For starters I have to say that bloody hell this is one long carried out book that gets really boring from the beginning of the civil war up until the end of the rain fall. The book from the point of the civil war to the ending the three year rain fall seems like its a filler. It becomes very bland and boring and almost doesn't seem like its that important in respect to the rest. Both the civil war and banana company stages of the book seem to be very long and carried out which becomes agonizing to read.
This book is all over the place at all different points in time reflecting upon the characters past; but showing a steady progression from a small town in the middle of know where, into a small commerce town, the location of the rise and fall of the civil war, to the busy banana production town which is the peak of Macondos history. From this point on the town descends into nothingness a mas genocide leaves the town nearly vacant, followed by a flood that destroys everything and leaves the town in shambles and abandoned.
Although through out the book the most evident theme to me was progression as mentioned in the previous paragraph, many have mentioned the state of solitude that everyone ends up in as another prominent theme. Thinking of the book as a whole no one really ends up happy they all end up suffering in one way or another and end up in a state of solitude isolating them self's from the world; most being fully content in doing this such as Remedios that lived in her own world, or the General Buendia who once defeated had nothing to do or a care in life committed himself to be locked away fabricating little gold fish, to then melt down and preform the work over and over again till his death. So in reference to the title of 100 years of solitude, the lives of all these characters from the beginning of the book to the end all end in solitude; the 100 years is about the time frame that the book takes place in if we think about how old Ursula that is mentioned to be 115 at one point in the book. The 100 years of solitude is the Buendias family's curse no one in the family ends up happy they are cursed to solitude and appear to damn all those around them.
The book reads like its a family or towns bibliography or history from the time of foundation to there demise. in respect to the magical realism that is the core concept to this course this book seems to have its few magical moments but over all seems like its a history book.
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Hmm. You raise many points, but just on the last one: it might be worth your taking a moment or two to reflect on the many, many differences between this book and a history book.
ReplyDeleteAnd otherwise, as I've said before, it would really help if you were more specific in your comments. You mention very few specific incidents or characters (and as for the one you do: it's consistently Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa, not General).