One Hundred Years of Solitude I

Good God, this book is confusing… Macondo dwellers should try and be a little more adventurous/original with their names, no? You should hear me attempting to explain this book to my friend… “So Jose marries Ursula… then Jose marries Rebeca… Colonel Aureliano and his 18 Aurelianos head to war where Aureliano dies!!” HUH, right? LOLAnyways, I hear (or read) everyone blaming the gypsies for helping Macondo fall apart… but I would rather blame the villagers of Macondo instead. The way I see it is that Macondo is like a family. And the only way to destroy a family is if you are successful at weakening the family. If the family is a strong, united family however, the slow destruction of the outsiders towards the family is impossible. Macondo, though, is not a strong village, and therefore the gypsies are able to seduce them and slowly weaken them. I’m excited to see the development of the title in the book; I do notice that with every marriage (incest to the fullest… gross) there is a downfall. Perhaps this will go on for one hundred years… Ursula is the strongest character; while her husband is the weakest. (I wonder what happened to this family for them to be condemned to see their family fall apart…) Even through loss and destruction Ursula maintains a sane head, and sticks firmly to her beliefs. Jose Arcadio Buendia however, is easily swept into the beliefs and teachings of the outsiders, the gypsies. Perhaps because he is the head of the family and he does wrong by allowing the teachings of the gypsies to over take him this is what leads to the corruption of his family. By the way.. Procrastination is terrible. Don’t try it. Ugh!