Active Reading Chapter 6

Magical Elements:

• The smell of Pilar Ternera, that she smells like smoke all the time. That is how she is distinguished. I do not think that someone smells so strongly like smoke that they can be sought out in the town, like Arcadio did to Pilar.

Characters:

• Aureliano - leaves Arcadio in charge - goes off to war for a long time
• Arcadio - goes crazy bad with his rule - becomes the cruelest ruler ever - but runs from his grandma Ursula when she whips him
• Ursula - becomes the new ruler of Macondo - tries to back to its old ways

Summary:

• Aurelaino goes off to war, leaving Arcadio in charge. But Arcadio does bad stuff, having a firing squad, and whipping people. Ursula yelled at him and whipped him, and became the ruler of Macondo herself. Ursula still attends to her crazy husband, JAB. She tells him lies,and tries to actually believe them herself.
• Amaranta and Pietro are going to get married. They finally have that deep relationship that Amaranta had wanted. They were going to adopt Aureliano Jose, the son of aureliano and Pilar. But she ends up rejecting him and her planned marriage to him. Pietro goes crazy trying to win her back, but when he doesn't, he slits his wrists, killing himself in his depression.
• Ursula is saddened by his suicide. So was Amaranta, but Ursula ignored her. Amaranta even burned her hand purposely, but it did nothing for her. She would wear a black gauze oh her burnt hand until her death,most likely as a reminder of what she lost.
• Arcadio is lost, he no longer does anything, but feels that he was never a Buendia, since his dad abandoned him, and Pilar Ternera was his mom. He turns to his mom, but because he wants to sleep with her. She does not want to, but agrees to do it later that night. In the dark, Arcadio waits for her, but instead, he feels another girl, a virgin. He gets with her, and she has a daughter later on after he is named civil and military leader. No one knows about it, but Jose Arcadio and Rebeca. But Ursula finds out that he is building a house and that he has a six month old daughter, and that his girlfriend is pregnant again.
• Then a stranger comes to town, and tells Arcadio that Aureliano wants to surrender the town of Macondo, but allow the Liberals to live. Arcadio wanted to fight until death. The town was attacked. Ursula tried to protect Arcadio,but she couldn't. He was killed against the cemetary. But before he died, he named his unnamed daughter Ursula, and his unborn kid Jose Arcadio if it was a boy and Remedios if it was a girl.

Quotes:

• "'We leave Macondo in your care,' was all [Colonel Aureliano] said to Arcadio before leaving. 'We leave it to you in good shape; try to have it in better shape when we return.'" This stood out because Arcadio turned out to be the cruelest ruler that Macondo had ever known. So he did not do as his uncle said, but madeit even worse with its rule.
• "'I dare you to, murderer!' [Ursula] shouted. 'And kill me too, son of an evil mother. That way I won't have the eyes to weep for the shame having raised a monster.'" I guess that it stood out because you see to what lengths a mother will go to to set her kids or grandkids straight.

Themes:

• Solitude: Amaranta turns down Pietro with his proposal of marriage even though she is in love with him. She just wants to be alone.