One Hundred Years of Solitude 7

1. Proboscidian: A mammal of the order Proboscidea, such as the elephant or its extinct relatives, having a long trunk, large tusks, and a massive body.
-Free Online Dictionary.

P 256: "Later on, when he saw her consume a side of veal without breaking a single rule of good table manners, he commented seriously that that delicate, fascinating, and insatiable proboscidian was in a certain way the ideal woman."


2. Ursula, in her old age, begins to lose her vision. However, by memorizing the placement of items and the habits of her family members, she is able to hide her ailment. She remains certain that Jose Arcadio II will become pope, sending him to seminary while Meme attends school. Amaranta begins weaving a shroud for Rebeca, determined that she will outlive her sister, but Death appears to her and tells her to weave her own shroud instead. Fernanda continues to dominate the household, and in frustration, Aureliano Segundo moves in with Petra Cotes. The house, emptier than it has been for years, seems unnaturally quiet with the exception of Meme's visits home, when Aureliano Segundo returns to the house in an act of normality. Jose Arcadio Segundo returns to the house and begins speaking with Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who is drawing toward death. Eventually he does die, but during his mourning period Fernanda gives birth to a son, who they name Amaranta Ursula, and in this way life goes on. Amaranta finishes her shroud and passes away, just as death predicted. Before her death she offers to take letters to the dead loved ones of the townsfolk, and many people take her up on her offer. After Amaranta's death, Ursula gets into bed, and in her weariness does not get up for many years. Meme becomes a clavichord virtuoso but only feigns interest in order to please her strict mother. She becomes very close with her father, Aureliano Segundo, as they share a careless nature and a dislike of Fernanda. Meme befriends white settler girls and falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, a mechanic who is constantly followed by yellow butterflies. Fernanda dislikes the man, however, and tells a guard that someone has been stealing her chickens, setting the guard up to shoot the intruder. When Mauricio sneaks in to see her daughter, the guard shoots him, paralyzing him just as Fernanda had hoped.


3. Ursula makes a lot of observations on time in this section, particularly as she begins to age quite rapidly. She says that children grow up much more quickly now than they did when Macondo was young, and that time in general has sped up. It's strange to think about how old Ursula really is; her children, after all, begin dying of old age in this chapter. Although she is losing her vision and decides to stay in bed for the majority of this section, she is still fairly youthful in mentality. She is alert and aware of her surroundings, demonstrating her intelligence in the way she is able to hide her blindness through memorization and careful attention. I think she makes a valid point with the theory about children maturing faster. In the beginning of the novel, time was a slow-moving, confused thing. It was hard to tell how old any character was meant to be, and their youth seemed to drag on and on. However, as the book has progressed, the younger characters seem to be more rushed through childhood, and therefore, innocence. This could have to do with Macondo's loss of innocence. It is much easier to remain pure in a town that is untouched by death, unaware of modern technology and advancements, and in most ways completely naive. However, as Macondo became "modernized" and experienced death, sin, and greater knowledge in general, children began losing their innocence much sooner. I believe that these two ideas are meant to mirror each other, and their alignment is not simply a coincidence. The idea of pointless repitition near death makes an appearance in this section as well, particularly in Aureliano Buendia's habit of making two fishes each day, melting them down, and then beginning again the following day, and in Amaranta's weaving and unweaving of the funeral shroud. This suggests that the characters wish to prolong death, but eventually both characters succomb to death, which is inevitable. Ursula, although she has quite obviously slowed down, shows no sign of impending death. She seems to be stuck in life, watching the suffering of her family but unable to stop the tragedies from reoccurring.


4. Why is Ursula able to live for so long? Her husband passed away long ago, and her children have begun to die of old age. What makes her able to avoid death?

Meme attempted to start a relationship out of the family and found love, possibly the first true relationship not involving incest. However, her mom ruined the relationship before it had time to truly develop. Is this part of the "curse" of the Buendia family? Nobody can form a successful outside connection... is this, more than anything, why the relationship was doomed to failure?

Will Jose Arcadio II continue the path to priesthood? Ursula has wanted a holy life for her children before, but none of them have made it there. Will he be the first?