I guess for starters I have to say that the last 113 pages where not as interesting as the first portion of the book. The whole civil war thing going on in the book is really boring and seems like its a filler just extending the story on further. Its not overly interesting and continues at a fast pace but not with really interesting stuff happening like the first portion of the book where the town was less civilized and unworldly.
In what I have read so far in the book it is quite apparent that the civilization of Macondo is evolving from a tiny town made up of a small group of people that all know each other and just enjoy life; into a town that is introduced to the outside world by the discovery of a path that takes two days to get to the outside world that brings more people, knowledge and commerce to Macondo. Then into a state of government ruler ship over the people with the introduction of the corrector and the soldiers; leading into the disputes over liberals and conservatives that incite the whole civil war tearing up the town leading to the death of many characters and a whole mess for the town. This leads me to believe that the most prominent theme in the book is progression as everything in the book seems to go from a simple state to a more complex one be it in the town itself or in the relationships the characters have.
Time is still all over the place in these 100 or so pages since the last entry which leads to more confusion in the book the characters dont seem to age even though it seems like so many years have passed and there is referencing to different periods of time from before int he book and from events that happened in other times. So the theme of time is still quite evident in this portion of the book but not so much as in the previous part.
I still cant figure out why this book is the most popular Latin book out there it has its moments but seems so bland right now from reading it almost as if the story should have ended around the 230ish mark there was something I read that seemed to read like it was the end with the execution that the book starts off with; instead we are put through the torture of reading many things about the civil war and other conquests. My only hopes are that the last 2 sections of this book are not as bland as this one has been because it took for ever to read along with everything for my biochem midterm.
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I understand what you mean about the first half of the book having a more interesting plot to follow than the second half; but I kind of equate it to an allegory of growing up: when we are young we have a boundless imagination; but then as we grow-up, we see things like war and have more responsibilities and obligations which make our 'plots' less care-free. This isn't true for everyone (I'm sure Remedios would have kept her spark had she lived) but it does make me think about how society puts rules and stigmas on everyone which slowly cuts away at the innocence, just as Macondo's 'innocence' was slowly buried under a mountain of dead bodies from the civil war.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you - the first part of the book was more interested but I think it's partly because the plot was just developing, and at a very quick pace. Now we are left with the tiny details of how to weave all of the separate yet related plots in order to end the book in a semi-logical manner [instead of leaving random tangents of story]. I also really like Katie's idea about growing up - very intuitive!
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