Student Journal entries and notes

On Gabriel Garcia Marquez:

     “I believe Gabriel Garcia Marquez leaves things hazy on purpose, to show us that everything we see is really false and transitory, and that our eyes are nothing useful only from a physical perspective, and even then they are easily confused through illusions of light and contrivances.” –Anthony Fehr

     “I think Marquez purveys the message that spirituality is a much better way of getting closer to God, rather than trying to buy your way into heaven in the scandalous Catholic Church.” –Loftin Hilliard

On theme of time/cycles:

     “The theme of time repeats and jumps back forth much more obviously as the story goes on.  The story seems to start over again with Arcadio’s children Remedios the Beauty, Aureliano Segundo, and Jose Arcadio Segundo.  Jose Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo seem to play much the same roles as Jose Arcadio and Aureliano Buendia did except with their names reversed.  Ursula attributes this to a possible switch at birth because they were identical twins.”  -Daniel Lindenberg

     “The characters in the story begin to notice and remark on the repetition of time as Ursula says on page 210, “I know all of this by heart.  It’s as if time had turned around and we were back at the beginning.” Later on page 238 it says, “Ursula confirmed her impression that time was going in a circle.”  -Daniel Lindenberg

     “The eventual death of all the major characters in the novel and the gradual extinction of the Buendia line happens in a similar, figuratively narrowing “whirlwind”.  Like the misremembered death of the banana workers, the Buendias and their associates are either misremembered or entirely forgotten by the inhabitants of Macondo towards the end of the novel.” –Rachel Robertson

    “Time of course is one of if not the biggest and most prevalent theme in this book.  The book’s basis is time and how it can be both manipulated and toyed with to create Marquez’s dreamy world of Macondo.  Ursula, who is firmly seated now as the figurehead of the family, has some interesting revelations concerning time.  Many of us have heard the term that history repeats itself.  In my humble opinion, history is time.  Time repeats itself and Ursula makes a hypothesis concerning this when she says, “I know all of this by heart.  It’s as if I had turned around and we’re back at the beginning” (210).  Ursula says this when talking about how Jose Arcadio Segundo becomes wise to the ways of science and wants to manipulate the river that runs adjacent to Macondo.  Twenty pages later, Ursula concludes that she is right when the narrator says, “Looking at the sketch that Aureliano Triste drew…Ursula confirmed her impression that time was going in a circle” (238).  Time can be spiraled or cyclical with times of repetition as Ursula has observed.” –Colin Elliott

On Jose Aracdio Buendia:

     “He was so profoundly endowed with knowledge that good and evil had merged into one; he had no reason to live because he had nothing left to accomplish.” –Anthony Fehr

On Ursula Iguaran

    “As the novel progresses and Ursula slowly begins to go blind, another part of her personality becomes more obvious: her inability to love completely without being overshadowed by appearances.” –Erin Oppenheim

     “Only when she began to think in order to see, she noticed the important parts of her family, and what she had looked over in her children.  She never truly loved, I believe, until she lost her sight, because then she had to find other ways to see the people around them, and amazingly she began to notice new things about people around her, having to do with their personalities instead of their outer appearance flaws.  And by outer appearance I don’t just mean what you could see on the face or the body of the person, I mean the outer shells of the other characters’ personalities that formed Ursula used to form her first opinions.  When she could see past these shells she learned the truth about her children, why they had done what they did, and how wonderful they really were.” –Erin Oppenheim

On Religion:

     “Adam and Eve are almost exactly like Jose Aracadio Buendia and Ursula because both have an irremediable thirst for knowledge that will result in their demise.  For Adam and Eve it is the tree of knowledge of good and evil that God forbad them to eat from and if hey did, they would surely die.  This is so close to Jose Arcadio Buendia’s hunger for knowledge, his eagerness for contact with civilization, which will eventually bring about the unscheduled ruin of their perfect society.”  -Loftin Hilliard

     “From the start in chapter five, the priest does not understand, being closed-minded, how the inhabitants of Macondo survive without Christianity.  It says “[the inhabitants arranged] the business of their should directly with god, and that they had lost the evil of original sin,” (89).  Well, bring out the stake and light the fires, ladies and gentlemen.  We have heretics among us!  In other words, the people of Macondo do not need organized religion and priests to talk to God, they can do it themselves without the limitations that Catholicism invents in the name of God.” –Stephen Bersch

    “Many biblical references come out from the text, satirizing the hypocrisy of religion.  But as I look deeper in to Jose Arcadio Buendía’s character, it seems that he is something like a melting pot for several biblical characters from Adam, to Moses, to Abraham.  When he kills Prudencio, then comes back blaming Ursula for the killing, it reminded me of when Adam blamed Eve for taking from the tree of knowledge.  The next reference to Adam or even to God is in Chapter 1; “Since his house from the very first had been the best in the village, the others had been built in its image and likeness.”  This reminds me when Adam was created in the image and likeness of God.” –Loftin Hilliard

     “I see Jose Arcadio Buendía like Abraham in this excerpt, “…a kind of youthful patriarch who would give instructions for planting and advice for the raising of children and animal…” This was reminiscent of Abraham because to me his role in the Bible was much like this one, a father and leader, to a religion, and its people.  This also bring about the concept of a patriarchal society, while at first Jose Arcadio Buendía is an enterprising man, working his best to have equality for all people, arranging houses in order that each would get the same amount of sun, and each had to make the same effort to draw water from the river.  This introduces the theme of Socialism at this point seems to be perfect, for in this harmonious Garden of Eden like the village, no one has died yet.  It will not be like this forever because Jose Arcadio Buendía has an adamant plan to make contact with the outer world or so called civilization, thinking it will be beneficial but in the end it is severely detrimental to their society.  Without the solitude that kept Macondo such a utopian society, corrupt things like war, capitalism, Catholicism and greed turn it into a place of sin, that before did not even believe in original sin.” –Loftin Hilliard

     “An important theme I have begun to notice is the simplicity of Orthodox Catholicism and the nearly anti-catholic sentiments present all throughout the novel.  Father Nicanor Reyna seems to me to be a total simpleton.  Marquez represents the Father’s inability to comprehend his own foolishness with a stern hilarity reserved for the likes of Voltaire.  To quote the first revelation of Nicanor’s ignorant simplicity, “…[Father Nicanor Reyna] had…the expression of an old angel, which came more from simplicity than goodness.”  Marquez choice of word usage identifies Nicanor with an old angel.  These two words represent the old fashioned traditionalism of the orthodox Catholic Church thorough the absurd idea of angel.  To me, the angel obviously represents an all-too-human attempt to humanize and identify with a higher deity.” Macondo itself also has no need of the antiquated angel Nicanor represents.  Instead, they have, “…been many years without a priest, arranging the businesses of their souls directly with God, and that they have lost the evil of original sin.” –Anthony Fehr

On symbols:

            “I see the flower in this sense as being a symbol for innocence.  Melquiades and Jose Aracdio Buendia both come from a time in Macondo when it was safe from capitalism, greed, and the modern world.  Melquiades’ ancient items and the death of Jose Arcadio Buendia symbolize the innocence and ignorance that Macondo was once familiar with.” –Colin Elliott

            “One thing that is a big part of the book is the symbolism and imagery of flowers.  Flowers seem to be a symbol of life that grows from old things.  When certain people die, yellow flowers fall, an end of life.  Before he dies, Melquiades puts his false teeth in a glass and from them grows a flower.  Much later in the book, a flower has grown from the middle of one of his old books.  When Jose Arcadio Buendia dies, yellow flowers rain from the sky.  Later in the book, Meme falls in love with a man who works for the banana company and he is always followed by yellow butterflies everywhere he goes.  I’m not sure what the relation is but it may have something to do with butterflies feeding off of flowers of something to that effect.” –Daniel Lindenberg

     “At the end of chapter four when Jose Arcadio Buendia is tied to the tree, it says things related to Jesus.  “tied to the trunk of the chestnut tree by his hands and feet,” is like how Jesus was nailed to the cross.  They said that Jose Arcadio Buendia was total innocence, but the only person that has ever been said to be totally innocent is Jesus.  Then the people build Jose Arcadio Buendia shelter made of palm branches, which was something that they also gave to Jesus as he passes through town.” –Ashley Best

On Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s messages:

     “Marquez apparently wants us to see that love is both a great asset and a flaw that we as human possess.” –Colin Elliott

     “The same way the Buendias have been freed from this endless circle, I think the author says that the country can.” –Daniel Rubin

On Theme of Decay:

     “Decay is becoming a most prevalent theme now when I think about it.  I suppose decay starts off with Jose Arcadio Buendía when he becomes wise to the ways of science and he goes downhill from there, obsessed with alchemy, and eventually finds himself stuck under a tree.  The entire book seems like a slow decay or a downward trend.  Economically there are periods of boom and bust in Macondo just like the business cycle.” –Colin Elliott

On Pietro Crespi:

     “I think he just wanted to have something to do with the family, but if he did end up marrying Amaranta, then it would disrupt the entire flow of Buendía marriages.” –Clarissa Ortiz

On theme of Sex:

     “Sexual repression and sexual promiscuity both seem to lead to negative results through the course of the novel.” –Rachel Robertson

     “Sexual promiscuity, like the theme of sexual repression, inevitably leads to negative repercussions in the novel.  The many illegitimate children attributed to the Buendía family members have a way of introducing what will eventually lead to the destruction of the Buendía line, and consequentially, Macondo itself.  Couples with the many endangering actions of the legitimate Buendias, disaster is ultimate and predestined.  In the throes of sexual promiscuity, obeying only the madness of love, many characters in the novel fatefully “lose their sense(s) of reality,” act irrationally, and ultimate cause their own demise.  This “madness” becomes increasingly important in the cases of inter-marriage and incest within the Buendía line, and the threat of a child being “born with the tail of a pig” (163).  As Jose Arcadio Buendía put it toward the beginning of the novel, “Love is a disease” (75).  Sexual Promiscuity, then, is an integral factor in the birth and death of a race “condemned to one hundred years of solitude” (448).  –Rachel Robertson