one hundred years of solitude (part 2) - Marquez
Hello everyone! If im being honest, Im not sure if I was a huge fan of the second half in comparison to the first. My first mistake was avoiding the advice to read in larger sections, but at the same time, it was a long book and that was the only way I could do it. I found it more difficult to keep track of the characters' names than anything else. I understand that there is meaning behind the passing down of these names, but I was having a tough time… which often left me feeling a little discouraged. However, I think that there is something important and intentional about the passing down and reusing of names from previous generations. Perhaps there is some hope that the name is given, would somehow be translated into the characteristics of what made that individual’s name worth passing. However, I know that it sometimes happened that characters didn't match their name, or were even the opposite.
In the second half of the book, Macondo begins to go through changes quickly and begins heading downhill in a sense. Whether that be through politics, war, the rise and crash of the banana plantation, or the introduction of new technologies. Things start to become chaotic and it disturbs what used to be the way of life as a resident in Macondo. This could be compared to a child growing up, and realizing that the world is not always as wonderful as it may seem. I also read an analysis that spoke about how things start to move more quickly in the second half of the book. The increase in pace mimics the span of a human life, where time seems limitless at first, but starts to move much faster as the years go on. This is something im even personally experiencing right now at twenty-one and thinking back on my childhood. However, it is these changes that break the patterns and repetitions that had been going on for so long, for example, “..the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle”,(p. 378). The second half of the book is also where I began to understand the title and the term solitude a lot more. I found visualizing five years of constant rain to be quite powerful. I've always loved the rain and found it to be a peaceful thing. It created an image in my head of steady and peaceful decay, almost slowing things down for a moment again in Mocando as the town neared its end.
My question to the class is what do you think is the intention behind the repeated and passed down names?
I'm sorry to hear that you felt discouraged reading this novel. It is true that from the second part there is a hopelessness... and the rain can be a symbol of that (although I have noticed that it rains a lot here in Vancouver, the conditions are different near the tropics). But beyond that, what is interesting is to see how these details become significant with the political problems of Macondo and the nation. Is repetition a possibility between hopelessness and change? (For example, rain is a phenomenon that is both unique and cyclical at the same time).
ReplyDeleteHi there!
ReplyDeleteI too wondered the significance of the passed down names and actually brought this up in my post as well. It was something I found confusing while reading the second half so I thought about in a similar way. I think that to me, the passing down of family names represents the family's' almost obsession or love for themselves and feels almost royalist or elitist. The fact that names of family members are used repeatedly mimics how their history seems to repeat itself despite any false sense of progress.