100 Years of Solitude Deeper Thinking Questions
Charles....@gmail.com
Solitude (approximately 15 total/student). Besides asking questions,
be sure to also respond to at least five of your peers' questions.
Arwa Joher
even after his death. His room is apparently always covered with
cobwebs and appears inhabited regardless of how much cleaning it has
been through. What is the significance of this? Why is Aureliano
Segundo hidden from the soldiers that are looking for him in that
room? (pg 335)
Arwa Joher
Segundo</b> hidden from the soldiers that are looking for him in that
room? (pg 335)
I made a mistake, It wasn't Aureliano Segundo, it was Jose Arcadio
Segundo.
Arwa Joher
smell of gunpowder? Why does his blood systematically follow a path
towards Ursula? Did Jose Arcadio have any resentment towards her?
hyor...@hotmail.com
that was the reason he originally started out from his home town,
before Maconda was founded?
hyor...@hotmail.com
marriage when the two families had been intermarrying for centuries?
hyor...@hotmail.com
significance of the ghost being lonely?
hyor...@hotmail.com
Melqiades? He had believed it was a good idea. Is Melqiades such an
influential figure in Jose Arcadio Buendia's life, and if so, why?
hyor...@hotmail.com
or that she was pregnant, and not married? Did they care? Why not?
Most families defend their womens' honor, why not hers? yes, I know
she was lost her virginity years ago, and loved the man who did it,
but they moved, this is a different community, and a different
situation.
hyor...@hotmail.com
are grown? If so, what is the significance of Rebeca and Jose Arcadio
(technically the second) expulsion from the house. Also, what is the
significance of Ursula wanting to keep her family close?
hyor...@hotmail.com
his family to pursue his own interests?
hyor...@hotmail.com
(ie the pot)
hyor...@hotmail.com
names throughout the generations of Buendia's?
hyor...@hotmail.com
significance of him babbling latin while tied to the tree?
hyor...@hotmail.com
while facing the firing squad?
hyor...@hotmail.com
doen'st he complain and demand to be released?
hyor...@hotmail.com
hyor...@hotmail.com
Also, what is the importance of him killing himself, and her self
punishment?
hyor...@hotmail.com
Importance?
hyor...@hotmail.com
hyor...@hotmail.com
hyor...@hotmail.com
makes him worthy to recieve Ursula's long hidden treasure?
Arwa Joher
the sky. When Meme fell in love with Mauricio Babilonia, yellow
butterflies appear. What is the significance of these two events? What
is the significance of the color yellow?
Arwa Joher
identical rooms. He would meet Pudencio Aguilar in the room of
reality(pg 153). What does this mean? What does his dream represent?
Arwa Joher
to realize that marriage amongst their own family might cause genetic
distortions in a child.
Arwa Joher
in secret which seemed to suggest that her parents had tried to
prevent her from eating dirt as well.
Arwa Joher
Ursula and Jose Arcadio? Why do her parent's bones still rattle? What
was Marquez trying to suggest about Rebeca's parents with this?
rer...@gmail.com
In the beginning of the book, we meet Jose Arcadio Buendia and his
wife (aka: closely related cousin) are insulted by a man who lost to
Jose in a cock fight. In response, Jose kills him. Excluding the fact
that Jose's actions were clearly an overreaction, I fail to find any
feelings of remorse from him in the text. Does he not feel guilty for
taking another man's life? Along with this subject of murder, why
doesn't the village seem to take up actions against Jose? Is there no
punishment for murder?
Arwa Joher
Buendia earlier ? Especially when he found out that Aureliano was just
fighting because of pride?
Arwa Joher
covered all over by an intense paleness." ( pg 255)
She also said she had "Never felt better" before she had been lifted
towards the sky by the wind (255).
Did Remedios the Beauty know about her flight towards the sky before
it actually occurred?
Arwa Joher
it couldn't exactly be considered murder. Duels were probably legal
back then and it was probably considered fighting to preserve Jose
Arcadio's honor.
Arwa Joher
in their childhood?
Colonel Aureliano Buendia recalls the ice that his father took him to
see. Jose Arcadio Segundo also distinctively remembers the day that
Gerineldo Marquez took him to an execution.
Arwa Joher
when he went to Rome? What made him abandon his papal education? Was
it because of his rather strange affection for Amaranta?
Arwa Joher
something that happened in Columbian history?
On Jul 17, 12:20 pm, Charles.Weinb...@gmail.com wrote:
> Use this space to pose your deeper thinking questions on 100 Years of
> Solitude (approximately 15 total/student). Besides asking questions,
> be sure to also respond to at least five of your peers' questions.
Arwa Joher
She seems to give advice to the Buendia family, especially when it
comes to love. Is that her purpose in the story?
Arwa Joher
represent?
Arwa Joher
his pride, but he did he start out that way? Would things have been
different if Don Apolinar Moscote had not switched the ballots in
front of him?
Arwa Joher
room saying the Melquiades was "immortal". Is that why Melquiades is
able to visit each generation of the Buendia family?
rer...@gmail.com
something other then it being an unnatural way of eating?
rer...@gmail.com
their relatives give birth to a child with a "pig's tail." Almost as
if they had a sudden realization that incest was risky or dangerous.
cr8z...@yahoo.com
when in the beginning she was trying to fight for her feelings against
Rebecca?
2. How is it that Pilar Ternera was able to get away with what she's
doing with the men of Macondo? Wouldn't her family suspect that she
has been with men since she's been pregnant multiple times? Also,
wouldn't her family try to figure out who the father was?
3. Why did Ursula reacted as though the marriage between Arcadio and
Rebecca was considered "an inconceivably lack of respect" when Jose
Arcadio and Rebecca were neither related?
4. How did Colonel Aureliano Buendia hide all 17 offspring he has when
he was at the war. Why did the mother's and the Aureliano's seek for
Colonel Aureliano's family so that their son can be baptized? And why
do they seek for baptism?
5. With every problems that Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula face how
is it that they were able to still try to balance each other? In a way
that Ursula is working and Jose Arcadio Buendia in his room being in
his solitude.
6. Even though Colonel Aureliano Buendia was all about revolutionary,
what made him realize that he should evaluate his life when he was
about to give court marshal to General Moncada?
7. Why are the men always having marital affairs with Pilar Ternera
and her family or Petra Cotes?
8. The war is over and Jose Arcadio Buendia is forgotten and tied to a
tree. With all this, why is Ursula still alive? What is the
significance of her living a long time?
9. What is the significance of the ash mark in the forehead of the
seventeen sons of Colonel Aureliano Buendia? Even though there was a
given amount of time that has passed why won't the ash come off?
10. Why is Remedios the Beauty so ungodly beautiful?
11. Why did Marquez decided to make one of Colonel Aureliano Buendia
(Aureliano Segundo) have a sense connection and similarity with Jose
Arcadio Buendía's passion of knowledge?
12. Each and every single one of the seventeen sons of Colonel
Aureliano Buendia has special magic. Why did Marquez made his son's
special?
13. When the foreigner's came with the help of the train, a lot of men
were enchanted with the beauty of Remedios. With so many men, why
don't Remedios finally try to fall in love? Why is she living her life
as a virgin?
14. What is the significance of the death of Colonel Aureliano Buendia
near the chestnut tree?
15. Why are there yellow butterflies following Mauricio Babilonia?
What is its significance to the magical realism of the novel?
16. What is the significance of Marquez giving one of his characters
his last name?
-is it ok if i just put one full post in all my questions? or should i
post one seperately?
Ethan Chambers
Colombia and the after-effects, which in a sense is partly responsible
for the rather unstable and politically corrupt history of the
country.
At the same time I think it more importantly points toward foreign
influence on a once isolated people. (Not so isolated by then
though.) The people of Macondo are exploited, the country is used for
foreign gain, and there really was not much they could do about it
besides striking and getting killed.
> > be sure to also respond to at least five of your peers' questions.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Ethan Chambers
to be bored of death and then dieing again, makes it seem as though he
has conquered death and can choose at will to re-appear when he
wants. However, this depends on how you look at it, magical realism
in the book or superstition from your view (not specifically the
poster of this question, just a superstitious reader). Mercury years
and years ago was rumored to have magical qualities and granting a
longer life or eternal life, so perhaps in his worldly travels
Melquiades heard of this myth and had hopes it would work.
Appearently in the book it does or at least appear to work for story
purposes and themes.
Ethan Chambers
events and conclusions happen to the Buendias. The similarities in
personality and names depict Ursula's(not quite sure if this is true
for Ursula) and Jose Arcadio Beundia's own personalities in their
children. Also, if you want to look at it from this way, that their
children are just like Ursula and Jose, simply living the same sort of
lives over and over. At one point as well, Ursula herself thinks that
time is cyclic, that nothing really changes and everything only
repeats. I don't necessarily believe this to be completely true or
correct, but by the end of the book we know that the "moral" lesson is
fate, amongst other things, presenting that the Buendia's were all
meant to live along the same line.
(Anyone correct me if I have any errors in my answer.)
On Aug 15, 9:51 am, hyork...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Why does Marquez inlcude such obvious connections in personalities and
> names throughout the generations of Buendia's?
Devin G.
- What makes Melquíades so magical that José Arcadio Buendía uses all
the time he has to experiment with his ideas and gadgets?
- Why does Úrsula attempt to keep the family in the same house and
close to each other?
- Why does Amaranta never marry, even after falling in love with the
two people?
- What does Amaranta's blackened hand stand for?
- Why does the author, Márquez, name a character off of his own name?
Did he have a similar experience to this character?
- Is Úrsula's death because of old age or because she saw the family
deteriorating?
- Why does no one stand up to Fernanda openly?
- Do the gold coins that Úrsula hid significant to the family's
prosperity and depression?
- What is the significance of the smell of gunpowder after José
Arcadio's death?
- What is the significance of the gold fishes that Aureliano Buendía
makes?
- Was Remedios the Beauty more than just a person? An angel?
- Is Pilar Ternera's house being used as a safe haven significant?
- Was the banana company massacre situation significant to the
family's situation?
- After José Arcadio's suicide, what is the significance of Rebeca
staying in the house?
- Were Melquíades' magic and precognitive thoughts what led to the
demise of the Buendía family?
Gabe
1. Why does Rebeca eat dirt when she arrives in Macondo?
2. Do the red ants represent time, or Communism?
3. How come, as time goes on, the daguerreotype's importance is
forgotten?
4. Did Melquiades really die and come back to life? Or rather, what
truly happened to him?
5. Why did the author use an "apocalypse" to destroy Macondo?
6. Why do the Aurelianos never remove the Ash Wednesday cross?
7. Why did the gypsies start bringing less useful items?
8. Why does the family have such little differentiation in its naming?
9. If Ursula is such an important figure in the family, why is there
only one person named after her?
10. If this is a realistic novel, why are there so many fantasy
elements?
11. Why is Mauricio Babilonia always swarmed by yellow butterflies?
12. Who killed Jose Arcadio? Did he kill himself? Why?
13. How did Jose Arcadio Buendia come to know Latin, and be able to
speak it so fluently, everyone else thought it was gibberish?
14. What are the "invisible doctors" that Fernanda del Carpio is in
correspondence with?
15. How is it that in such a primitive community, in a developing
area, that the life expectancy is so high? Two characters live to be
as old as 120, if not older!
wate...@hotmail.com
On Aug 15, 9:48 am, hyork...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Why did Marquez make Jose Arcadio Buendia so easily distracted from
> his family to pursue his own interests?
I think Jose's distraction stems from everyone in the family's need
for solitude. By secluding himself and pursuing his own interests his
solitary needs are taken care of.
wate...@hotmail.com
On Aug 15, 9:57 am, hyork...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Why does Ursula live so long?
I think Ursula's longjevity is similar to the unnaturally long lives
that exsist in the bible. I think it gives her a sort of mystical
quality and helps guide the book through from the beginning to the
end.
hcr...@yahoo.com
family?
2. Why does Rebeca eat the walls and dirt? What does it represent to
her?
3. Why does Colonel Aureliano really go to war?
4. What does the black bandage represent to Amaranta?
5. Why is it so upsetting to Colonel Aureliano that he cannot kill
himself?
6. What do fighting cocks mean to Ursula?
7. Why does Amaranta not make peace with Rebeca?
8. Who has the right idea about Remedios the Beauty, Colonel Aureliano
or Fernanda?
9. Why does Fernanda hide her real home life from her children?
10. Why do yellow butterflies mean to the different family members?
11. Did the murder of 3, 000 people actually happen, or did Jose
Arcadio Segundo imagine it?
12. Does Aureliano Segundo love Petra Cotes?
13. What role does Ursula play in the family?
14. What is it about Melquidaes books that appeals to the men of the
family?
15. What purpose does Pilar Ternera serve in the novel?
Ethan Chambers
Deeper Thinking Questions:
1. What is the significance of the color yellow of the butterflies
that follow Mauricio Babilonia? Why exactly do they follow him?
2. What is important about Amaranta staying a virgin the rest of her
life after Remedios's death and her refusal of the two men who asked
to be with her?
3. Why does Amaranta choose to live the rest of her days as what seems
to be a miserable life when she was given several chances to have a
different life?
4. Why does Melquiades continue to be felt or lurk around the Beundias
after his second death, when he has already foretold their fate? What
other importance does this show?
5. What draws the members of the Buendia family to the outside world
when it was the outside world they set out from?
6. Why does the outside world continuosly come to Macondo, an
otherwise, remote and small place?
7. Does the Civil War serve as a catalyst for change in Macondo or
fate drawing Macondo into more people's attention?
8. Is the Civil War a comparison to the process of colonization in
Colombia? Or is it a reflection of Macondo versus the outside world?
9. Did Marquez purposely make the twin brothers name's opposite of
how they truly acted, or was it simply to show the contrast between
the two names and how well they reflect personalities? If so why?
10. What is the importance of having the final child in the Buendia
family line have a pig tail?
11. Did Macondo end because of their choice of isolation from the
world, or was its ending part of the Buendia fate as predicted by
Melquiades?
12. The perception of knowledge in this book seems to be that
humanity cannot take the truth or they face being overwhelmed, was it
the advent of change or the changing face of truth in his world that
drove Jose Arcadio Buendia insane?
13. Does Ursula's longevity signify that she was the "beating heart"
of the family or the reminder of the ways and values of the past?
14. Is Marquez trying to point out in the end of the book that
refusing to move on with time destroys you or you destroy yourself?
If not, then what?
15. There seems to be an importance towards child and parent in this
book often, at the same time it seems that Macondo can be seen as the
child and the world as the parent. Is part of the fate of Macondo and
its inhabitants that it wasn't ready to step up into a world it was
naive to?
rosie...@yahoo.com
the reader? (ex: the insomnia plague, and children born with animal
parts)
2. How is family defined for the Buendias?
3. How is the enlargement and maintenance of the house related to
maintaining the family?
4. Why is Pilar Ternera's role so important? What does she bring to
the story?
5. How does the casual attitude the book has towards sex and
conservative religion reflect the standards of Macondo?
6. What signature traits continue to be passed down by name, and does
the name pick these traits or does fate pick the name to fit traits
already present?
7. What is illustrated by Ursula's more acute senses and emotional
understanding that accompany her blindness?
8. Fernanda's attitude towards fidelity match those of our society
today, but how does this 'prideful' view fail in Macondo?
9. What is the significance of the rain? (Noah's flood, trial,
purifying, ruin...?)
10. As illustrated in their deaths, do the twins ever really function
independently of each other?
11. What would become of Remedios the Beauty had she not ascended, and
how is this fate perfect for her in some ways?
12. What do the statues of the saints represent to different
characters?
13. Is the novel the text of Melquiades?
14. How does the Buendia family constitute its own race?
15. In what ways is solitude the over arching theme of a novel that
tells of a crazy family with all of their complicated lives and loves?
ehe...@gmail.com
1. Why is Jose Arcadio Buendia so obsessive over his scientific
pursuits?
2. Why was Jose Arcadio Buendia willing to kill Prudencio Aguilar over
something he said?
4. Why causes everyone in Macondo suffer from insomnia for a period
of time?
5. Why does Jose Arcadio Buendia have to stay tied to the chestnut
tree, even if he is insane?
6. How is Pietro Crespi able to recover so quickly after hearing that
Rebeca was marrying Jose Arcadio, and then ask Amaranta to marry him?
7. Why didn't Aureliano and General Maconda make peace if they were on
such good terms?
8. Why is Amaranta not willing to marry?
9. If Ursula has noticed patterns and traits in the family that are
destined to be repeated, why won't she change it?
10. Why is Aureliano Segundo so determined to find and marry Fernanda?
11. Why does Remedios the Beauty ascend to heaven? What really
happened to her?
12. Why is Fernanda content with letting Aureliano Segundo sleep with
Petra Cortes but remain married?
13. Why are members of the family given the same names, and why do
people with certain names repeat the same actions?
14. Why is Gaston willing to put up with Amaranta Ursula's desire to
stay in Macondo even if he is suffering?
15. How did Melquiades know about all the events that would take place
during the family's existence?
hcr...@yahoo.com
about the role she played in forestalling Rebeca's wedding. She is
punishing herself for her wrong doings. She feels personally
responsible for Remedios' death.
11. Macondo ended because it was predicted by Melquiades. The town
started with the Buendias, and so it had to end with them. It could
not exist without them.
arielak...@sbcglobal.net
had been intermarrying for years?
2. How is it that Jose Arcadio Buendia cannot find a path to the "new"
world when the gypsies have been traveling throughout? Do they live on
an island?
3. Why was Jose Arcadio Buendia so distraught when he accidentally
came upon the sea though he had spent years before searching for it?
4. Why is it that no one else in the family realizes the significance
of the yellow butterflies that always appear around Mauricio
Babilonia? What is the significance of the butterflies?
5. Though writing the names and uses of items on items helped to
prevent memory loss how did people prevent against the lost of non-
tangible ideas such as childhood events?
6. What is the significance of all the premonitions and prophecies
that seem to surround the family?
7. What is the significance of all the things that Colonel Aureliano
Buendia remembers as he faces the firing squad? Why is the firing
squad often mentioned when talking about his facial expressions?
8. How is Pilar Ternera able to live for so long? How is Ursula?
9. How is the last Jose Arcadio able to find the coins that Ursula hid
when she said that only the person that had put the coins in her
protection would be able to find them? Who were the men with the
statue? What is the significance of the last Jose Arcadio finding the
coins?
10. Does the name of the person dictate their personality? Why are
family names constantly repeated? Why is Ursula the only one that
seems to notice a pattern?
11. Why is the family so offended when Jose Arcadio wants to marry
Rebecca? Haven't they been intermarrying for centuries? Also, isn't
Rebecca some extremely distant cousin that no one can actually place?
12. Why is it that Jose Arcadio Buendia can never stayed focused on
one idea long enough to complete it? Why is he so easily distracted
that he switches constantly from improving the conditions of the town
to discovering new inventions?
13. Why does the spirit of Melquiades appear to so many members of the
family and yet some never see him? Why does his room also seem
eternally clean to some while to others no amount of cleaning can rid
the room of dust?
14. Why is the daguerreotype of Remedios still kept after so many
generations to the point where the descendents do not even know who
she is? Why is her daguerreotype illuminated and not anyone else's?
15. Why is it that no one seems to care that Pilar Ternera has so many
children running around, all of unknown fathers? Why is it that
Arcadio is never curious as to who his father was?
16. Why did Jose Arcadio kill himself? Did he really kill himself? Why
did the blood run a clean path to his mother?
17. Why did the officer not see Jose Arcadio when he hid in
Melquiades's room? Is there an alternate reality in that room? Why are
all the chamber pots kept after all those years?
18. What is the significance to the smell of gunpowder that surrounds
the body of Jose Arcadio in death?
19. Is there is significance to Colonel Aureliano Buendia's golden
fishes? Why does he melt them and remake them over and over again?
20. What really happened to Melquiades and when did he really die? Did
he die in Singapore or was he really the first man to die in Macondo?
21. Why is Colonel Aureliano Buendia's doctor so careful to mark the
exact place where he couldn't kill himself? Was there significance to
this? Was there significance to the failed suicide?
22. Did the mass killing of the strikers really happen or was it
really a product of Jose Arcadio Segundo's imagination? If it was
real, why is it that everyone denied it and all the evidence was gone
by the time of his return?
23. Why did the twins die at the same moment? Was Jose Arcadio Segundo
also sick in some way or did he just die suddenly because his brother
had?
24. What is the significance of the heavenly ascent of Remedios the
Beauty? Was she so close to heaven in her mind that she floated off?
25. Why are the 17 children of Colonel Aureliano Buendia unable to
wash the crosses off of their foreheads? What is the significance of
this? Why are all of them killed by a shot or something to the cross?
Why did someone follow the last Aureliano for so many years just to
kill him?
26. Had the pharmacy where Aureliano Babilonia met Mercedes really
existed and had Mercedes or was this another illusion that Marquez
added in the book?
27. Why is it that others have tried and failed before him to decipher
the manuscripts of Melquiades but Aureliano is able to do it so
suddenly? What language was the prophecy written in? Sanskrit? If so,
why hadn't Aureliano Babilonia been able to read it before the last
minute?
28. Is there significance to the "100 years" of solitude? Why is it
that a race condemned to 100 years of solitude can not have a second
chance on earth? Were they predestined to this solitude? Does "race"
refer to the Buendia family or to the town of Macondo?
Chuck
2.Why is Prudencio Aguilar's ghost so restless?
3.Do you think that José Arcadio will eventually return to Macondo?
Why or why not?
4.What sparked the hatred that Amaranta had of Rebecca?
5.What is the significance of the return of Melquíades during the
insomnia plague?
6.Why does Fernanda take over the running of the house and not
Amaranta?
7.What economic benefits does Macondo receive from the new train?
8.Does the train that passes through Macondo bring more trouble or
more prosperity?
9.Why is Fernanda upset about Meme's relationship with Mauricio
Babilonia?
10.What protects José Arcadio Segundo from the officer?
11.Were there really more than three thousand that were killed at the
station?
12.How did Rebecca have the will to live so long in such loneliness?
13.Why is Aureliano Segundo so concerned with sending Amaranta Úrsula
to Brussels?
14.What significance do the deaths of José Arcadio Segundo and
Aureliano Segundo hold?
15.What factors caused the eventual fall of Macondo?
jame...@gmail.com
Does Melquiades symbolize change or temptation? What is the
significance of incest?
jame...@gmail.com
isn't restless, he's just there because he's an avatar of the guilt of
the Buendía family.
5.What is the significance of the return of Melquíades during the
will not always be a certain way.
rer...@gmail.com
In the beginning of the book, we meet Jose Arcadio Buendia and his
wife (aka: closely related cousin) are insulted by a man who lost to
Jose in a cock fight. In response, Jose kills him. Excluding the fact
that Jose's actions were clearly an overreaction, I fail to find any
feelings of remorse from him in the text. Does he not feel guilty for
taking another man's life?
Q2:
Along with this subject of murder, why
doesn't the village seem to take up actions against Jose? Is there no
punishment for murder?
Q3:
Is Rebeca eating dirt and whitewash supposed to be symbolic of
Q4:
Of all things, why does Melquidas ask Jose to burn mercury in his
house? Doesn't mercury mess with your mind?
Q5:
Why is Amaranta so so objective to Rebeca's wedding with Pietro?
Q6:
Why does it take so long for Rebeca to bury her parent's bones?
Q7:
Why does the author insist on writing so much about pedifilia? (Pilar
and Jose Arcadio, Aureliano and Remedios)
Q8:
Magic and Science seem to be closely intertwined in this book, do
these characters realize the differences?
Q9:
Why does Ursula fear for Rebeca and Jose Arcadio having children with
defects, even though they are not biologically related?
Q10:
Why does Ursula see fit to publicly humiliate her beloved son in front
of the entire village?
Q11:
What do the yellow flowers signify after the death of Jose Arcadio?
Q12:
Aureliano is known for his self confinement. He is a solitary man
above all things. But this quality seems to contradict itself upon
showing how many sons he has. Seventeen! Doesn't that prove he's
actually pretty outgoing? Among other things...
Q13:
We know Aureliano is Colonel of the army. But what is he fighting
for?
Q:14
Though Ursula's prediction of the similar family names may be true,
is it not also true that the people with Arcadio as a name has just as
much tragedy in their lives as the Joses'?
Q15:
Don't these wives that the men take get upset when their husbands
take on mistresses? Is it really that common to take on more than one
lover and not have repercussions?
klaura...@yahoo.com
2. Rebeca eats the walls and dirt because it gives her comfort to be
close to and in harmony with nature. I think this is interesting
because everything else in the book is so unreal and obscure, and she
is the only character that stays "down-to-earth"
4. Throughout the book, the bandage is referred to as a sign of
Amaranta's virginity, of her "sacrafice," but for Amaranta is serves
more as a punishment, so she is reminded every day when she looks at
her hand about the injustices she did to Rebeca and Remedios's death.
5. Colonel Aureliano has tried every other activity in order to end
the futility of his life, so when he decides that death is the only
way out and then can't actually kill himself, he feels like he is
doomed to live the rest of his life in the anguish of inactivity.
12. In the beginning he doesn't, he uses her just for the sake of
pleasure and the animals. But later, as they both grow older, he
realizes that he does love her even after his desires have diminished.
14. At some point, all the male characters become very solitary and
depressed, and seek to understand their unhappy lives. They evidently
believe the answer to this lies in the books, but of course the cannot
understand them and aren't supposed to until the last generation of
Buendias.
hert...@gmail.com
1. What is the reason behind Rebeca's dirt eating? How is insomnia
contagious disease?
2. What is it about Amaranta that dislikes marriage so much? She
rejects two men who she leads on, and then wills Remedios dead before
her marriage.
3. If Jose Arcadio Buendia does not move from his chestnut tree, and
the family "forgets him" from time to time, how is he still living,
and why doesn't he go free after Ursala unties him in the beginning?
4. Why does the mystery of Melquides' parchments and books continue
to fascinate the Buendias, and why is his room always clean, even
though nobody has been in it for years.
5. Why are the seventeen Aurelianos hunted down, and when the last
one shows up at the end of the book, why wouldn't the two remaining
family know about his existence?
6. If three thousand people were killed at the station during the
banana strike, and the company denies being associated with the
incident, then what happened to the three thousand families of the
workers? Wouldn't they know they didn't return?
7. How does Jose Arcadio Segundo manage to escape the soldiers while
he is in Melquiades' room? The soldier shined a light right at him,
but didn't "notice" him.
8. In the story of Noah's Arc, it rained for forty days and forty
nights, and the land was flooded. If it rained in Macando for four
years, eleven months, and two days, how is the town not completely
submerged?
9. Besides the coins that were found in the statue, what happened to
Ursala's life savings of coins that Jose Arcadio Buendia was
constantly borrowing?
10. How does Amaranta's fate walk hand-in-hand with the completion of
her own shroud? If she knew she would die when the shroud was
completed, why would she finish it at all?
11. What is the significance of the little gold fishes throughout the
story?
12. If the train ran through Macondo before the banana company
settled there, why didn't the train still stop after the banana
company left?
13. How does the condition of the Buendia house reflect the
characters who live inside it?
14. If the last Aureliano understood the predictions of Melquiades,
and the predictions say that the last of the Buendia line will be
eaten by ants, then what is stopping him from having another child?
15. Which Buendia suffers the most from solitude, and how does this
character deal with it?
16. Besides solitude, what are the other major themes in this novel,
and which characters demonstrate these themes the most?
Alexis Georgiadis
territory?
2. Why didn't Jose Arcadio not organize a rebellion against Don
Moscote if he was so apprehensive of him?
3. Was Jose Saramango influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Pages
50-53 mirror Saramango's book Blindness
4. Did Ursula's act of incest predispose Jose Arcadio to marry his
step-sister?
5. Why did Colonel Aureliano befriend Genierldo?
6. If Colonel Aurelaino had tried so hard to dodge his death, why did
he attempt suicide?
7. Why isn't Ursula more concerned with Colonel Aureliano's detachment
from reality?
8. Why does Aureliano Segundo feel the need to have an affair?
9. Why does Amaranta still talk to Rebecca?
10. Why does Meme return to Macondo?
11. What do the yellow butterflies symbolize?
12. Why doesn't Fernanda realize she can not change the Buendia
family?
13. Why didn't Ursula warn her children about Pilar?
14. Why is Aureliano so persistent in solving the prophecy?
15. How did the Buendia children survive five generations without
birth defects? (Not counting the last Aureliano)
rosie...@yahoo.com
How is it that Pilar Ternera was able to get away with what
she's
> doing with the men of Macondo? Wouldn't her family suspect that she
> has been with men since she's been pregnant multiple times? Also,
> wouldn't her family try to figure out who the father was?
>
Pilar Ternera's situation shows the culture of Macondo. It highlights
their social expectations. Pilar is not a women of high rank that is
true... she has a reputation as a whore and it is not hidden... this
frank openness is refreshing... she is not a disgrace to be hushed
up... though perhaps a let down to her parents society as a whole is
able to look at her and see that she is a good women, she is kind and
caring, and helpful. She does no one harm, and prostitution is a
normal part of town life. It will happen and hose who make the choice
put themselves in the position with complete understanding. It is
simply accepted that she is what she is and there is no further need
to judge.
rosie...@yahoo.com
hmmm... very odd... I definitely posted two other responses that did
not post... even though they said successful... so we're going to test
this...
In response to questions on the house... its size, its maintenance...
etc I worte about how I thought of the house as an overarching shell
for the family... its deterioration shadows that of the family. Yet at
the same time it s crumbliing it served to hold all the family members
physically together under the same roof. even though they all pursue
very independent/ solitary activities he house unites them under the
name of Buendia.
rosie...@yahoo.com
With regards to the Banana Company I felt that it represented a form
of intrusion form the outside world into the lives of those in
Macondo... the crash with the modern company has drastic effects on
the town and as they stuggle to contend with the new institution on
industry it is obvious that the people are out of their league. Their
independence of action is robbed and as workers they are no better
than slaves, unable to get any attention for wrongs done in the court
system. The company becomes a symbol of the effect of industry on a
independent community.
Haley York
aspect Macondo)
On Aug 22, 2:13 pm, Arwa Joher <melon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What does the banana company represent? Is it an allegory for
> something that happened in Columbian history?
>
> On Jul 17, 12:20 pm, Charles.Weinb...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> > Use this space to pose your deeper thinking questions on 100 Years of
> > Solitude (approximately 15 total/student). Besides asking questions,
Haley York
for accidently wishing for Remodios' death. I also feel that her
blackened hand is resembling her broken and unable to love heart. IN
response to the question of the gold fishes, he makes them to keep his
thoughts busy, so he doesn't think about the war, or build his rage
again from all the deaths.
On Aug 26, 4:52 pm, "Devin G." <devingrac...@gmail.com> wrote:
Haley York
raped and ended up loving and waiting for her rapist.
3. I think she feels undermined - she is the matriarch of the family
and oldest, sanest, living buendia, so she feels that they need her
permission.
4. He didn't hide them. It was tradition for virgins to have sex with
soldiers, and he was a prime candidate. Also, it is traditonal to
baptise; and these families might just want his recognition of their
children, maybe so they know who their father is and can go see him
when they come of age.
On Aug 23, 7:23 pm, cr8zyh...@yahoo.com wrote:
> 1. Why did Amaranta forsake the love of Pietro Crespi later on but
> when in the beginning she was trying to fight for her feelings against
> Rebecca?
>
> 2. How is it that Pilar Ternera was able to get away with what she's
> doing with the men of Macondo? Wouldn't her family suspect that she
> has been with men since she's been pregnant multiple times? Also,
> wouldn't her family try to figure out who the father was?
>
> 3. Why did Ursula reacted as though the marriage between Arcadio and
> Rebecca was considered "an inconceivably lack of respect" when Jose
> Arcadio and Rebecca were neither related?
>
> 4. How did Colonel Aureliano Buendia hide all 17 offspring he has when
> he was at the war. Why did the mother's and the Aureliano's seek for
> Colonel Aureliano's family so that their son can be baptized? And why
> do they seek for baptism?
>
> 5. With every problems that Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula face how
> is it that they were able to still try to balance each other? In a way
> that Ursula is working and Jose Arcadio Buendia in his room being in
> his solitude.
>
> 6. Even though Colonel Aureliano Buendia was all about revolutionary,
> what made him realize that he should evaluate his life when he was
> about to give court marshal to General Moncada?
>
> 7. Why are the men always having marital affairs with Pilar Ternera
> and her family or Petra Cotes?
>
> 8. The war is over and Jose Arcadio Buendia is forgotten and tied to a
> tree. With all this, why is Ursula still alive? What is the
> significance of her living a long time?
>
> 9. What is the significance of the ash mark in the forehead of the
> seventeen sons of Colonel Aureliano Buendia? Even though there was a
> given amount of time that has passed why won't the ash come off?
>
> 10. Why is Remedios the Beauty so ungodly beautiful?
>
> 11. Why did Marquez decided to make one of Colonel Aureliano Buendia
> (Aureliano Segundo) have a sense connection and similarity with Jose
> Arcadio Buendía's passion of knowledge?
>
> 12. Each and every single one of the seventeen sons of Colonel
> Aureliano Buendia has special magic. Why did Marquez made his son's
> special?
>
> 13. When the foreigner's came with the help of the train, a lot of men
> were enchanted with the beauty of Remedios. With so many men, why
> don't Remedios finally try to fall in love? Why is she living her life
> as a virgin?
>
> 14. What is the significance of the death of Colonel Aureliano Buendia
> near the chestnut tree?
>
> 15. Why are there yellow butterflies following Mauricio Babilonia?
> What is its significance to the magical realism of the novel?
>
> 16. What is the significance of Marquez giving one of his characters
> his last name?
>
> -is it ok if i just put one full post in all my questions? or should i
> post one seperately?
Michael Chau
1. What does Meme prove by being mute?
2. How did Melquíades' come back to life?
3. Is Melquíades really imprinted to the memories of the Buendía's or
could there be a logical explanation for his reappearance?
4. Why did it rain for 5 years and how is it important?
5. Do the "invisible doctors" have a meaning?
6. What's do the yellow butterflies symbolize?
7. What is the links the inability to love and crying the womb?
8. If Rebeca shot José Arcadio - what would her motive of been?
9. Why does Fernanda resent the banana company?
10. Why did the parchment have to wait 100 years before it could be
translated?
11. What kind of omen is the pig's tail?
12. What kind of role does time play in the novel?
13. What is the significance of the destruction of Macondo?
14. Why does Aureliano make little gold fishes - what is the purpose /
symbolization?
15. Why does Petra Cotes continue to send Fernanda food?
On Aug 26, 7:25 pm, hcr...@yahoo.com wrote: