One Hundred Years of Solitude: Active Reading Chapter 1

Magical Elements:

The magnets seem magical because Jose Arcadio Buendia actually ended up finding an old armor suit with a skeleton buried in the ground. I do not think that our magnets are able to find things buried in the ground, or at least not regular plain magnets.
Aureliano being able to tell when the pot of boiling soup is going to fall over. He says it is going to spill and it does. It is like he can see the future, like he has premonitions.

Characters:

Jose Arcadio Buendia- Founder of Macondo - Stubborn Dreamer - Father of three kids: Aurelian, Jose Arcadio, and Armaranta; does not pay much attention to his kids, except for the oldest, Aurelian, who shares his interests in alchemy - He expects his sons to be men (he is a demanding parent) - Has different obsessions: the magnet from the gypsies, learning alchemy, trying to make more gold out of his wife's inheritance
Ursula Iguaron- the wife and the cousin of Jose Arcadio Buendia - has a fear of incest - wore a chastity belt for a year after her marriage -
Melquiades - the gypsy that Jose Arcadio Buendia is obsessed with -
Jose Arcadio - the oldest son of Ursula & Jose Arcadio Buendia - has a square head - parents are thankful that he has no animal features to him - not so interested in his father's doings
Aureliano - has some kind of premonition-y power, because he can tell when certain things are going to happen

Summary

Aureliano has a flashback to when his father took him to discover ice.
At that time, Macondo was a small village, and the gypsies visited it often.
Aureliano's father, Jose Arcadio Buendia, met a gypsy called Melquiades, who showed them the eighth wonder: magnets.
Melquiades demonstrated how the magnets worked, and Jose Arcadio Buendia believed that they would be able to pull gold out of the ground; however, he was unsuccessful.
The gypsies came again, and they brought a telescope with them and a magnifying glass, and Jose Arcadio Buendia believed that they could use this as a weapon of war; however, after waiting several years, he never received an answer from the government.
The gypsy gave him supplies to study the moon, stars, and the world, and Jose Arcadio Buendia came to the conclusion that the world was round, but nobody believed him.
Melquiades came back, this time with a laboratory for Jose Arcadio Buendia, who spent weeks in it, trying to make more gold out of Ursula's inheritance of coins. Again, he was unsuccessful.
Ursula, upset with all of her husband's obsessions, attempted to turn the village against the gypsies. But they were curious, so her attempts were useless.
Everyone was wondering if Jose Arcadio Buendia was crazy or under some spell.
Before they founded Macondo, the villagers had wandered around looking for an outlet to the sea, but after more than two years, they settled down in Macondo.
They went searching again for the sea, and after a while they woke up one day to find a Spanish galleon right before them. Then Jose Arcadio Buendia realized that they were surrounded by the sea on all sides. It was drawn up as a peninsula.
Jose Arcadio Buendia wanted to leave Macondo, so he began packing up their possessions until Ursula told him that she would die to ensure that everyone stays in Macondo; Jose Arcadio Buendia had to stay.
Jose Arcadio Buendia gets his kids to help him in the laboratory. Then the gypsies come back, but without Melquiades, who has died.
Then, Jose Arcadio Buendia takes his kids to discover ice.

Quotes:

"The earth is round, like an orange." Jose Arcadio Buendia told this to his family, but to me, it was the response he got that stood out. Everyone thought that he was crazy. It makes me wonder about what time that this takes place. It was just funny to me, so that's why it stood out.
"It's the largest diamond in the world." "No," the gypsy countered. "It's ice." Jose Arcadio Buendia shows his ignorance, about how naive he is. It is funny that people did not know what ice was back then, whenever this took place.

Themes: