Reader Response #4

[hcr...@yahoo.com]

I felt extremely bad for Amaranta when she and Rebeca both fell in
love with Pietro Crespi. She felt betrayed, angry, and hurt that he
liked Rebeca better than her. Her chosen course of reaction to get
revenge was a little bit extreme but it is not hard to understand
where she is coming from. She just knew that if she could prevent
them from getting married there was a chance that he might choose her
instead. Her method of delaying the wedding was taking things a bit
far though. It was mere coincidence though that Remedios died at the
same time she wished for something to forestall the wedding. Her
guilt is understandable. She feels ashamed that she acted so
childishly, but she is also still hurt that her plan did not work the
way she thought it would. She should have never blamed herself for
Remedios' death. Amaranta did get want she wanted though, the two
never married. This causes her even more guilt. Her ways of handling
her guilt are also extreme. Even when Pietro Crespi comes back and
asks for her hand, she says no, and continues wearing her black band
of mourning. This makes it clear that she never really loved Pietro
Crespi. She tried so hard to prevent the wedding because she was
afraid of losing her best friend and almost sister. Amaranta never
should have punished herself for so long. Most of the events that
occurred to actually put off the wedding were out of her control.
Rebeca and Pietro Crespi were just not meant to be together. Amaranta
needed to forgive herself for things she never caused, but she could
not. She is to be admired for her persistence and dedication. Had
she had as much control over the situation as she had though, that
wedding never would have happened. She never had much say the wedding
though. For this reason she should have allowed herself to marry the
Colonel's friend from the war, or any other man that she chose. She
punished herself for much too long.

[Marla Westervelt]

One Hundred Years of Solitude comes to a very exciting end. I
felt like everything that seemed both important and arbitrary was tied
in to the exciting and symbolic end. I like how Aureliano, just as the
former Aureliano, and Jose Arcadio, finds himself immersed the the old
work of Melquiades. Then I enjoyed the symoblizim of the baby's corpse
being eaten by the ants. The strong Buendia family that once dominated
Macondo, now has no one left to carry out the blood line. Then the
apocalyse that occurs when Aureliano finally is able to comprehend
what Melquiades has left for the family which really brings the entire
book full circle.
While reading this book I did not exactly enjoy it. The middle
especially, was full of far too many names and events to keep track
of, however, looking at the book as a whole, I am glad that I read it.
It reminds me of the thing that we are always reminded of in history
class, that history is written by the winners. One Hundred Years of
Solitude see one hundred years from the creation of Macondo to the
demise of Macondo, and then with the wind, it is all blown away as if
none of it had really happened. In a way I think that the entire book
can viewed a parable against letting yourself go in to the depths of
solitude. The Buendia family had so much potential to leave a great
mark on history, but instead they found themselves trapped within the
family circle. They prefer incestual relations to new relations with
those who are different from them, and some of them even choose no
relations at all. Then, in the end, they were litterally wiped away
from all memory.
I really enjoyed Marquez's writting style throughout the whole
book. I felt that it gave the book a sort of larger than life appeal.
I liked how he would choose to describe many things rather bluntly,
but with eloquent words that would make things that generally one
would think was disturbing, such as incest, sort of necessary, or okay.