Active Reading Chapter 13

Magical Elements:

The ghost of JAB, the patriarch of Macondo still walks the earth. Everyone sees him except his son, the Colonel.

Characters:

Ursula – almost one hundred years old but still active – is blind now – helps out as much as she can without her sight
Fernanda – rules the house like it is her little kingdom – is very stringent with her guests
Aureliano 2nd - leaves his wife – moves in with his mistress – but after a near death experience he goes to see his wife everyday – still throws his ludicrous parties

Summary:

Ursula is growing older, and is losing her sight. But she realizes that everyone in the family does the same old routine, so she uses all her other senses to get through life. She realizes that the dying Colonel never loved anyone, and that he did things only out of pride. She realized that Amaranta was scared to love. Jose Arcadio left to go to seminary school, while Meme went to the nunnery. Fernanda imposed her strict rigid-ness for the guests. This pushed Aureliano out of the house to his mistress Petra. His relationship with her went back to how it was at first. Everyone knew that Aureliano had left Fernanda for Petra. He got fat, rich, and threw parties continuously, and slaughtered many animals on a daily basis. He even got into a eating competition with a lady known as the Elephant because of his pride and his big appetite. But he passed out as he overate, and wanted to go to Fernanda’s, where he recovered after a few days. He switched up the way he lived, visiting Fernanda everyday, but still living with Petra.
Amaranta sewed her own shroud everyday, and lived as a marked virgin, with her burnt bandaged hand as her cross.
When Meme came home from school, Fernanda and Aureliano acted the married happy couple. One vacation, she came back with seventy-two people from her school, without warning. Those days were hell for the family. There were shifts to eat, to use the bathroom, to shower, and just about everything else.
Jose Arcadio 2nd still worked in the banana factory. He saw the Colonel a lot but was unable to get him out of solitary. The Colonel buried himself completely in his work. He would build two fish, melt them, and then reconstruct them. Then he would sleep and dream the same dream he dreamed for years. The circus came one day, he saw them, but when he tried to remember, he could not, and he died standing against the chestnut tree that JAB had been tied to for years. Santa Sofia found him dead the next day.


Quotes:

“‘Shit!’ [Ursula] shouted. Amaranta…thought she had been bitten by a scorpion. ‘Where is it?’ she asked in alarm. ‘What?’ ‘The bug!’ Amaranta said. Ursula put a finger to her heart. ‘Here,’ she said.”
This stood out because Ursula felt that her heart was bad, like loving was wrong, and that she had kept herself pure all those years for nothing. That’s why it stood out.

“Amaranta was on the point of causing panic because one of the nuns… asked what those handfuls of white powder were. ‘Arsenic,’ Amaranta answered.”
I thought that was hilarious. That is why it stood out. It was weird that someone as lonely as Amaranta would say something that funny.

Themes:

Death – Death has occurred again. The Colonel has died.