Journal: Meaningful Passage

Meaningful Passage:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Chapter 20, pages 378-383

This passage is about the birth of the last Buendia, the son of Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano. It was disgusting for them to be having a child, especially since Amaranta Ursula is Aureliano’s aunt. My first impression was that the baby could mean a fresh new start for the Buendia family, but then I learned that the baby had the tail of a pig. Then, Amaranta Ursula began to bleed excessively, and I knew there was no hope, since it seemed that all the Buendias were destined to die in some bad way. It was sad though, that she died when they were so much in love and so happy together.
Aureliano responded to her death as any loved one would act to the death of a significant other. He went into a stupor, a depression that only ended up causing more pain and suffering for him. He forgot about his newborn son which pissed me of. How could he forgot about an innocent baby just because the mother is now dead? I do understand somewhat, but that does not excuse his behavior. Why did the baby have to be carried off with the ants? That was so sad, that the baby Aureliano had to get eaten in such a disgusting matter and painful way too. But I guess this had to happen, since it lead Aureliano to discover his true identity, and how he was really the nephew of his lover, and that is how the tail came about. I always wondered what the title One Hundred Years of Solitude meant. I understand when Aureliano understood that a family was always destined to go through the life he went through, and that there was no second chance to fix their mistakes. Macondo was to be destroyed, and , already almost dead, the Buendia family.
It was sad to see that there was no happy ending, but I know that the point of the book was not to have a happy ending. I just wish that the family learned from their previous mistakes, but it does not seem that way, since Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano committed incest. But then again, they never knew their true parentage, so this is somewhat understandable. But then again, they were both searching for Aureliano’s parents, but they gave up because they thought it would bring about too much pain and suffering for them. Well, they probably should have kept looking, so as not to have what happened actually happen. They could have prevented it. But they did not. So it is on them two that the Buendia line ended the way it did.
I wonder how Marquez came up with this idea for a book about all this stuff. It was interesting, and I did find it funny to read. I just think that the work was too excessive. I could have found it, the book, so much more interesting if I read it through its entirety in one sitting, and not stretched out like this. I did like the fact that this book was so far off what I usually read. I probably would have not read it anytime in my life if it had not been assigned. This book, unlike the others from the summer, and the previous summer, was not boring and lame. It was good, and I kind of liked it.