Why is Solitude becoming less and less apparent?

Hey everyone...tell me what you think.  As I have been covering the references to solitude in 100s of Solitude, I am beginning to notice that there are less and less obvious references to solitude.  Every chapter there seems to be less and less. Now that JAB is dead after being bound alone to a tree, Macondo is becoming more and more industrial, accessible to modern civilization,  and basically, for a lack of better words, less alone.  I came up with this theory about the title.  It is called 100 Years of Solitude...correct (rhetorical)? Now then, JAB lived to be somewhere close to 100 years old.  GGM even mentions that Urusula had to be a little older than 100 in chapter 11.  As those two main characters reached that age, Macondo began to change into a more modernized city.  Now that has been 100 years since Macondo's existence, the readers see a change in Macondo.  It just seems to coincidential for it to have been 100 years into the book and all of a sudden see less solitude references.  In my opinion since 100 years has passed in the novel, the solitude may be somewhat over, maybe....just a thought. The title kind of says it all

AHHH I'm Seeing DOUBLE!

Throughout the One Hundred Years of Solitude, the readers have seen a lot of repeating and doubling.  When Marquez creates the Segundo twins, he created second forms of their relatives with surprisingly similar names, their grandfather Jose Arcadio Buendia and their great uncle Colonel Aureliano Buendia.  Just like his grandfather, Jose Arcadio Segundo leaves Macondo in fear.  Jose Arcadio left Macondo scared because he had impregnated Pilar and had fallen in love with a gypsy.  Jose Arcadio Segundo, like his grandfather, was left Macondo because of a sexual association that he had, scared him.  The only difference was the JAS was worried about an STD he had contracted from a donkey.  Also they both had a very disturbing first sexual experience.  Aureliano Segundo (AS) was similar to his great uncle Colonel Aureliano Buendia (CAB) in that they were both more traditional kids.  CAB, as a young adult, was a little more tame and worked hard with silver in the workshop.  AS falls in love with the woman that both Segundo brothers are having affairs with.  He stays with her, and they as a couple become successful.  Before the war, CAB was a leading a promising life with his new wife.  I can only guess that both of these twins are in for an interesting life that will probably end in similar ways as their respective doubles.

My Intro Paragraph for 100 Years of Solitude Paper (Thesis in Bold)

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a story profuse with complex symbolism and paradoxes.  Pilar Ternera is a character in the novel with a strange, yet vital role.  Although she is portrayed as a whore, Pilar is actually more of a mother to the boys who she sleeps with than a genuine prostitute.  She seems to have taken the place of Úrsula in the Arcadio family’s boys’ lives.  José Arcadio, Aureliano, and Arcadio all have a common attraction to this woman.  Incest was a more acceptable  in those times in South America, so, the fact that someone like Arcadio desperately wishes to have sex with his own mother would not be all that unusual of a desire.  All of the Arcadio boys (and Arcadio) want their mother while they want to have sex.  However, Pilar acts on this general desire among the boys, not for her own pleasure, but in reality to make “her boys” happy.  The relationship that Pilar has with the Arcadio boys is not a purely sexually one.  Surprisingly, it is more of a maternal bond.

Why Memory Loss?

Well, in Chapter 2 when the entire town of Macondo contracts an insomnia disease that ends up turning into a sever memory loss for everyone infected with the disease.  At first, the people of Macondo are completely content with insomnia because it allows everyone to get more work done at a more moderate pace, then the people's memory begin to go.  However, this memory loss plague is much more symbolic than it first appears.  One major theme of the book is solitude.  I feel that this memory loss that inflicts the town is representative of that theme.  When someone loses their memory to that degree, then they are not going to able to recognize anyone except maybe themselves.  That means, that in a way, they're in complete solitude/isolation because they know no one; all a person has is oneself. People who know no one are completely alone.  Therefore, in my opinion, GGM choosing to have the characters of his story to contract a memory loss illness was not a coincidence.  The sickness was simply following a theme in the book.  I am sure the readers will continue to see more of these big events relating to solitude.  I can't wait to keep reading this book, it is my favorite piece that we've read thus far!

My first reaction to "Pedro Paramo"

First off, this book is really different from what we have been reading throughout the year.  Rulfo used several literary techniques to help explain any holes/misunderstandings in the plot.  He switches from the first person to the third, and switches between the past and present times.  This magic realism-styled story is about a man who is trying to find his long lost father.  He travels to the town that his mother left after marrying his father.  The man talks to many of specters of former in habitants of that town, Comala.  When the story switches to the third person it is in the past tense, it talks about the man's father, Pedro Paramo.  Paramo had taken all of the narrator's mother territory.  I am extremely excited to see where this book takes me, so far Rulfo has proved to me that he is a really interesting and talented author.

Life is NOT Nothing

This poem in my mind is somewhat contradictory. You can never have a poem about nothing because a poem about nothing is something. That is why I feel that Julia de Burgos agrees with me. Life is not nothing. When the person in the poem is talking to a person who feels life is nothing, the toaster is very sarcastic in the way the person is complying to the nothing-life person's philosophy.

Storni's Obsession With Female Body (especially hands)

Storni has a weird obsession with body parts that are associated with both men and women.  In Alfonsina Storni's poem, "Lyrical Letter to the Other Woman," she uses certain female body parts as a way to express womanly beauty.  First she talks about delicate, sweet, and slender hands.  Then she mentions arms, then eyes/brows, then lips, then hands and lips (kissing hands).  What is odd about these body parts is that they are associated with both men and women.  She did not mention body parts that only women have.  Her descriptions weren't really sexual or anything typical.  She chose body parts that may be overlooked when describing a woman.  Had a man been writing a similar poem, the body parts chosen to describe may have been ones that men do not have.  I thought that it was interesting how the perspective changed when a woman described a beautiful woman as opposed to other poems that we have read where men describe beautiful women.

Guillen really has a thing for the Soviet Union

It seems to me that Guillen, an Africuban, wants his country, Cuba, to be more like the Soviet Union.  He notices that there is absolutely no Soviet influence in Cuba.  "Never have I seen a Soviet trust in my country...a bananna plantation."  I get the feeling from this poem, that Guillen actually admires the Soviet Union.  Being part African, Guillen most likely experienced a fair amount of racism.  He claims that in the Soviet Union, he"never saw White Only-Colored Only" signs that he was probably so accustomed to seeing. He points out the Cuban corruption and the trust of Soviets when he talks about the different ships being questioned.  Those ships never "sent a thing without the gentle taste of friendly bread and generous flavor of a brother's voice."  Guillen sees the communist Soviet Union as a brother, unlike much of the world at that time.  At the end of the poem, Guillen talks about joining up with the Soviet Union to fight.  He knows that he is offering to the Soviets a dark and candid heart," but he believes very strongly in the Soviet Union's overall strength and ideals.

Being Different Killed Vallejo in "Black Stone Lying on a White Stone"

Not only do I like the brevity of Cesar Vallejo's "Black Stone Lying on a White Stone," but I also like how the title is possibly representative of what the poet is conveying in the poem (in my opinion).  It is very interesting how he connects the title of this poem to his life and political beliefs.  Not only was "[putting] his upper arm bones on wrong" possibly representative of a different type of abstract painting not popular at the time, Picasso's work, but Vallejo in general was all about being different, at least from his home country's point of view.  Vallejo was a man not commonly found in Peru.  In fact, he was arrested for erroneous charges in Lima, Peru he was exiled from France for charges of being a communist.  He supported the Russian Revolution.  Black and white are two opposite colors.  He might have felt like a one black stone living in a community of white stones, where is completely different.  Vallejo may have felt that because he was different, he would be killed in Paris (where he spent the last three years of his life), and probably did not express his political beliefs violently because of the statement he made, “Cesar Vallejo is dead. Everyone beat him, although he never does anything to them (non-communists); they (non-communists) beat him hard with a stick and also with a rope.” In those times, being a communist supporter in certain areas was a crime, possibly punishable by death.  Vallejo was expressing in this poem the pains of being different.  Also, it is easy to distinguish the difference between black and white.  So, this title may imply that it was easy to distinguish a communist from a non-communist.

The WIll of Nature in "The Decapitated Chicken" Cannot be Opposed

Although, Quiroga's stories like "The Decapitated Chicken" or "The Feathered Pillow" were quite disgusting and grotesque, nature was what created the disgusting scenes.  The nature was bizarre and almost unrealistic; one blood-sucking parasite becomes the size of  a pillow, and one couple creates four "idiot" and zombie-like children.  Aside from his extremely tragic and violent life, Quiroga's writings were greatly influenced by the modernismo movement at attempt to be different.  Nature, a popular subject of these writers, became the driving force behind some of the tragedies in his stories.  Nature created the giant parasite and the zombie children.  Nature at this point in history could not be tamed.  No matter how hard the couple from "The Decapitated Chicken" tried, they could not produce a "normal" child until there third try.  However, a spoiled daughter is born and eventually, is tragically killed by the four freaks of nature.  That somewhat innocent murder was a sign that nature rules.  The parents of the children were so concerned about there children being ideal that finally when nature had granted wish, their wish eventually was killed.  Nature created the opposite of what the parents wanted.  The nature of the "idiot" boys killed the parents' wish.  Nature prevailed over selfish desire.

Is Dario Calling Out Roosevelt?

It seemed to me, after reading "To Roosevelt," Dario is challenging the United States.  This negative view of the U.S. is like no other of the Latin American authors we have read in the past.  In the beginning of the poem, Dario claims that the United States is intending to invade South America.  However, he compliments Roosevelt many times through out the piece.  He tells the President "You are a strong, proud model of your race; you are cultured and able, you oppose Tolstoy."  Then, he will claim the Roosevelt's policies are crazy, like his environmental polices.  "You are a professor of Energy as the current lunatics say."  Next, he tells Teddy how powerful and intimidating the U.S. can be: "The United States is grand and powerful. Whenever it trembles, a rpofound shudder runs down the enormous backbone of the Andes. If is shouts, the sound is like the roar of a lion."  Clearly, Dario has some kind of respect for the U.S. as a whole for its size and strength.  Although, he has this respect, Dario also feels that South America has great potential and cannot be controlled by the U.S. "A thousand cubs of the Spanish lion are roaming free."  He feels that God is on their side and that before the U.S. decides to invade South America, they had better become powerful enough to do so or God will stop them from taking Spanish America.  "Roosevelt,  you must become, by God's own will, the deadly Rifleman and the dreadful Hunter before you can clutch us in your iron claws.  And though you have everything, you are lacking one thing; God!"  Obviously, Dario has a solid amount of confidence in his own continent unlike people like Bolivar and Bello as times have changed.  It is an odd coincidence or clever pun that Dario called Roosevelt a "Rifleman" and "the dreadful Hunter" because Roosevelt was such an avid hunter even though he was all about environmental protection.

My Intro Paragraph/Rough Thesis

Gertrudis Gómez de Avellanda’s Sab is an account of a mulatto slave bound to a white family in nineteenth century Cuba in the province of Puerto Prícipe.  Although he is tightly knit within his master family, the “de B----s,” the amiable Sab has an even closer relationship with his adoptive mother, Martina.  Martina is an old mysterious woman of unclear decent.  Like her ethnicity, her identity, as Avellanda describes, is also ambiguous.  She seems to be the only kind of parental force in Sab and her grandson.  What is also odd about her parental aspect is the fact that Martina is only motherly figure that is ever mentioned in the novel (with the exception of Mother Teresa the nun).   Another strange quality of Martina is the fact that everyone close to her ends up dies.  She is an ill-fated woman whose house burns down and entire family perishes before her eyes, even her beloved adoptive son, Sab.  Her ambiguity lurks throughout several of the chapters of the story, and her motherly tenderness towards Sab, even as he is a grown man, is the only true parental affection and compassion the mulatto receives.

My Delirium on Chimbarazo (Revised Version)

We find our friend, "El Liberator," writing about a vision he had on Chimbarazo, the tallest mountain in Ecuador.  While experiencing his delirium in his dream, Bolivar sees multiple Gods: the God of Water, the God of Columbia, the God of Iris, Time, and Infinity etc.  The strange thing about this vision was that, Bolivar, a Catholic, speaks nothing about the Christian God.  However the weirdest God that confronts Bolivar is Time.  After expressing that he has surpassed every man financially, Bolivar comes to the conclusion that he may go to hell ("infernal prisons burning beneath [his] footsteps").  He wonders why a man like him just does not disappear in thin air because of his status. He also believes that he understands time and space.  Bolivar comes to these realizations and that heaven exists. Time instructs Bolivar to tell others of this realization about the reality of heaven.  Bolivar wakes up from his delirium that he has experienced.  I feel that this illusion was provoked by his feelings about Ecuador's independence.  Seeing how this letter was written after The Jamaica Letter, Bolivar probably wrote this letter in exile.  He most likely wrote this letter as a delirious man because of his solitude.  His radicals theories on these disorganized and violent governments throughout Latin America sent him into his own delirium.

Nina Scott's Presence = Good Idea

I felt that Nina Scott being a part in our discussion about Sab was a really good idea.  Thanks Mr. Cummings, you really hooked us up.  I thought she cleared up a lot of foggy parts of the book that I had trouble understanding.  I liked how she answered every one (or nearly every one) of our questions in full detail.  She really put a lot of things into perspective.  I also felt that Scott, showed me some new parts of Sab I never even realized existed. I wish we could even get her back into the classroom again because she was so great.  I thought she was great in some of the translation stuff as well.  Some of the Spanish/Cuban euphemisms that seemed weird at the time that I read the novel, quickly made sense after she spoke to us about her.  She was a lively character, and I thank you, Mr. Cummings, for organizing that meeting for us.  It was a good experience for us.

Sab Paper Ideas

Here are some of my thoughts on some possible themes for my paper.

1. Sab's love vs. Sab's Virtue. What is it that is keeping Sab from taking his love away from Enrique Otway?

2. Why does Sab want his adoptive mother to keep his good deeds a secret. What does he have to hide?

3. Why does Sab feel he could confess his love to Teresa? What is it about her that makes Sab feel that is acceptable for him to do this?

My Delirium on Chimbarazo (Why This Title?)

The title of the piece, My Delirium on Chimbarazo, is a clear reflection of how Bolivar felt while on top of the tallest mountain in Ecuador.  His restlessness/insanity may be due to his constant conquering.  He becomes delirious while on the mountain and sees an "apparition."  Bolivar does not even refer to his own God (Catholic).  Instead he talks about the God of Time and the "God of waters."  That is a clear implication of his delirium because he won't even seek out the help of his own religion's icon when he is definitely not in a stable mindset.  Being on top of this mountain may have overwhelmed his thoughts as well.  He sees himself almost as if he were at the peak of the world.  Bolivar also goes on to say that he has surpassed everyone in wealth, putting him at the peak of society.  Now, he is physically and economically at the pinnacle, yet he is still overwhelmed.  This craze he is caught in could also be caused by the lack of organization in the governments throughout Latin America.  Even though he is the best in many ways, he still finds flaws in his surroundings.