In this section of the novel I am amazed at how many characters have died. It is weird but also in the novel they do not die because they are mentioned at later dates, which in a sense signals to a certain type of solitude of its own. When a character dies you assume their memory dies as well, but in this novel just by mentioning the character in an action brings back all the characteristics of that character and their relation to the main characters in the novel. For me this is a type of solitude becuase they are forever excluded from the for-front, the main dialouge of the novel and rather just used to express “better” times for the living characters. The dead characters get used in a particular way, as memorable icons that are just used as past reflections. Also, in this part of the novel I find it very odd that all the men are intrigued by PilarTernera, and my question is why? Why do all the men run to her when then need sexual attention? I find this odd and wonder if there is deeper meaning to this action. Also, how old is Ursula by this time? She has numerous grand childern and it seems as if she has not aged at all. I find it interesting that Ursula has taken the leading role as opposed to her husband Jose Arcadio Buendia, becuase initially I thought he would have had a more major role than her. The women in this novel seem to out live the men, because it seems like all the men got killed by the war and the women survived except for the few that killed themselves.
Cien Anos de Soledad
Advertisement
March 20, 2007 at 2:04 am |
I had a similar reaction to the numerous deaths. In regards to your comment about the characters dying but still being remembered and mentioned, I think this is able to work in the novel because from the very beginning it is set up that we will be jumping all over the place in terms of time. Therefore, despite the fact that a character has died, they only need to be mentioned from a past incident and suddenly we are in the present of what is actually the past (if that makes sense).
Kerry
March 21, 2007 at 8:12 am |
I also wrote in my blog about how all the people start dying off now. And I think its funny (maybe not the right word I’m looking for) when early on in the book they are so obsessed by the fact that no one had yet died in the village by that maybe we could have guessed that after some time people would just start falling like flies because its not normal for there to be no death.
March 22, 2007 at 5:37 am |
One thing that strikes me about death in the novel that sometimes there are chanpter-long descriptions about a character’s decline into death and other times an important character’s death is merely mentioned in passing. You mentioned that characters die yet a vivid memory of them continues – the opposite is also true in that characters who are still alive become isolated and forgotten.