One Hundred Years of Solitude 3

1. Homeopathy: : a system of medical practice that treats a disease especially by the administration of minute doses of a remedy that would in larger amounts produce symptoms in healthy persons.
-Merriam-Webster Online

P 97: "Embittered by failure, yearning for a safe place where he could await old age, the false homeopath took refuge in Macondo."


2. Pietro and Rebeca's wedding is put off on account of Pietro's mother becoming "gravely ill," an illness that proves to be made up, with Amaranta suspected of foul play. Remedios becomes a woman, regularly having a menstrual cycle, so her marriage to Aureliano is arranged. She proves to be a wonderful wife and addition to the Buendia family, getting along well with everyone and even offering to raise Aureliano Jose, Aureliano and Pilar's son. The state of bliss cannot last long, however, and Remedios dies suddenly. This again pushes back the date of Rebeca and Pietro's wedding, as a state of mourning is called for. Amaranta feels guilty for Remedios's death, suspecting that her wishes of tragedy to make the marriage of Pietro and Rebeca an impossibility have been answered in a way she did not imagine. A priest comes to town, deciding to build a tremendous church, and it is decided that Rebeca and Pietro will be the first couple married in the church. The priest also finds out that Jose Arcadio Buendia's apparent gibberish is actually Latin. Jose Arcadio, the son who ran off with the gypsies, returns, gruff and covered completely with tattoos. Rebeca becomes enamored by his crude masculinity, and the two become lovers, eventually getting married. Pietro, heartbroken, finds solace in Amaranta, who loved him all along. Aureliano, in the wake of Remedios's death, turns to the war as an outlet for his emotion and want for solitude. He works his way to leader of the Liberal forces, garnering tremendous respect and reputation along the way. He fathers seventeen children, each by a different woman, on his various military wanderings. Arcadio, son of Jose Arcadio and Pilar, is left in charge of the town in Aureliano's absense, and he inflicts cruel and tyrannical rule on Macondo as an effort to gain power and respect. He tries to force Pilar to sleep with him, unaware that she is his mother, but she tricks him by sending Santa Sofia de la Piedad. Arcadio and Sofia de la Piedad begin a relationship and are eventually married, having three kids: Remedios the Beauty, Aureliano Segundo, and Jose Arcadio Segundo. Arcadio is executed for his Liberal dictatorship, however, and never gets to see the twins Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo. Pietro repeatedly proposes to Amaranta, who repeatedly turns him down, eventually driving him to commit suicide. In sorrow, as she really did love him, Amaranta severely burns her own hand, then covering it with black bandages that will remain as a sign of her penitence for the remainder of her life.


3. This section particularly demonstrated the novel's tendency to jump from storyline to storyline, from event to event, without much warning or explanation. This jumbled view of time is interesting, providing a more difficult to follow but ultimately more attention-holding story overall. As long as the reader is able to keep track of the characters with their similar names, the unexpected transitions are a positive tactic to build the novel structure. It is also interesting to note that many of the stories have similar, if not completely reoccurring, themes. Most of the young men sleep with or attempt to sleep with Pilar. There is obviously a common element of solitude in all of the characters. Time does not seem to affect anyone normally, with parents and children seeming much closer in age than they should be. The similar names are also important. Nobody and nothing ever truly dies in Macondo: even when something or someone seems dead, it makes a reappearance at some point. When the people lose their memories, they are not truly gone. Although they seem to be lost, they are brought back when Melquiades reappears with the magical cure. Melquiades is another clear example, as he continues to disappear and reappear. Although he is said to be dead at the moment, I have no doubt that he will reappear later in the story. The bones of Rebeca's parents played a large role in the earlier story, showing that her parents, although dead, were not entirely gone. They lived on, so to speak, through their lingering remains. Even if a character seems to truly leave the picture, it is almost guaranteed that through the repetition of the same few names, he or she will be "reinvented" through another generation of Buendia. Because many of the characters share characteristics, and at the very least an affinity for isolation, the distinction between characters is blurred. This suggests that nothing is final in Macondo, and nobody is gone forever. I though the emergence of a church in Macondo was another turning point in the story. Throughout the novel thus far, I've seen Macondo as somewhat representative of Eden. Jose Arcadio Buendia serves as Eve, acquiring the fruit of knowledge at the cost of innocence. It's ironic that Macondo "gains faith," in the form of a church, at a point where it is truly losing its remaining innocence. A war is raging, building in scope and in destruction, and in the midst of the chaos and dictatorship under Arcadio, a priest arrives proclaiming salvation. The people of Macondo have thus far survived incredible odds. They have been peaceful, albeit isolated, people. Although they have not had a formal church, I believe they have been more church-like than most church-going nations. Now, on the eve of the peak of their revolution, "holiness" enters. This paradox seems really important to me.


4. Will Macondo embrace the church or push it away? Will it change the lives of the people? Will it ever be completed?

Will Aureliano return, and if so, how will he react to the way Arcadio ruled the town in his absense? Granted, Arcadio has been executed, but will he try to make amends or will he be angry?

Will Melquiades return? So far no absense has been permanent. If he does return, will it be in physical form, or in another way?