ACTIVE READING

CHAPTER 1 3/9/2007 8:30 PM
MAGICAL REALISM

-This book takes place so long ago that everything on Earth did not have a name. The fact that Melquiades, the gypsy, out of nowhere came up with these huge magnets seems like a magical element. "He went from house to house dragging two metal ingots and everybody was amazed to see pots, pans, tongs and braziers tumble down..."

-Jose Arcadio Buendia exchanged magnets for a magnifying glass. The fact that he wanted to use this for solar war is an example of magical realism.

-The fact that Jose Arcadio Buendia tries to produce more gold. That is magical because no one can make gold.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Jose Arcadio Buendia is introduced to the reader in the first chapter. His wife, Ursula, sees Jose is really stubborn. I think Buendia is a man who is trying to gain as much knowledge as he can. He is willing to take risks to gain wisdom. This is very admirable to me. He tries to make some more gold by mixing it with other elements. He kept buying everything that Melquiades brought forth to him. "Jose Arcadio Buendia...was the most enterprising man ever to be seen in the village, had set up the placement of the houses in such a way that from all of them one could reach the river and draw water with the same effort, and he had lined up the streets with such good sense that no house that no house got more sun that another during the hot time of day." All in all Jose is working and gaining knowledge to better his community.

PLOT SUMMARY

The chapter starts off with telling the reader about Macondo. "At the time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs." In Macondo gypsies come and display some new inventions and Jose Arcadio Buendia is always there to purchase all of them. In chapter one Jose Arcadio Buendia buys a magnifying glass and tries to produce gold.
When Ursula found out that Jose Arcadio Buendia was trying to mix some elements with the "colonial coins" she gave in, she didn't want to argue with Jose. "Ursula's precious inheritance was reduced to a large piece of burnt hog cracklings that was firmly stuck to the bottom of the pot." Ursula was so upset that when the gypsies returned to Macondo she put the people against them.
The author then goes on to tell us that Jose was the "semi-leader" of Macondo.
We then find out that Ursula and Jose have two children, Jose Jr. and Aureliano. Jose Jr. is the very curious type and he is very large. While Aureliano is the smaller and smarter one. After that the gypsies come to town again and they introduce ice to Jose.

QUOTES

" A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground."

-This quote may not be of any importance, but I really like this quote because it shows that the people of Macondo mean a lot to Jose. He is saying that no one will ever be forgotten even though they are dead. This quote maybe is foreshadowing something.

" The child, perplexed, said from the doorway, 'It's going to spill'. "

"The child" in this quote is Aureliano. This quote simply tells us of what kind of child Aureliano is, and the man he is going to be.


THEMES

-Yearning for Knowledge- Jose Arcadio Buendia is always trying to gain knowledge. Like mentioned before he tried to produce gold, he bought a magnifying glass, telescope and in this chapter he is looking forward to the ice that Melquiades brought forth.

-Exploration- Exploration is an important theme in chapter one, because the reader is told that Macondo was founded. Jose Arcadio Buendia also wants to explore new things and gain new knowledge.

CHAPTER 2
MAGICAL EXPLORATION

In chapter two Ursula tells us about her relative that had a pig tail. This is definitely magical realism because the author took the idea that incest creates deformity and really applied it to a person. Because of the incest that is going on the relative has a pig tail.

In chapter two Jose Arcadio Buendia kills Prudencio Aguilar for making fun of him for not having sex. After that Ursula "...went out to get some water and she saw Prudencio Aguilar by the water jar. He was livid, a sad expression on his face, trying to cover the hole in his throat with a plug made of esparto grass. It did not bring on her fear, but pity." This is magical realism because Ursula is seeing a ghost and ghosts do not exist.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In this chapter Jose Arcadio Buendia Jr., Jose Arcadio Buendia's eldest son, is introduced. In this chapter we find out that Jose Arcadio Jr. has an enormous out of this world male sex organ. His mother thought that it was because of the incest that was going on between Jose Arcadio Buendia Sr. and herself. Because of the lack of the attention that Jose Sr. gives his children, Jose Arcadio Buendia Jr. is getting involved with Pilar Ternera. At age fourteen Jr. is having sex with a much older woman. His curiosity has been put into action. After Pilar gets pregnant Jr. decides to have sex with a young gypsy girl and he runs off with her. He has developed into a careless young man because of his father.

PLOT SUMMARY

Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula are cousins. We are then told that one of Ursula's relative's had a pig tail because of the incest. Because of this Ursula is afraid that Jr. may be deformed because of his large sex organ.
The chapter flashes back a little bit. We are told that Jose Sr. killed a man named Prudencio Aguilar because he ridiculed him for not yet having sex with Ursula. After that Ursula saw Prudencio all around the house, and as mentioned before this is an example of magical realism.
After long hours of work Jose Arcadio Buendia, with some formulas that Melquiades gave Jose Sr., he was able to extract Ursula's gold from the other elements he mixed it with. After he succeeded he showed his eldest son and he said it looked like "dog shit." This really upset Jose Arcadio Sr. and he punched him across the face. This is somewhat an example of the lack of attention that Jose Sr. show his children. Before this Jose Jr. has been provoked by Pilar and he sneaks out at night to have sex with her. One night he decides to tell his younger brother Aureliano. All of a sudden we are informed that Pilar is pregnant, and since Jose Jr. cannot handle the responsibility he runs off with a gypsy girl and is never to be found.
Since Ursula was so worried about her son she went to search for him and in the meantime Jose Sr. stayed with the children with the help of some women. Ursula failed to find Jose Jr. but she succeeded in finding the long searched for route to the sea.

QUOTES

"... Ursula went into the room where he was undressing to go to bed, she felt a mingles sens of shame and pity: he was the first man that she had seen naked after her husband, and he was so well-equipped for life that he seemed abnormal. "

-This quote is perhaps not important at all. I think it was very hilarious. She saw her own son naked and she saw his enormous sex organ. Ursula went as far as to go to the card reader and ask her about her sons enormous "gift." The woman simply said that he was lucky and gifted.

" 'What does it look like to you?' Jose Arcadio answered sincerely:
'Dog Shit.'
His father gave him a blow with the back of his hand that brought out blood and tears."

-Jose Arcadio Buendia Sr. is asking Jose Arcadio Jr. what he thinks of the gold that he extracted from the other elements and Jose Jr. answers rudely. This is just an example of how Jose Sr. doesn't care for his children, because he hits them until they bleed.

THEMES

Loss- In this chapter loss is an important them because the Buendia's lost their son. They lost him to gypsies because of their carelessness. Jose Jr. loses his family as well because he decides to run away.

Adventure- In this chapter adventure is a theme because Jose Arcadio Jr. is having an adventure with Pilar. Not only that Aureliano is living the adventure along with him because Jose Jr. tells him of it. This is an adventure for Pilar as well. When the Buendia's find out that Jose Jr. ran away Ursula has an adventure all on her own because she searches for him and finds a long looked for route.

CHAPTER THREE
MAGICAL ELEMENTS

When little Rebecca who goes under the care of the Buendia's she bring the whole town of Macondo an insomnia plague. The fact that no one can sleep or remember anything in the whole town is magical because it's unreal.

The fact that Jose Arcadio Buendia burns mercury for two days after the death of Melquiades is magical realism. He burns the mercury so that Melquiades can rise from the dead. We all know that this is impossible so it is an example of magical realism.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In this chapter we see little development from Aureliano. Aureliano is now a grown man and has not found a woman. He does not develop into the man we all thought he would. In the sense that his father and brother were "lucky" with women. In this chapter Aureliano encounter a "adolescent mulatto girl" he pays twenty cents to sleep with her. He feels "tormented by shame." When she left he tried to find her but it was too late, she was already gone. At the end of the chapter Aureliano experiences love at first sight when he sees Remedios, the nine-year old daughter off the magistrate. All in all his timidness has led him to love a child.

PLOT SUMMARY

The chapter starts off with Pilar giving birth to Jose Jr.'s son. The Buendia's then take in to their home a little girl named Rebecca, who eats dirt. After many years the children are all grown up and Ursula realizes that the house needs to be a little bigger, so she decides to pay some people to expand it. The Buendia's then receive a letter that says that they have to paint their house a certain color. Jose ARcadio Buendia is infuriated by this so he decides to go and drive him out of Macondo. The Magistrate decides to leave, but he later returns with some guards that are willing to kill Jose Arcadio Buendia. After long discussion, the magistrate decides to give in to the rules of Macondo. He then finds a house and decides to stay there. Aureliano, Jose Arcadio's son, falls in love with the Magistrates youngest daughter, who is nine years old. I feel as though Aureliano is confused because he hasn't been with many women. In this chapter prior to meeting Remedios, he sleeps with a young mulatto girl. After he sleeps with her he automatically has feeling for her, he wants to marry her right away. At the end of this chapter Aureliano feels horrible for liking a nine-year old child.

QUOTES

"It was never established whether it was the rhubarb or the beatings that had effect, or both of them together, but the truth was that in a few weeks Rebecca began to show signs of recovery."

This quote jumps up at me because I think it's horrible that Ursula hit a child that was not hers. Then again as horrible as it sounds, I do think violence is an option when kids are misbehaving. I don't necessarily a child has to be beaten everyday, but only when they are seriously misbehaving they should receive some sort of spanking.

"Defeated by those practices of consolation, Jose Arcadio Buendia then decided to build the memory machine that he had desired once in order to remember the marvelous inventions of the gypsies."

This quote is quite funny if you think about it. He doesn't remember anything, not even the names of simple objects. He couldn't even remember what a cow was, or what it's use is. How is he planning to build a machine to remember gypsies, when he can't remember simple objects.

THEMES

Loneliness- Loneliness is an important them in this chapter because Aureliano is already a grown man and he cannot find a woman. He feels so lonely that he sleeps with Pilar. He is so frustrated that he even pays for sex.

Frustration- Frustration is a theme in this chapter because Aureliano is frustrated that he cannot find a woman. Jose Sr. is frustrated because he cannot take a picture of God, so he turns crazy.

CHAPTER FOUR

MAGICAL REALISM

When Jose Arcadio Buendia turned a little crazy and he started destroying the lab it took twenty one men to hold him down. This is magical because no it's unreal that it took twenty one men to stop this one.

When Jose Arcadio Buendia is turning crazy, he calls out to the dead. "Calling to Prudencio Aguilar, to Melquiades, to all the dead, so that they would share his distress." This is magical realism because the dead won't share his distress, because they are dead.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In this chapter we see the development of the three siblings: Aureliano, Rebecca and Amaranta.
Aureliano who is in love with the nine-year old Remedios finally gets engaged to her. He is no longer the "woman-less" man. Rebecca also falls in love. She falls in love with, "Pietro Crespi [who] was young and blond, the most handsome and well-mannered man who had ever been seen in Macondo, so scrupulous in his dress that in spite of the suffocating..."She has developed from a dirt-eating girl to a woman. She, like her older brother Aureliano is engaged. Amaranta the youngest of the three has developed into a selfish and careless sister. She is so envious that her sister is getting married to Pietro Crespi that she wants to kill her.

PLOT SUMMARY

In this chapter Ursula plans a dance to inaugurate the new white house. Along with this new house came a pianola that needed to be assembled by an Italian expert named Pietro Crespi. Both Amaranta and Rebecca fall in love with this man. Pierto Crespi only has eyes for Rebecca. Amaranta is infuriated by this and she threatens to kill Rebecca so many times. Rebecca is very frightened, and Ursula sees this, so she takes Ursula on a trip to keep her away from Rebecca and Pietro Crespi.
In the meantime Aureliano seeks Remedios. He passes by her house and yearns to get a glimpse of her. Aureliano tells Jose Arcadio Buendia of this, and he goes and asks for the hand Remedios for him. Moscote accepts, so the wedding is on. The only problem is that Remedios has not hit puberty yet.
While that is occurring Jose Arcadio Buendia tries to build a pendulum machine that will help men fly. I believe that it was Melquiades, through a vision, that told Jose Arcadio Buendia that "it was impossible because a pendulum could lift anything into the air but it could not lift itself." This infuriated Jose Arcadio Buendia. Jose Arcadio Buendia began to destroy all the laboratory equipment. Twenty-one men had to hold him down, they ended up tying him to a tree. When Ursula and Amaranta returned from their trip she untied his wrists and ankles, and she "built him a shelter of palm branches to protect him form the sun and rain."

QUOTES

"'Well,' Aureliano said. 'Tell me what it is.'
Pilar Terena bit her lips with a sad smile.
'That you'd be good in war,' she said. 'Where you put your eye, you put your bullet.'"

This quote is very important because Pilar is telling Aureliano that he is going to be a father. I think Pilar said what she had to say in a clever way. I think he "put" his "eye" on her, she was his interest. His "bullet" was the child he helped her create. In other words he left his mark with the "bullet."

"Amaranta felt humiliated and told Pietro Crespi with a virulent anger that she was prepared to stop her sister's wedding even if her own dead body had to lie across the door."

This quote is important because it is an example of the lengths Amaranta is willing to go to make her own sister miserable. I feel that this is outrageous because I would never say anything of the like to a person who is so close to me.

THEMES

Jealousy- Jealousy is an important theme in this chapter because Amaranta is jealous of Rebecca. She is so jealous that she is willing to kill her.

Revenge- In this chapter Amaranta wants to kill her sister because Pietro Crespi wants to marry Rebecca.

CHAPTER FIVE

MAGICAL REALISM

When Jose Arcadio Jr. arrived everyone thought it was an earthquake. This is magical realism because no person can cause an earthquake.

The way in which Remedios died is magical realism to me because I don't think broth can explode in the intestines just like that.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

There is a lot going on in this chapter. The one who we all thought would be the "nobody" turned out to be the leader of Macondo. Aureliano the quiet and lonely man developed into a leader. This was so unexpected because he always was a follower.

PLOT SUMMARY

The chapter starts off with the wedding of Aureliano and Remedios. Aureliano was so nervous that he kept dropping the wedding ring. Remedios' mother and sisters were afraid that Remedios would ruin the wedding ceremony, but Remedios behaved well. When the cake was distributed Remedios gave a slice to Jose Arcadio Buendia, who was still tied to the tree. I'm assuming she had some compassion. Pietro Crespi and Rebecca were suppose to get married that same day but Pietro Crespi did not make it in time, so their wedding was postponed.
The chapter then introduces Father Nicanor Reyna. He decides that he will start building a church in Macondo. The church is to be completed in three years. So that means that Rebecca and Pietro Crespi will have to wait three years until they can get married. In the meantime Rebecca is terrified of the things Amaranta will do to her.
While all this is occurring Jose Arcadio Buendia is still tied to the tree. While he is tied to the tree he speaks Latin with Father Nicanor. Everyone had thought that Jose Arcadio Buendia was just speaking "gibberish."
When there was only three months left until the wedding Pietro Crespi could not wait any longer, so he gave Father Nicanor the money so that he could finish the church. Amaranta decided that it would be best if she ruined Rebecca's dress. Fortunately Amparo Moscote fixed Rebecca's dress.
Amaranta prayed that something would hinder the wedding. Her prayers were answered, and so Remedios died. Aureliano was so sad because he had grown to love her dearly. She had proved everyone wrong, she turned out to be a very good wife.
After that Jose Arcadio Jr. returned. Jose Jr. and Rebecca fell in love, so they married. Pietro Crespi ended up marrying Amaranta. In the meantime Aureliano spent some time with his father-in-law who was a Conservative. Aureliano believes that deep inside he, himself, is a Liberal. Later on war broke out in Macondo and Aureliano became an advocate of the Liberals.

QUOTES

" 'Not madness,' Aureliano said. 'War. And don't call me Aurelito anymore. Now I'm Colonel Aureliano Buendia.' "

This quote is very important because Aureliano is basically saying that he is not the man he once was. He is now a leader and not a follower.

"...appeared in Riohacha with bottles of pills that were nothing but refined sugar and a diploma from the University of Leipizig that he had forged himself."

This quote is not important, but I thought it was hilarious. The fact that he just made himself a diploma, and everyone knows about it, but they still see him as the town doctor is awkward.

THEMES

Death- Death is an important theme in this chapter because Remedios died. Also, because war has begun and war only means one thing, death.

Incest-Rebecca and Jose Arcadio Buendia are having sexual relations. They are not biologically brother and sister but they practically are.

CHAPTER SIX

MAGICAL REALISM

The only magical realism I can think of in this chapter is when Aureliano shoots himself and he doesn't even get hurt. This may seem unreal, but it's the only magical thing that was in this chapter.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

In this chapter Aureliano has seventeen children with seventeen different women. His is at risk of dying every moment he lives. He developed from a "woman-less" man into a man with plenty of women.
Arcadio, the son of Jose Arcadio Jr. develops into a corrupt leader. He kills people ruthlessly. He even wants to have sex with his own mother. Pilar Ternera, the town whore, had more dignity than him, because she denied his proposal. Later on he has sex with Santa Sofia de Piedad. He has one nameless child with her, and another is on the way. At the end of the chapter he surrenders and he is killed.

PLOT SUMMARY

The chapter starts off with an update of what Aureliano has been up to . He is now the "Commander in Chief of the revolutionary forces, with jurisdiction and command from one border to the other, and the man most feared by the government." Aureliano had to leave to join the forces of General Victorio Medina and he left Arcadio, his nephew, in charge of Macondo. Under the leadership of Arcadio, the town of Macondo went through some hard times. Arcadio was the most corrupt leader Macondo had ever seen. He killed people ruthlessly, he almost killed Ursula, his grandmother.
All this chaos made Ursula devastated and ashamed that Arcadio carried the "Buendia" name. One day she grabbed a whip and whipped some sense into Arcadio. After that, she "ordered the revival of Sunday mass" and Pietro Crespi donated a few things to the church. She grew very fond of Pietro Crespi, and she accepted the fact that her daughter, Aramanta, would one day marry him. When the day actually came when Pietro Crespi asked Amaranta she said, "don't be simple, Crespi...I wouldn't marry you even if I were dead."When Amaranta told this to Pietro Crespi he became miserable. He decided that suicide would be the only option, so he slit his wrists. When he died Amaranta did not even care. Ursula, on the other hand, was devastated and she herself buried him.
Arcadio was at first unwilling to surrender but the when he saw that his death was inevitable he gave in. He was shot to death.

QUOTES
" 'Don't be simple, Crespi.' She smiled. 'I wouldn't marry you even if I were dead.' "

Amaranta says this to Pietro Crespi after he asks for her hand in marriage. i truly don't understandwhy she debnied. She had "chased" him for so long, and for her to not accept his proposal is confusing.

"He shot himself in the chest with a pistol and the bullet came out through his back without damaging any vital organ."

I don't understand why a person would fire a gun at themself without the intention of killing themself. So then what was the intention of Aureliano?

THEMES

Death- is definitely a theme in this chapter because Arcadio and Pietro Crespi both die. The war also causes many deaths in the town of Macondo.

War-is definitely a theme in this book because the whole town of Macondo is suffering because of this war.