Welcome to Week 1 of our Discussion. This discussion will last from Monday, February 23rd to Sunday, March 1.
This week's discussion is on Character. Please POST a 10 sentence comment on character. Don't forget to comment on 5 other posts on this blog. You have all week to complete this assignment, but don't wait until the last minute!!!
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So far in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez seems to jump around from charecter to charecter a lot. For instance, he opened the book talking about Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who was dying, but then went on to talk about Jose Arcadio. Then, he seemed to tell a small story about each of the different charecters. This was a bit confusing at first, but is now making more sense. Each charecter seems to be described by the things he does. For example, in the case of Jose Arcadia Buendia, we learn of his curiousity with science, and the Gypsies. In my opinion, Marquez is unraveling the story of the whole family by first uncovering stories about each of the different family members.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Linnea, that Marquez seems to be building the story through the lives and experiences of different characters. I think it will continue to follow these characters, but gradually take on the younger generations as there are more and more of them. It's an interesting approach, because then we will be aware of a lot of the family and town history so we can make more connections as far as cause and effect, and other various plot twists.
ReplyDeleteAs far as characters in general, I feel like the characterization in One Hundred Years of Solitude is, not to say two dimensional, but the characters, their dreams, and their realities seem awfully simplistic. He seems to give characters a basic personality, with a few noticeable traits, and point out a few of their feelings and desires, and then move on. It might be because there are so many characters to cover, or simply because it is his style of writing.
ReplyDeleteHe does, however, use how characters react to specific situations to show their personality. For instance, Ursula consistently resists her husband's eccentric projects and expeditions. This isn't to say she doesn't love or support her husband, she's just not prepared to humor all of his fantasies. She has her children to look out for. Jose Arcadio Buendia, on the other hand, has seemingly never noticed his children, until Ursuala specifically references them as a reason not to leave. Its sad to think the affect this has had on the children up until then, having a father too obsessed and occupied by his own experiments to even be affected by their existence.
There is also something that seems cold and foreign to me in the way families the town seem to function. The whole not bothering with his kids for a lot of their childhood, and randomly murdering another man for one insult, along with an overall sense of estrangement in the community leaves me wondering once again, if it is they style of writing, or if this nonexistent town is really just that much different, culturally and time period wise, than ours.
Linnea, I agree the characterization is very confusing at first, but I don't feel like it will get any better, and we'll just have to adjust to Marquez's style.
ReplyDeleteI also relate Marquez's style of writing to fables or folk lore because of the way he keeps his distance from each character. We see many actions performed by the characters, but we never get much into their head. It might be, like Greta said, there are simply too many characters and points to cover to go into detail on each one. Marquez has a omniprescent third person point of view, like many fables.
Replying to Greta's first comment,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about how they are building town history, and making it more personal. Afterall isn't this novel supposed to revolve around this one town and the people who live in it? I think it make the story more interesting, because I feel myself really connecting to the charecters.
Replying to Greta's Second Post,
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting how he does make everything so simplistic, it seems he almost is trying to TELL us the story, by tell I am referring to tell us in speaking, like a story passed down from generations. Maybe since this is a whole family he can't put in all of the small details, because then the story would be too long- there is a lot to cover in the family history. Greta, what you said about how it is sad the how Jose Arcadio doesn't pay attention to his children, I don't necessarily agree with. I do think he primarily cares about himself, but isn't Marquez trying to introduce us to each individual charecter, not the interactions with others?
Sam-
ReplyDeleteI know it is a bit confusing, and I know I will have to get used to it, I think the more immersed I am put in the story the more I will get out of it. Going back to what you said about the "folk" aspect, I think Marquez is really trying to feel like we are learning about people that were real.
Linnea commenting on my comment, I don't quite understand what you were trying to say in the last line or so of your post. Possibly clarify, please?
ReplyDeleteAlso a question, not exactly relating to characters, but does anyone know how the gypsies fit into the storyline? I have not gotten too far into the book, so will it be revealed to me? But I'm a tad confused on how they got into this magical village and where they obtained the ice and all that. Can anyone help?
ReplyDeleteMarquez seems to share some characterization ideas with McCarthy, the main one being the 'show not tell' method. As in, Marquez will not directly explain each characters' feeling, but instead demonstrate their emotions through actions and dialogue. For example when Jose Arcadio is seduced by Pilar, Marquez does not display Arcadio's emotions, but rather Pilar's body or Arcadio sneaking into her house. Perhaps this is just the way Marquez writes. Or he could be trying to establish Arcadio's apathy. Maybe he doesn't feel much of anything, and he just works straight out of his head. But we do have this feeling with all of the characters.
ReplyDeleteAlso the constant flashbacks and memories are extremely confusing. It's hard to sift through the plot, when you don't know what's happening and what's already happened. But I believe once we are used to Marquez's style, it will be much much easier to understand.
To Linnea, about her post on my second post (wow this is getting ridiculous...)
ReplyDeleteI agree that Marquez is introducing us to each character, but a part of what he introduces to us about Jose Arcadio Buendia is that he was too caught up in his own experiments to notice his children, which is pretty sad, and not a characterization tactic necessarily, but part of the characterization itself. If that makes any sense. And I think interactions through others is actually one of the ways Marquez goes about characterization, since we don't, like Sam mentioned, get inside the characters heads directly.
Also, it's interesting how Jose Arcadio Buendia is always referred to as his entire name, but Ursula is just Ursula, and so on.
Sam, about your question on the gypsies, I'm not super far into the book, but I feel like they're just one of the mythical aspects of the story we just have to accept. The things they bring and their strange abilities just keep getting, well, stranger. It seems just to add to the fantastical whimsicalness of the town, and so far there have been no straight forward explanations.
ReplyDeleteI think, however, that they discovered ice from other villages and cities that are more advances and developed than Maconda, and they take advantage of these inventions by bringing them around, sort of like a circus, to other towns that have not yet seen these now advances. They just travel to the city like anyone else would, I am assuming.
And now on your latest post, Sam, I agree that when coming to conclusions based on the show not tell method, such as apathy of characters, it is hard to distinguish, as he approaches all of their characterization in a similar fashion. I also agree about the plot being confusing and almost jumbled, but hopefully once we can fit all of the pieces together later on in the novel, things will become clearer.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of confusing, I also have trouble keeping characters separate sometimes because of their names, how most of them start with A. This has been a problem for me because my eyes usually just skim the names, taking in mostly the first letter to recognize who is being spoken of, but when they are all similar and start with A's, except for Ursula and the ones that start with P's, it is more difficult to keep track.
Sam-
ReplyDeleteTo clarify what I mean... By saying "real" people, I mean like people that actually existed, saying that Marquez really knew this family, it's not just something fictional out of a story book, does that make sense?
Sam, Commenting on your comment about charecterization-
ReplyDeleteI agree with the constant flashbacks statement, right now I am trying to understand the firing squad and the Colonel, and how it will fit into the text, as I was looking ahead in the book they bring him up again, which is even more confusing because didn't we already read about his death? The "show not tell" method in my opinion is also a part of this whole "folk tale" thing. But I almost enjoy it more, because I think every action seems to show one more charecteristic, I enjoy putting the "peices" together in my head.
To Linnea, regarding your second latest post:
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you are to this part in the book yet, but one of the non main characters last name is Marquez, so this could be even more proof that he wants it to seem as if they were real people, that his ancestors knew, or something of that order.
to Greta's latest comment!
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know where these stories originate from? or are they just Marquez's own writing? I was curious as to if these were traditional stories that Marquez elaborated on or not. Or if they are just Marquez's ancestor's stories exaggerated.
Linnea, commenting on my comment on characterization.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I like the effect Marquez has with the flash backs. Personally, its just a bit too much for me. But I definitely like his style of writing, and besides from the constant bewilderment of characters, it's very easy to read.