Active Reading Chapter 17

Magical Elements:

The twins dying at the same moment has some magical element.

Characters:

Jose Arcadio 2nd – feared that he would be buried alive – kept on insisting that those three thousand were killed
Aureliano 2nd – wanted to send his kid away to school so he died trying

Summary:

Since the rain stopped, Ursula has gotten better. She is getting back on her feet. She cleans up the house to its old way, and finally gets into Mel’s room, where Jose Arcadio is still locked up. Jose Arcadio refused to leave the room, and Ursula let him be, but cleaned it and him everyday. Then Fernanda got news that her son the other Jose Arcadio would be coming home. Aureliano had moved back to Petra’s. They made a raffling off their animals to scrape a living, and the people grew accustomed to the raffles. Aureliano and Petra fell back in love and relived their old loving romantics, and always put Fernanda’s needs in front of their own. Ursula kept getting crazy, and was shrinking. They knew she was going to die soon. And she did die, on Good Friday. Rebeca died that same year. The whole town was dreary, as was the Buendia home after Ursula’s death. Fernanda has her telepathic surgery, and her invisible doctors tell her that nothing was wrong with her except she had to take pessaries. Amaranta Ursula was sent to school, while Aureliano stayed at home, and Santa Sofia took acre of her son Jose Arcadio in Mel’s room. Jose Arcadio taught Aureliano how to read, and taught him all he knew. Together, they believed the incident that left those three thousand dead. Aureliano 2nd flet his throat getting tight, and thought that Fernanda was practicing witchcraft on him, so he took her pessaries, and she thought that the doctors were trying to punish her. Then Aureliano 2nd figured out that he was dying, and he had wanted to send Amaranta Ursula to Brussels to study so he worked harder than ever to accomplish it. He finally figured out a way to send her there, and he did. Jose Arcadio 2nd died in Mel’s room, in front of Aureliano. At the same time, his twin, Aureliano 2nd, died. The twins were buried together, in identical coffins. Santa Sofia made sure that her son was not buried alive, so she cut Jose Arcadio’s throat. But then the people buried them in the wrong graves.

Quotes:

“‘Lord save us!’ [Ursula] exclaimed. ‘So much trouble teaching you good manners and you end up living like a pig.’”
This stood out because I had already forgotten about Jose Arcadio 2nd and thought he had died already…I guess not. J

“’I’m alive!’ Ursula said. ‘You can see,’ Amaranta Ursula said, suppressing her laughter, ‘that she’s not even breathing.’ ‘I’m talking,’ Ursula shouted. ‘She can’t even talk,’ Aureliano said. ‘She died like a little cricket.’”
That was bogus what they were doing, playing around with Ursula like she was already dead, but she was not. But it was pretty funny, too.

Themes:

Death – Ursula, Rebeca, and the twins all died.