Sula 3

1. Fastidious: 1 archaic : scornful
2 a : having high and often capricious standards : difficult to please b : showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care c : reflecting a meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude
3 : having complex nutritional requirements
-Merriam-Webster Online

P 167: "She had neither iron nor clothes but did not stop her fastidious lining up of pleats or pressing out of wrinkles even when she acknowledged Nel's greeting."


2. In the final section of the novel, 1965, Nel reminisces on the past and the changes she has witnessed. Bottom has gone from being an all-black, community-based town to an integrated city spanning to the valley with isolated households. She marvels at the change from beautiful black boys and lively, vivacious prostitutes to dull men and shameful, unhappy whores. She visits Circle Number 5, an old-folks home, and thinks about the differences between whites and blacks regarding family and old age. While whites put their relatives in homes with what seems like no consideration whatsoever, it takes absolute turmoil to cause a black family to let go of a loved one. Nel spent the years after Sula's death raising her children alone. She visits Eva, who is ironing invisible clothing in a mad fashion. Eva condemns Nel for the death of Chicken Little, blaming her and seeming to see no difference between Sula and Nel. Nel reflects on the child's death, remembering her cold demeanor and the tranquility she felt watching him slip into the river. Shamed, she visit the cemetary to see Sula and Sula's family's graves. As she's leaving, she runs into Shadrack, who has trouble recognizing her. Nel is hit with a sudden burst of compassion and sorrow for her lost friend and cries out in grief that it was Sula she was missing all along, not Jude. "It was a fine cry - loud and long - but it had no bottom and ithad no top, just circles and circles of sorrow."


3. Once again, we see community appear as a theme in one of our in-class novels. After Sula's death, the community of the Bottom gradually unravels. As black folks begin to mingle with white folks, gaining better paying jobs and moving closer to the valley that they have so longed to live in, they become more isolated from one another. Gone are the days of porch-sitting and gossiping, replaced with wealthier, solitude-based households. Nel's visit to Eva was both enlightening and sad. The older woman, who for so much of the novel was so powerful and emotionally strong, has slipped mentally into senility. She believes herself to be ironing with invisible tools and clothes, and she offers Nel oranges. However, she is just as alert as ever in some senses. Although she confuses Nel and Sula as one person, she knows about Chicken Little. The book never mentions Nel or Sula telling Eva, so how she knows is unclear. However, she is definitely aware of the events that took place by the river, and she confronts Nel about her part in the tragedy. This forces Nel to re-evaluate the obviously painful death, realizing for the first time that her calm serenity was not an honorable reaction, but rather a horrific one. She questions her reaction to death, feeling it to be inadequate and heartless. I really struggle with the idea of a "proper grief." What constitutes proper grieving? Who says that there is any one proper way to react to a tragedy? Factors such as shock, personality, and situation could all play a part. Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I don't think Nel was necessarily "bad" in reacting the way she did. This also raises the question of "good" vs "evil," however. While Sula reacted in the conventional way, crying hysterically and showing a lot of emotional pain at the death of the child, Nel remained calm and collected, certainly a societal anomaly. Does this mean that in this case, Sula was the "good" one? I think grey areas play a major role in this segment, and I am a firm believer in no set standards of "good" and "evil," so this really fascinated me. Who dictates what is socially acceptable? Why do we feel we can judge each other's emotions?


4. Is there a proper reaction to death? This book really made me think about that. Personally, I find expected deaths to be a lot less sad than unexpected ones. When my grandmother died, it came at a point where I was glad she could be out of her pain. I felt really bad at her funeral because I did not cry, but I couldn't see it as a sorrowful event, but rather a freeing one. Was I right to be ashamed of my reaction? Is there a proper way to grieve?

How did Eva know about Chicken Little? Is it just to be assumed that she knew all? Did Sula tell her? Did she witness it, but never say anything?

Nel realizes at the end that she missed Sula all along. Is she also mourning her lifelong pursuit of social acceptance? It's quite obvious that she lived her life according to the book, playing each role she felt society demanded of her. Was her final grief a show of her regretting this decision? Does she wish she had lived more like Sula, in a free, inhibition-based way?

Sula 2

1. Mooring: 1 : an act of making fast a boat or aircraft with lines or anchors
2 a : a place where or an object to which something (as a craft) can be moored b : a device (as a line or chain) by which an object is secured in place
3 : an established practice or stabilizing influence : anchorage 2 —usually used in plural
-Merriam-Webster Online

P 139: "Virtue, bleak and drawn, was her only mooring."


2. Sula returns to the Bottom, bringing a "plague of robins" with her. Eva and Sula's relationship immediately becomes tense, with Sula asserting that Eva cut off her own leg in order to gain wealth. Eva fires back, and Sula insinuates that Eva murdered Plum. Eva then brings up Hannah's death, and Sula's lack of reaction. Sula threatens to kill Eva, and eventually moves her into an old-folks home. The community sees this as an act of evil on Sula's part, as people in the Bottom are generally not moved into nursing homes until absolutely necessary. Nel walks in on Sula and Jude, her husband, having sex. Jude leaves Nel and their children for Sula, and Nel is deeply hurt. Meanwhile, the community becomes more and more wary of Sula, ostracizing her even more from their realm. They blame her for everything, ranging from the death of a man by choking on a chicken bone to Teapot, a child, accidentally falling off of a porch. Sula follows in Hannah's footsteps, however, having many affairs and committing to no man. Ajax, a man who originally made lewd comments to the girls as they went to get ice cream, takes interest in Sula's unusual nature. The two begin an affair, and Sula begins to fall for Ajax. However, as she becomes more entranced by him, Ajax loses interest, feeling that Sula has become a typical lover. Later, Sula becomes ill, and Nel visits her in retribution. She questions why Sula slept with Jude, and the two feud over morality and the implications of friendship. Sula remains stubborn that she did nothing wrong, while Nel remains adamant that she was wronged. Nel leaves, and Sula thinks back on her life before passing away. Sula's death is regarded positively throughout the Bottom. Many people believe she was evil, and her death is seen as an omen of good times to come. However, a frost comes, "silvering" the town. People lose livestock, crops, and wages. The weather warms just in time for National Suicide Day, and Shadrack remembers Sula's visit immediately following Chicken Little's death. He did not know of the death of the child; rather, he saw the fear in Sula's face, and tried to comfort her. On Shadrack's annual Suicide Day parade, many of the townsfolk follow him, an unprecedented reaction. They parade to the tunnel in the valley, but the tunnel collapses, and many die, including the Deweys and Tar Baby.


3. Sula seems to have a genuine lack of interest in societal norms. She doesn't sleep with married men to be spiteful or to hurt women, she does so because she doesn't see the harm in it. She doesn't see that all of the Bottom associates her directly with the devil because she put Eva in a nursing home prematurely, or if she does, it certainly doesn't seem to bother her. She recognizes that she is a pariah within the community, but she doesn't appear to be affected by it. She acts as a free spirit, doing what she wants when she wants, without concern for how it will be interpreted by others. This is so unlike Nel, whose entire life seems to be designed around what she is "supposed to be doing." She married Jude because it seemed like the right thing to do. It's interesting that Nel seems to blame Sula entirely for the affair with Jude; after all, it takes two to have an affair. Jude was just as willing, and likely not as naive as Sula seems to be. While Sula may not have seen the harm in their lovemaking, Jude should have. He should have realized that it would destroy his marriage, and by taking up with his wife's best friend, he showed a blatant lack of respect for the woman he promised to love and honor till death do them part. Jude then left his family, of his own free will, for Sula, who did not love him. She never pretended to love him, only went to bed with him. Jude, however, escapes the blame of the entire town, which is instead focused on Sula. Sula's ostracizing from the community has an interesting affect on the townsfolk. As they label her more and more as an evil woman, their own moral standing increases. They try to prove how bad she is by behaving in a more morally righteous way. They are kinder to each other and to their children. In this way, Sula actually betters the Bottom, whether those around her see it or not. The one time Sula does attempt to be conventional ends traumatically for her. She begins to fall for Ajax, relying on him and enjoying his visits. Instead of finding love, however, she finds rejection and heartbreak. Ajax, who was only interested in Sula because of her free spirit, finds her dull and typical when she begins to become interested and reliant on him. Sula later finds out that she didn't even know his real name, which was Albert Jacks. As Sula dies, she looks over her life, remarking that she lived it in a natural, "good" way. Unlike Nel, who has always been so worried about societal conventions and behaving in a proper, expected manner, Sula did as she pleased and accepted the consequences when necessary. She was unapologetic, but this raises the question of what "good" and "evil" are. Sula, who lived as she saw fit, has never fallen prey to the commonalities of society. Does this make her "evil"? Does this make Nel morally better than her, simply for following societal standards? As Sula dies, it's interesting that she thinks of Nel. Clearly she harbors no ill wishes toward her old friend, indicating that Sula is prone to forgiveness and not one to hold a grudge. Nel leaves Sula's house bitter and angry, once again questioning which woman was a "better" person.


4. Is Morrison using this section to question the standard assumptions of "good" and "evil"? It seems to me that she is bringing them up as grey areas, questioning which woman is truly the virtuous one.

Will the Bottom jump to another "devil woman" after Sula's passing? The inhabitants of the town were morally upright when Sula was around, using her to bolster the virtue of their actions. Will they look for another victim, or will they slack into immorality?

What is the meaning behind the collapse of the tunnel on National Suicide Day? The people did not want to die; they were behaving completely out of character, participating in a carefree, almost instinctual and animal parade. What does the large-scale death mean?

Sula 1

1. Citified:: of, relating to, or characteristic of a sophisticated urban style of living .
-Merriam-Webster Online.

P 35: "His shoes were a shiny orange, and he had on a citified straw hat, a light-blue suit, and a cat's-head stickpin in his tie."


2. The Prologue opens with a description of the Bottom, a once all-black neighborhood that is being turned into a white suburban golf course. The whites, who were originally interested in the valley, convinced the blacks to move to the Bottom, as it was "the bottom of heaven," nestled high in the hills above the valley. In 1917, Shadrack, a veteran of WWI, suffers hallucinations involving his hands swelling to great proportions, leading to his containment in a mental hospital. He is released and allowed to move to the Bottom, where he institutes National Suicide Day, a day on which he parades through town ringing a bell and proclaiming that people can kill themselves or others if they feel the urge. Helene Wright is introduced, the mother of Nel. Helene was the daughter of a Creole prostitute and was raised by her grandmother, building a respectable life after marrying Wiley Wright and starting their family. When Cecile, Helene's grandmother, dies, Helene and Nel make a train trip south to see her, and on the way they are humiliated by the white conductor. Nel becomes close friends with Sula Peace, whose mother is known for sleeping around. Sula's life is chronicled next, and focus is put on her grandmother, Eva. Eva's husband, BoyBoy, left her and their children, Hannah (Sula's mother), Ralph (Plum), and Pearl, to fend for themselves. Plum becomes ill, unable to pass bowel movements, and in desperation Eva puts the absolute last bit of lard in the house on her finger and sticks it up his bottom, digging the stools out. She then leaves the children with a neighbor for a year and a half, and when she returns it is with one less leg but a large amount of wealth. Eva uses the money to build a house, where she lives to old age with Hannah and Sula, as well as three "adopted" children, all named Dewey, and many boarders, including Tar Baby, a white alcoholic. When Plum returns from WWI, he becomes heavily dependent on drugs, and in her frustration and love, Eva pours kerosene over him in his bed, rocks him in her arms and soothes him, and then sets him on fire and lets him burn to death. Nel and Sula seem to complete each other, with each girl's personality holding the lacking aspects of the other's. Nel is shy, while Sula is assertive; Nel is reserved, while Sula acts on whims. One day, while faced with bullying older boys, Sula cuts off the tip of her finger to frighten them, demonstrating her lack of fear and restraint. Growing up, the girls are fascinated by the men who sit outside the ice cream parlor and occasionally make sexual comments. As the girls play by the river, Chicken Little wanders up. Nel teases him and Sula swings him in circles, but he slips and flies into the river, never resurfacing. Sula is hysterical, but Nel remains composed but guilt-burdened, and the girls keep the death a secret. Hannah asks Eva whether she ever loved her children, and Eva becomes angry, defending everything she did for them. Hannah then brings up the murder of Plum, and Eva becomes emotional, saying that she killed him out of love. Hannah tells Eva of her dream of being married in a red dress, and that afternoon, she catches on fire in the yard. Eva jumps out of the window in an effort to smother the flames, but her attempt is unsuccessful. Hannah dies, and Eva attributes the death to the dream of the red dress. She then remembers seeing Sula on the porch, watching her burning mother but not moving to help. When the girls grow older, Nel married Jude Greene and Sula leaves the Bottom for college.


3. Shadrack seems to be a very pitiful character. Suffering what appears to be extreme after-affects of the war, possibly shell shock, he hallucinates to a point where his own body seems to be against him. He feels he has no control over his life, and even his hands, with their "rapid growth," are an example of the chaos surrounding him. I believe this is what leads to his creation of National Suicide Day; he wants an opportunity, even if just for one day, to be in charge of something important. His tremendous fears and his mental inadequacy in dealing with the everyday nature of life are allowed to run freely for twenty-four hours. Helene, on the other hand, has no lack of structure and no need to compartmentalize. Growing up with Celine has instilled a sense of strict rigidity and religious repressiveness in Helene, who then tries to force this way of life onto Nel, although her attempts prove unsuccessful. It's interesting to look at the contrasts between Nel's household and Sula's household. While both girls are raised by women, Nel's mother Helene is strict and conservative. She is repressive and wants Nel to grow up religious, reserved, and neat. Sula, on the other hand, is raised by her mother, Hannah, and her grandmother, Eva. Hannah is known to be quite loose. She sleeps with many men in the pantry, the kitchen, or the bedroom, wherever she finds space. She has a reputation for sleeping with married men, but she never seeks to keep a man, only to bed him. Eva is a very strong woman, and her killing of her son is not necessarily meant to make her seem cruel. Rather, it is an act of love and sacrifice: because she cannot stand to see her son in such pain, sinking deeper and deeper into drug addiction and depression, she does what she can to save him. This also raises a question of morality. Was Eva right in killing Plum, doing what she could to save him, or should she have let him struggle through life? Was it her place to step in? The Deweys are very intruiging characters, in a way paralleling Nel and Sula. Like the girls, the Deweys complete each other; in fact, they have in a sense become one person. Although they do not share physical characteristics, many people have trouble telling them apart, as their personalities and demeanors are so similar. Although different ages, the Deweys are allowed to begin school together, as separating them would be traumatic for all. I found the part of the novel where Hannah claims that she does not like Sula although she loves her to be very thought-provoking. I agree with Morrison's idea here: you do not necessarily need to like someone to love them, and vice versa. There are definitely times where I do not like my brother and my sister. They grind on my nerves, and sometimes they cross the line. However, I will always love them. I feel that you can be really angry at someone and dislike them, even if it is a temporary dislike, but that doesn't mean that your love for them has gone away. Love is not a simple matter, as we've certainly asserted in class; it is arguably the most complex human emotion, and I know I'm nowhere near understanding it completely. Chicken Little's death was obviously a very striking and important part of the story. His death ultimately shows the girl the reality of humanity - it serves as a transition from innocence into realization of immortality. The way the girls grieve is noteworthy. Sula grieves outwardly and loudly, crying and trembling, visibly shaken. Nel, however, shows no outward signs of grief. Instead, she carries the burden of guilt. It's like, once again, the girls are a single person split into two; each carried half of the normal signs of grief.


4. Does Shadrack actually know what happened at the river with Chicken Little? What is the significance of his remark, "Always"?

Hannah and Plum both die by fire. Is this significant? Is there meaning behind two of Eva's children dying in flames?

Why did Sula not react to the burning of her mother, especially since she grieved so obviously for Chicken Little? Was it shock? If so, wouldn't she have had the same reaction to the death of the child?

Spring, from Walden

The flowers entrance me. Their delicate, beguiling petals, laced together as if by magic. They do not meet at the top, nor in the middle, but are joined at the very bottom tip, liable to fall away at the slightest touch or pull. Graceful, yet so weak. The stems, however, are entirely different. So small, so innocuous, yet so startlingly strong. Each fiber working to hold the elegant petals up, to support the beautiful topper. Swaying in the breeze, yet never toppling down. Supplying warmth, nourishment, and constant growth. The stem will continue to provide throughout various small visitors, until the final visitor comes with clippers to shear the earthen beauty. Each year, flowers continue to bloom. From a dull brown patch of dirt rises a miracle, forcing its way to sunlight and life. Through frost and hard times, the bulb stays underground. Fair-weather fan? Quite certainly. Once the difficulties pass, however, comes the rebirth. The growth begins, an eternal metaphor. We grow, as our gardens, stretching for the warmth and yearning for the beauty. We reach skyward, our only goal eternity. Sometimes, like our roses, tulips, and daisies, we must break through dirt. We must push our way through rocks and soil, through trouble and insecurity. There are those who refuse to break free, and those who simply cannot. These will never bloom. Their beauty will remain forever hidden; their value, buried in the soil. However, for those who succeed, the journey is but commencing, the limits not yet tested. Skyward, always reaching skyward. Flourishing, from small pebble-like seed to vibrant, radiant bloom. The variety of the flowers also entices me; lilies, azaleas, chrysanthemums. Poppies, lavender, orchids, and violets. Forget-me-nots and baby's breath. Each with its own beauty and charm, each with slightly different lifestyles, yet all experiencing the same journey, upward and on.

Birds, although fear-invoking, are breathtaking. Flight, one of the inabilities of man, is recognized. Envy, avarice. We want to fly, too. To soar above the earth, viewing our homely situations and mediocre lives from such great heights. The freedom, the exhilaration, of feeling the wind from all directions. No roads, no paths to follow; simply open air, space to roam and explore. So small, so exquisite, are the birds. Their beady, watchful eyes, and their sharp and formidable beaks. Their soft, magnificent feathers, ruffling in the breeze or fluttering with the strokes of their wings. I admire birds, as well as fear them. They have something that I do not, something that I never will, but that I long for and dream of frequently.

One Hundred Years of Solitude 10

1. Evanescent: : tending to vanish like vapor
synonyms see transient.
-Merriam-Webster Online

P 403: "In the postcards that he sent from the way stations he would describe with shouts the instantaneous images that he had seen from the window of his coach, and it was as if he were tearing up and throwing into oblivion some long, evanescent poem: the chimerical Negroes in the cotton fields of Louisiana, the winged horses in the bluegrass of Kentucky, the Greek lovers in the infernal sunsets of Arizona, the girl in the red sweater painting water-colors by a lake in Michigan who waved at him with her brushes, not to say farewell but out of hope, because she did not know that she was watching a train with no return passing by."


2. Amaranta Ursula moves to Macondo with her husband, Gaston. The pair are highly sophisticated, with Amaranta Ursula a modern, independent woman, and Gaston a wealthy older man deeply in love with her. Amaranta Ursula's love for Macondo is based on her nostalgic memories, not on the reality of the town's condition. Aureliano (II) falls in love with Amaranta Ursula, and in an attempt to cope with his unwanted feelings he develops a friendship with four young intellects that he meets in the bookstore. They go to brothels and have scholarly discussions, and Aureliano (II) begins sleeping regularly with a black prostitutue, Nigromanta. Gaston, bored in the run-down and isolated Macondo, plans to start an airmail service. Aureliano (II) confesses his love for Amaranta Ursula, and although she resists at first, eventually the two become lovers. Meanwhile, Gaston leaves for Brussels to continue the development of his airmail company. Amaranta Ursula sends him a letter notifying him of her affair, and he never returns, sending only for his bicycle. Aureliano (II)'s friends leave Macondo to pursue various destinies, and the two lovers are left in solitude with one another. Amaranta Ursula has a child, who is born with a pig's tail. Amaranta Ursula dies from childbirth complications, and Aureliano (II) wanders to Nigromanta's home in destitution, leaving the child behind. When he returns to his house, the baby has been carried away by ants, who have fed on the corpse of the newborn. Aureliano (II) deciphers Melquiades' prophecies, which turn out to be a detailed history of the Buendia family. The end of the book tells of him reading the texts, and as he finishes reading, a huge wind wipes the town from the earth, erasing it entirely.


3. Incest, in the end, ruins the Buendia line. Ursula's biggest fear comes true, as a child is finally born with a physical deformity. Had Aureliano (II) and Amaranta Ursula not committed incest, resulting in Amaranta Ursula's pregnancy, she likely would not have died, and the line could have continued via a child of Amaranta Ursula and Gaston. However, because of the family's gravitation toward incest, the line comes to a close with the death of the child and the mother. The family, through multiple generations, never managed to make outside connections. Even when a family member married outside of the family, the marriage was almost always forced and uncomfortable. It's interesting that when the Buendia family ends, so does the entire town of Macondo. I'm not sure how many people were remaining in the town outside of the Buendia family, but I found it fascinating that no mention of the other townsfolk was made. The idea of the book of prophecies containing the complete history of the Buendia line is a thought-provoking one. Melquiades obviously knew everything that would happen to the family, yet he did not warn them. He did not allow the prophecies to be read in advance, which would have provided the opportunity for the family to remediate the situation. Rather, he let their actions play out, allowing the incest and the solitude to continue. I think this speaks to the idea that what is fated to happen must happen. The Buendia family had its destiny set long before all of the generations were even born. If the novel is thought about in this manner, it means that no Buendia could truly have changed his or her fate. His or her choices were not his or her own; instead, their choices were predetermined by the writings of Melquiades.


4. Did Melquiades make up the fate of the Buendias, or did he simply record it?

Is Melquiades supposed to be like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the book of prophecies supposed to be One Hundred Years of Solitude? Or are the two books something entirely separate?

If the Buendias tried, could they have escaped their fate? Could they have gotten out of the cycle of incest? Or not, because it would go against the prophecies?

One Hundred Years of Solitude 9

1. Pessaries: 1 : a vaginal suppository
2 : a device worn in the vagina to support the uterus, remedy a malposition, or prevent conception
-Merriam-Webster Online

P 349: "Since Aureliano Segundo had no other pictures except those of his wedding and the copies were all in the family album, he kept searching all through the house when his wife was not looking, and finally, in the bottom of the dresser, he came across a half-dozen pessaries in their original box."


2. Ursula, refreshed by the end of the four-year rain, decides to fix the house. She finds Jose Arcadio Segundo, and Aureliano Segundo returns to Petra Cotes. With their animals dead, they spend more time enjoying each other, eventually falling deeply into a passionate love. Ursula dies, small and weak and definitely over 120 years of age. Rebeca also dies. A heat wave begins affecting the town, and a strange creature is said to be wandering the streets. The "Wandering Jew," as it is called, concerns the townspeople greatly. Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo near death, with Aureliano rushing to finance Amaranta Ursula's education and Jose Arcadio struggling to decipher Melquiades' prophecies. The two men die at the same time, and at the last moment, their coffins are switched and they are buried in one another's places. Aureliano (II) seems to inherit Aureliano Buendia's love of solitude, and he spends much of his time in Melquiades's lab, sometimes even encountering the ghost of Melquiades, who tells him that the manuscripts will only be decipherable when they reach one hundred years of age. Santa Sofia de la Piedad, who has been serving as an unofficial and unrecognized servant to the family, gathers her things and leaves in frustration. Fernanda dies in this section as well, and her son Jose Arcadio (II) comes to claim the glory and wealth she boasted about in her letters. He, in fact, has not been in the seminary, but instead living in wait for his inheritance. He discovers the falsity of his mother's illustrations of grandeur, but not long after he also discovers the fortune of the Saint Joseph statue. He invites over children from the town and lives recklessly, also attempting to make a connection with Aureliano (II). The last son of Aureliano Buendia, the one hidden in the mountains, comes asking for help, but is shot in front of the house. The section ends with one of the children from the town killing Jose Arcadio (II) to steal the gold.


3. Ursula, in her shrinking old age, serves as a parallel to Macondo. As she advances in age, she becomes smaller, eventually looking "like a newborn old woman." "Little by little she was shrinking, turning into a fetus, becoming mummified in life to the point that in her last months she was a cherry raisin lost inside her nightgown, and the arm that she always kept raised looked like the paw of a marimonda monkey." This descent, or rather return, to childhood is also visible in Macondo, which is returning to its infancy as well. Ignorant and repellant of progress, Macondo has returned to the way it was at the commencement of the novel; in fact, the gypsies come to town again, bringing the magnifying glasses and magnets, and the residents are as amazed as they were in Jose Arcadio Buendia's time. This demonstrates the cyclical movement of time, particularly within the novel, as once again, Macondo is back to its origins. Arcadio (II) attempts to tell the true story of what happened with the banana plantation workers, but the people of Macondo refuse to listen to what they do not want to hear. Because of this unwillingness to accept or even listen to reality, the people have created a false reality of their own. They are essentially living in a fiction, but to them it is absolute truth. Once again, this really made me question reality vs. perception. Who is to say that what one person views as reality is, in fact, reality? We could all be blocking out important facts, or having things hidden from us. Just because we aren't aware of something does not mean that it did not happen. The extremes in this novel are fascinating, particularly those of weather and progress. The weather constantly switches from one far-fetched extreme to another. First, Macondo experiences a draught. Soon after the draught begins wearing the town down, the rain starts, and does not ease up for well over four years. Once the town is suitably destroyed, or cleansed, depending on the interpretation, the rain stops and gives way to a heat stroke. There is no middle ground, no pleasant weather. Everything is one end of the spectrum or the other. Likewise, with progress, Macondo is either extremely far behind and isolated or much too connected. The town goes from being entirely solitude-based and innocent to corrupt and political. It then regresses into solitude and naivety again. The town never seems to stop changing, whether toward or away from progress.


4. Will anyone decipher Melquiades' manuscripts? Many a Buendia has tried to read the prophecies, but so far nobody has succeeded. Melquiades's ghost seemed to give clues that they will be read, however. Who will read them?

Water seems to be becoming more significant; in fact, I had not noticed prior to this section its prominence within the story, but it plays a large part. Between the fish, the rain, the quest for the land route, the attempt to bring a ship to Macondo, and the death of Jose Arcadio (II) in the bathtub, it is obviously a common theme. What is it suggesting?

Will fire make another appearance? It was suggested strongly throughout much of the earlier book, from blatant mentions to the hidden references to yellow. Will it appear again before the novel concludes?

How old was Ursula really? I know age is not a huge meticulous matter in the book, but I'm confused. I thought she was older than Pilar?

One Hundred Years of Solitude 8

1. Cataclysm: 1 : flood, deluge
2 : catastrophe 3a
3 : a momentous and violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition; broadly : an event that brings great changes.
-Merriam-Webster Online.

P 305: "A seismic voice, a volcanic breath, the roar of a cataclysm broke out in the center of the crowd with a great potential of expansion."


2. After Fernanda's attack of Mauricio, Meme stops talking altoghether. Fernanada sends her to a convent in her hometown, and in her sorrow, Meme never protests. She never gets over Mauricio, however, and spends her remaining days pining for her lost love. While in the convent, Meme gives birth to Mauicio's child, who is named Aureliano (II), and Fernanda hides the child in Aureliano's workshop, claiming that she found him in a basket. Jose Arcadio Segundo helps with the banana plantation's worker's strike protesting poor working conditions, and when the government asks for a meeting of all of the workers, they believe their protests have been heard. The meeting is a trick, however, and the government massacres all attendees, shipping the bodies off silently in the night and dumping them into the sea. Jose Arcadio Segundo is the lone survivor, and despite his efforts, the rest of the town believes he imagined the incident. It begins to rain, a rain that lasts four years and virtually destroys Macondo. The government comes looking for Jose Arcadio Segundo, but as he hides in Melquiades's room, the search party looks right over him, seeing the decay around him but not Jose Arcadio Segundo himself. He then shuts himself up in Melquiades's room, studying the texts of the gypsy and making little to no human contact. Aureliano Segundo, meanwhile, loses his affinity for the extravagent. His fortune is diminished because of the rain, but he devotes much of his time to trying to find the treasure from the statue of Saint Joseph. Ursula's health deteriorates even farther, and Aureliano (II) escapes from his seclusion in Aureliano's workshop.


3. I got the feeling that Meme's lost love and then return to Fernanda's convent was kind of circular, drawing a comparison to the life Fernanda lived and escaped from. However, things happened backwards for Meme. She found love, but had it ripped away from her, and in her misery she was forced to move to the convent, where she spent the rest of her life in a state of melancholy reflection. She in a sense fulfilled her mother's destiny, which was changed when Aureliano Segundo came and took her away. Had he not done so, she likely would have spent the remainder of her life in the convent, pining for wealth and affluence. It's almost as if the two women shared a fate, each carrying part of the burden. In this way, it's as if the life comes full circle, with the latter generation finally finishing what was started by the first. Jose Arcadio Segundo echoes the life of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, as he rises to power supporting the less fortunate and eventually crossing the government. After the massacre, he locks himself up in solitude, again mirroring Aureliano. Even Ursula seems to notice this, as she proclaims that, "It's as if the world were repeating itself." Magical realism is very strong in this section, as the massacre, which seems absolutely ludicrous, is more real than the flying carpets and mystic gypsies of earlier in the tale. Why would a government wipe out three thousand of its own people? It seems like a horrifying fiction to imagine a whole town able to deny such occurrances, yet this event is based in reality. This idea really makes one question what reality is, as well. If a whole town denies that an event happens, did it happen? If nobody remembers, or recognizes, something as reality, is it really reality? Jose Arcadio Segundo is the only one who knows what happened the night of the massacre, yet nobody believes him. To the other citizens of Macondo, he is the one telling falsities, while they "know" the truth. This is applicable in life outside of the novel, as well. Reality is really decided by what the majority think or choose to remember. The rain that makes its appearance in this section reminds me of the forty-day flood in the Bible. In the Bible, the flood erases everything from earth, with the exception of Noah and two of each kind of animal. In a way, this is what's happening in Macondo; although everything does not disappear, much is destroyed, and only a few of Aureliano's animals live. It's almost as if God is punishing the people for their excessive materialism, as well as cleansing the town after the massacre.


4. Will Fernanda ever repent for the way she treated her children and her husband? Will she bring Meme home, or will Meme die alone in the convent? Will Fernanda accept Aureliano (II)?

Who are the "invisible" doctors Fernanda keeps consulting? I do not understand this storyline at all... are they real doctors? Are they in her imagination? What's going on?

Will Macondo ever return to its former glory? After the rains nearly demolish the town, is a recovery even possible?