One Hundred Years Of Solitude II

I agree with everyone that Marquez uses repetition a lot throughout the novel. Not only does he repeat phrases such as "As he faced the firing squad", but he also repeats the names of the characters and their fates. I also noticed, as mary and nessa said, that the twins Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo both have the fates of their opposite ancestors. Aureliano Segundo is the one who has a wife and a concubine. He throws lavish parties for everyone and lives in excess just as Jose Arcadio had when he came back from traveling the world. Jose Arcadio Segundo, on the other hand, is more solitary and incapable of having emotions, just like Colonel Aureliano Buendia.

Vallygirl's comment about the need for affection is very interesting. I had not noticed how all the men, at one point need the affection of a woman. They fall in love and try to persue women to be their wives. Aureliano Segundo traveled far just to bring Fernnda del Carpio back home with him. Also, meny men have fallen victim to Remedios the Beauty's attraction. The women, however, seem to be a lot stronger. They withstand the wooing of so many men and most of the time end up raising their children and maintaining the household. Ursula seems to be like a strong force that through all the mayhem in her "madhouse" and in the town of Macondo, she managed to keep her composure. As Mary already said, Ursula got keener and saw more in depth, the older and blinder she got. It was ironic that she had the ability to really see and understand her children only when she was blind. One of my favorite passages so far is the one that begins, "She was sure of it..." on page 248 and ends with "Ursula had wanted for her line," on page 25. In this passage the reader gets a different perspective of all that has happebend and how times have changed from one of the oldest members of Macondo.

Within the passage I mentioned, my question was answered as to why Amaranta was so stubborn with love. It was, "a mortal struggle between a measureless love and an invincible cowardice...and an irrational fear" (249). I had predicted that it was pride or fear, so i guess I was half correct.

Another thought I had as I read this second part of the novel, was athat if there was going to be a climax. The story has so many ups and downs and characters but what i have not notuced was a clear plot. The way i see it, it just tells of the lives of the Buendia family and the town of Macondo. Maybe in the third part I will get what I am looking for, although I am not complaining about how the story is going so far.

One final thought is about the title itself, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. In the veru beginning of the novel i thoguth that maybe it would be about how the town of Macondo was secluded for others for one hundred years, but then the gypsies came and then the gringos, so my theory was wrong. Later on I thought that maybe the solitude refered to Ursula, who has lived over 100 years. It could very well be that Ursula will eventually be the only living person who was there when Macondo was founded and will be alone in being the only one who remembered how everything used to be.

Any ideas as to what the title means? I'd love to find out what others think.