One Hundred Years of Solitude: Active Reading Chapter 4

Magical elements:
§ The cloc-cloc of Rebeca’s parents’ bones. Bones cannot rattle on their own. They need to be moved. And since they were buried in the wall, nothing could be moving them. This is magic.

Characters:

§ Pietro Crespi – the Italian newcomer to Macondo – the guy who Rebeca likes and cries for when he leaves
§ Amaranta – will go to great lengths to prevent the marriage and the happiness of Rebeca - is in love with the same guy as Rebeca, Pietro
§ Rebeca – in love with Pietro – wrote letters to her love – goes crazy when she does not hear from Pietro – goes back to her old habit in her desperation
§ Remedios Moscote – the girl that Aureliano is in love with – still wets her bed – taught to read anal write by her husband-to-be – becomes fond of Aureliano eventually

Summary:
§ Ursula wants the finest things for her new home, and for Rebeca and Amaranta to be able to meet and greet new people. A new guy, Pietro Crespi, comes and he teaches the girls to dance. Ursula starts to plan a huge party, but they couldn’t figure how to fix the pianola. JAB managed to fix it, and the party lasted until dawn. Pietro comes back, and leaves a weeping Rebeca, with a promise of his return.
§ The departure of Pietro turned Rebeca back to her old ways of eating the dirt and sucking her thumb even at her older age. But one of the magistrate’s daughters, Amparo, comes to see the new house, and to give Rebeca a letter. This starts the unlikely friendship between Amparo and Rebeca, which gave hope to Aureliano that he might have a chance with the youngest daughter, Remedios. They met only once, but Aureliano never gave up hope.
§ Rebeca waited desperately for her love, and when he did not come, she drove herself into a frenzy from eating so much dirt. Aureliano tried to forget about Remedios, and went to go sleep with Pilar. She comforted him, and after realizing who he was in love with, promised to talk to Remedios. Ursula found the letters that Rebeca had written to Pietro, and regretted buying the pianola. Now, both Rebeca and Amaranta were sick. Aureliano made the announcement of his marriage to Remedios to his parents, which JAB disapproved of, but Ursula was happy for, since she liked the girls. JAB had one condition, for Rebeca to marry Pietro, and to send Amaranta to the capital to meet new people. They both get better after the good news, but Amaranta says that Rebeca will marry over her dead body.
§ The Moscotes were surprised that Aureliano wanted to marry the youngest kid, but they approved it. But he had to wait until she hit puberty, so she could have kids. Also, Melquiades died. He had drowned. Jab tried to resurrect him with the burning of mercury, but finally allowed him to be buried at the largest-attended funeral in Macondo. During the mourning days, Amaranta manages to tell Pietro her feelings for him, and that she would do anything to stop his wedding to Rebeca, even if Amaranta has to kill Rebeca. But they send Amaranta away for the rime being.
§ Aureliano teaches Remedios to read and write. Rebeca remains afraid of Amaranta’s threat, and asks Pilar to read her future. Pilar tells her that while her parents remain unburied, she will be unhappy. Amaranta and JAB searched for the bag of her parents’ bones, and found them buried inside one of the walls. They buried the bones that same day.
§ Pilar spends time now in the house, and with Aureliano in the lab, and she tells him that she is pregnant, but he had already figured it out. JAB becomes obsessed again, this time with pendulums. He sees the dead Prudencio, and turns crazy, destroying the lab, and finally getting tied up to a tree. Ursula and Amaranta come back and they build a hut to protect JAB form the rain.

Quotes:
· “Amaranta … whispers in … Rebeca’s ear: ‘Don’t get your hopes up. Even if they send me to the ends of the earth, I’ll find some way of stopping you from getting married, even if I have to kill you.’” It is horrible that murder is the length that women will go to so that they are the only ones happy. Shouldn’t Amaranta be happy for Rebeca? You would think so, but apparently, only Amaranta has the right to be happy. BS.
· “Pilar Ternera bit her lips with a sad smile. ‘That you’d be good in a war,’ she said. ‘Where you put your eye, you put your bullet.’” I had to read this part twice, but it is a funny metaphor. Pilar is pregnant, and Aureliano seems to have no problem with it, and wants his son to be named after him. It is a really good metaphor, so that is why it stood out for me.

Themes: