the next 50 years of solitude
Finishing this book was like a whirlwind (though not as dramatic as the literal whirlwind at the end of the story of course.) I still find it an impressive feat that Garcia Marquez managed to fit 7 generations in a single novel without it being a Tolstoy-length monstrosity. This half of the story was a bit easier to wrap my head around, having got through the first half. However, a lot of my initial thoughts carried through.
In my last blog post, I mentioned nominative determinism being the idea that your name somewhat dictates your character, and I could definitely see that in Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula's son - the one who was born with a pig's tail. They briefly considered giving him a name that hadn't been used before in the family, but decided against it, calling him Aureliano all over again and oh look he's got a tail and the family curse prevails. If they could "simply" untether themselves from the family curse and the seemingly neverending cycles they wouldn't have a pig-tailed child.
I put "simply" in quotation marks because I recognise that it probably isn't that simple at all. Breaking family traditions, or deconstructing ~generational trauma~ can be difficult in contemporary society, with all the tools and understanding at our disposal, not to mention that Colombian society is much more collectivistic than Canada's, so it would probably be even more difficult. As much as I was criticising some of the characters throughout the novel, I have to acknowledge that if breaking cycles was easy, then everyone would do it, and there wouldn't even be a 100 years of solitude story.
I think the role of women stuck out to me more in this half of the story; not just Ursula, but also Remedios the Beauty. I talked about this book with my parents, who both read it many years ago, and the first thing they said they remember about it (in a list of the memorable magical realism stuff) was Remedios the Beauty rising up into heaven. I think she is a particularly interesting character because she's so weird, and yet is considered one of the wiser characters. Truthfully I haven't formed a complete opinion about her just yet, but I look forward to hearing other classmates' thoughts.
My question for you all: how much sympathy do you have for the characters' continuation of past mistakes? On a scale of 1-10, 1 being "completely critical omg why are they so stupid" and 10 being "no I completely get it and don't blame them at all," where are you?
Your final question makes me curious. It's hard to warm to some characters, even those who are presented with "heroic" traits. However, the narrator's skill is evident when telling us about the lives of these characters full of twists and turns. The more they fight against determinism, from tradition or prophecies, the more they fall into those errors you mention. Remedios' wisdom was to escape from that circularity?
ReplyDeleteHey Deeba, to answer your question I think it is so much more complext than that, it also depensa on character and weather yu were able to emphatize with them as a reader, but with all honesty and critical thinking, I would propably say 3.
ReplyDelete-Montserrat AVendano
DeleteHi! I really enjoyed your question this week haha! I have to say maybe a 2 or 3 because it just seems as though they are aware that they are setting everyone up for disaster, but think that this time it will be different. If I was in the family I certainly would name my kid something else, wether the curse was real or not (I don't want the bad vibes). My question this week was about Remedios the beauty, as I was particularly interested in her character as well. I was left so confused when she just floated up and left everyone. I was interested to know what everyone thought about this and how/ or if she can be related to a religious symbol or not.
ReplyDeleteHi Deeba, great blog post! Similar to the others, I'd have to agree and say around a 3 just because they knew there was the curse for example and yet they still decided to name their child the same name. Why!! I agree with Jon in that if they perhaps changed the name to something else, perhaps the curse would be lifted and it wouldn't be this cyclical tragedy.
ReplyDeleteFirst off I like the title of ur post, good to see some humor and not just "100 years of solitude part 2" (even though I did that). I also think the impact of the women was more apparent in the second half of the story, especially with Ursula taking up the role as head of the house after Jose Arcadio Buendia went crazy. For your question, I'd say I'm at a solid 5, since human nature, and the habits of past family members, are very difficult to overcome.
ReplyDeleteHi! I think you bring up a great point about the importance of the role of women all throughout. I mentioned this in my first blog post about 100 Years, but I found Ursula to be such a grounding character within her family, and her role within the book really stuck with me all throughout. Regarding your question, I think I definitely fall under the 3-6 range. I didn't feel too much of either extreme, but rather tried my best to come from a place of understanding of the family's circumstances minus the incest HAHA.
ReplyDeleteHi Deeba! Your first paragraph summarizes the experience of reading One Hundred Years of Solitude so succinctly! More importantly the connection you drew to generational trauma was such an insightful continuation of your blog post last week in regards to normative determinism (which I believe I also responded to). The breaking of cycles, both in the novel and in present day, is quite the feat regardless. However that being said, I had not explicitly considered the difference the more collectivist Columbian society would foster in comparison. You have made such interesting observations for this novel, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHello Deeba,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. You bring up an interesting point about untethering themselves from this family curse. I think it implies some personal agency on any one of the BuendÃa to not have repeated the mistakes of their ancestors. But throughout 7 generations none of them seem to figure it out which definitely implies a sense of hopeless. To answer your discussion question, I would say about a 5. For the amount of ties we see characters having to their namesakes, they don't seem to be directly influenced by them so it may be difficult to learn from their mistakes. There are however things like incest where they know the consequences from stories that have been passed down and disregard them so its hard to be completely sympathetic.