to or in reaction to the post of another student.This novel presents several striking leitmotifs (frequently repeated phrase, image, symbol, or situation in a literary work which supports the theme). Leitmotifs in One Hundred Years of Solitude include cyclical patterns, prophecy, illegitimacy, fantasy, and of course solitude. Consider one or more of the following:
1. What patterns of behavior are emerging among the characters and how are these recurring patterns affecting life in Macondo?
2.) What events in Macondo, if any, have been prophesied with precision or at least seem likely to come true?
3.) List the many ways fantasy plays a part in the characters' lives. Are these elements of fantasy every ironic?
OR
Identify elements of the story that you find particularly confusing, interesting, or worthy of discussion. Pose your own questions. Include portions of the text that you feel contribute to your questions/your point. Cite page numbers.
One thing I found confusing or just really random, was what Amaranta says on pg. 260.(Amaranta was on the point of causing panic because one of the nuns went into the kitchen as she was salting the soup and the only thing that occurred to her to say was to ask what those handfuls of white powder were. "Arsenic," Amaranta answered.)I was just wondering if she was being serious or was joking. She could've been serious, except nobody died.
ReplyDeleteAn event that has been prophesied and forshaddowed multipule times in the book is that Macondo will turn into a town made of ice. In the first line of the book, it says that "...as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." Earlier in the book, when JAB and Jose Arcadio discovered ice, JAB said "This is the great invention of our time." (pg. 18) Aureliano Centeno begins experimenting with ice on pg. 221. JAB has a dream on pg. 24 that shows him that Macondo would have houses made of ice and the town would be a wintry city. Because the idea of ice is brought up many times, I think that this prediction might come true.
ReplyDeleteNow that Carly points that out, that is a valid prediction. The whole kind of subliminal theme of ice is played in and out of the story, making it seem foreshadowed. I think that Macondo will start seeing like JAB did and stop having such mechanical thinking and broad and creative thinking.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA point in the book i found confusing was when Amaranta was packing clothes into a trunk and she was bitten by a scorpion. She asked where the scorpion went and "Ursula put a finger on her heart. and said Here." (p. 252) Then it went onto a new subject and paragraph. Why was this relevant? and what was the point of Ursula saying it was in her heart?
ReplyDeleteIn reference to Kalli, I think that Ursula yelled as if she was bit by a bug and thats why Amaranta jumped to the conclusion that she had been bit by a scorpion. And I think that she pointed at her heart to show that her pain was in there.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found confusing was one page 270 when it says, "Only after the death of Amaranta, when the family shut itself up again in a period of mourning, was Meme able to clock the clavichord....." I thought Amaranta had all of a sudden died but then it went onto talk about her on the next page. That line must have been foreshadowing the death of her to come later in the chapter. After she dies, on page 278, it also says, "Amaranta did not feel frustrated, but, on the contrary, free of all bitterness because death had awarded her the privilege of announcing itself several years ahead of time." What does the author mean by this? Had Amaranta known when and how she was going to die the whole time?
ReplyDeleteon page 288 Fernanda says "You can see in his face that he's going to die" and then directly after it said that meme thought that her mom liked mauricio. why would she think that after she just stated that she thought he was going to die?
ReplyDeletep.252 "Ursula put a finger on her heart and said Here." I was trying to think of why she would say this and I came up with nothing! I don't really even understand the point of putting that part in the book! It was really random and it doesn't even even go into detail after. Maybe later in the book it will explain the meaning of it.. But I kind of doubt it.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Sara:
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of chapters, the author sometimes states an event and then the chapter goes on to explain in detail what happened. I think that is what happened when it first said Amaranta died. She knew she was going to die because Death came to visit her and told her that after she finished her shroud, she would die at dusk of that day. Through making the shroud, she got rid of the hate she had for Rebeca and died without bitter like Death had said.
Amaranta's life has been predicted to be over after she is done stitching her own shroud. She came up with the idea to recieve and give letters for the dead from the people that are living in Macondo. This idea has caused the people of Macondo to believe her, so they actually write letters to the dead.
ReplyDeleteHmm..Kali, this part of the book confused me also. I'm guessing that the author attempted to symbolize the pain that Urusla has because of all she's been through. Since scorpions are poisonous and harmful, maybe she tried to say that her heart has been harmed or poisoned in some way.
ReplyDeleteTo Jacob..I don't think Meme's mother actually stated that she like Mauricio and that her statement of saying that he was going to die may be a foreshadow of his real death. Seeing it in his face may be the way of her saying that she doesn't approve of him because of where he came from or his background but is giving him a chance first.
ReplyDeleteAs I kept reading for tomorrow's assignment, I found another part confusing. I don't really understand why the soldiers couldn't see Jose Arcadio Segundo when they went into Melquiades's room. On page 312 it says, "But the night when the soldiers looked at him without seeing him while he thought about the tension of the past few months......Jose Arcadio Buendia reached the conclusion that CAB was nothing but a faker or an imbecile." What does this mean? How come the soldiers thought that nobody had been in that room for hundreds of years, and what does that have to do with Jose Arcadio Segundo?
ReplyDeleteI think a recurring theme that comes up in the book is how Ursula keeps the family together. She has gone through a lot, and is the oldest still living (and I think she stays alive through the whole book). She keeps some people out of the house, but I think she does everything with "family first" as her guidelines. A little bit back in the reading she opens up the family to everyone and I think she does a good job holding strong, even though she struggled/struggles with things, like when she was blind and nobody could tell cause she knew what everyone was always doing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carly and Sean. Ice definately comes up several times in the book. I think it not only foreshadows Macondo being made of ice, but also, the many creative inventions of Macondo that have appeared so far, and may appear later on in the book, such as the train. After all this talk about ice, the book then added more modernizations one after another which could have all stemmed from the first idea of ice coming to Macondo.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the pattern of a somewhat curse can exist in the Buendia name like Ursula suspects. She always alludes to the pig tail and incest for her problems. I originally didn't see it at first or thought she was just being crazy for the defects not being physical. So maybe it is just a coincidence, but there seems to be a lot of devastation in the Buendia name and family.
ReplyDeleteI believe that unfaithfulness is a meaningful recurring theme in the story. I think, in a way, it symbolizes time in the story. With every new invention and new arrival in Macondo a Buendia seems to stray and break away from the family. This unfaithfulness represents how this family reacts to change.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the mentions of ice. I think it's there to symbolizes the coldness that seems to surround the family.
ReplyDeleteI think a big leitmotif of this book is invention and new ideas or things. It seems to be that in every chapter there is something that is considered a new invention or new radical idea. From the ice to structured government to the railroad to the banana plantation to the theatre. Also about these inventions, they all are thought to bring good to Macondo but they all bring what is considered "sin" to the village.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeff, every other character seems to have a downfall or something bad about them, yet Ursula seems untouched by any of this. Not only that, but like Jeff said she somewhat holds the family together, and keeps them from overstepping themselves, like with Arcadio and the whip.
ReplyDeleteIm also simultaneously putting up my post that correlates further to what jeff said. Ive noticed that Ursula seems to be on good terms with everyone. She had somewhat of a downfall with Arcadio but then he wanted to name his daughter after her, almost showing some sign of affection. I feel that most characters have a shakey relationship somewhere with someone, like Rachel and Amaranta, and that Ursula doesnt. Can anybody think of a relationship of Ursulas that I might be wrong?