Active Reading Chapter 16

Magical Elements:

The rain that lasted for almost five years. Mr. Brown had unleashed the storm on Macondo. Rain can’t last that long with no stop. This is magic.

Characters:

Petra Cotes – she has gone from a woman so confident about her lover, and that he won’t leave her for his wife – but now she is keeping herself alive with a hatred for that lover – he turned his back on her, and she forced herself to stay alive – seems to still want her old lover, the other twin

Summary:

The rain lasted for almost five years. Aureliano was losing weight. The little Aureliano, the grandson, was accepted by his grandpa, and was seen as the newest Buendia. Fernanda was going crazy with no correspondence form her invisible physicians. Ursula says that she will wait to die until the rain stops. The animals that Petra had were dieing in the floods, and Aureliano came to stay with her for three months. But then he moved back home with all his stuff. Aureliano spends all his time with Amaranta Ursula, his youngest daughter, and his grandson, little Aureliano. Fernanda continues with her craziness. She bugs Aureliano to the point where he breaks everything in the china. Ursula was completely losing her mind, mixing up the past with the present. Then Aureliano remembered that Ursula had buried the gold that had been in the saint and she had told no one. Then he found out that there were like seven thousand coins buried under Ursula’s bed, but they could not be dug out until the rain stopped. So now he became obsessed with finding the gold coins, despite the fact that Pilar had told him that he would have to wait at least three years to dig them out. The rain finally stopped, but it left Macondo in ruins. Together, everyone bought Macondo back to its original state. Petra had kept herself and her mule alive by feeding off her hatred.

Quotes:

“…his wife told [Aureliano] that there were only three pounds of dried meat and a sack of rice left in the pantry. ‘And what do you want me to do about it?’ he asked. ‘I don’t know,’ Fernanda answered, ‘That’s men’s business.’”
Uh! That is so sexist. Like a woman can’t figure out a way to feed her family when there is a flood going on.

“Aureliano asked them… what the devil they had done so as not to drown,… and…they all gave him the same answer. ‘Swimming.’”
I thought that was funny. But it is true. There is a flood that is pretty deep, so you’d figure you had to swim to get places.

Themes:

Magical Elements - The rain is magical, and that is one of the major themes.