The figurative language in One Hundred Years of Solitude is weaved throughout the story. You don't always realize while reading how much of there it is, but going back and specifically looking for it, I found plenty. Marquez uses the language to make everything seem more fantastical. There are bright descriptive words and illustrating similes.
On page 118, of Pietro Crespi, it says,
"Sometimes, over a watercolor of Venice, nostalgia would transform the smell of mud and putrefying shellfish of the canals into the warm aroma of flowers. Amaranta would sigh, laugh, and dream of a second homeland of handsome men and beautiful women who spoke a childlike language, with ancient cities of whose past grandeur only the cats among the rubble remained. After crossing the ocean in search of it, after having confused passion with the vehement stroking of Rebecca, Peitro Crespi had found love."
That's an example of his descriptive qualities, molding floaty sentences with colorful words that help you picture whats going on and enjoy reading it all the more.
There is a constant flow of paragraphs such as this. On the next page, an obvious use of figurative language, is the simile comparing Amaranta to a small animal.
"Amaranta did not tremble at the contact with his icy hands. She withdrew hers like a timid little animal and went back to her work."
This shows us that Amaranta pulled away quickly and bashfully, like a small forest creature might. It enhances the prose greatly. If Marquez had simply said, "she withdrew hers and went back to her work", not only would it have been more boring, but we wouldn't have known how Amaranta reacted to his cold touch.
Marquez expertly blends and integrates his metaphors and descrpitive language with the story of these people's lives. It adds a lot to the reader's understanding of the events, as well as makes the telling of it more beautiful.
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At first I was confused by the different colored words, but then I understood. And I agree with the metaphors and descriptive words adding to the story, though I find that's consistent with all novels. Sometimes I find his descriptive metaphors are hard to distinguish from the mystical ideas of Macondo. For example Ursula and Jose's first child was born a pig. I understood that it was actually a pig, but was unsure with the meaning behind it.
ReplyDeleteI should have explained the colored-ness better, I apologize.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you meant to say in the last sentence that it was actually a pig, or that it wasn't actually a pig, because I think I remembered it just having a pig's tail, sort of like Dudley in Harry Potter. I don't think it was literally a piglet or anything...
I should've have clarified that too. Typing too fast, I guess. But just in general, in this book you can never be sure if metaphors are literal.
ReplyDeletewhat do the colors mean?
ReplyDeleteI agree about the metaphors, maybe he wanted it to be sort of up for interpretation, or just add to the magical hard to pin down-ness of the story.
ReplyDeleteThe colors are just to show the language I was talking about. So the purple was descriptive and colorful words, so to speak. The orange was the simile that I discussed.
ReplyDelete