Energy

The return of Amaranta Ursula was a huge and very necessary relief.  She is able to bring positive energy and possibility back to Macondo.  Her husband decides to bring an airmail service to Macondo, although he fails in doing this, it gave me something to look forward too while reading.  The air-service also bring the possibility of a new invention (the airplane) to Mocondo.

Jose Arcadio's return

In light of the recient events of the church, I thought that it was quite odd that when Jose Arcadio returns from Rome, he opens up the house to boys.  He slowly has a tighter and tighter relationship with them, and eventually is even bathing with them.  While I hope that this is the full extent of their relationship, I think that it is very possible that it is not.

Last Son

Watching the last of the Colonel's sons get shot on the door step to his own house was again a disappointment.  The way that the story has turned, it made sense but I was never the less hoping that something was going to come of him.  I was also rather disappointed when the four boys came back and stole the money.  I thought that even though he had no need for it, it would have been nicer if Aureliano was the one to find it.

Killing of the sons

I was rather disappointed when all but one of the sons of CAB were killed.  Although they were in part responsible for the many new and not so nice additions to Macondo, I found them to be characters with a lot of potential for the rest of the story.  I am now particularly looking forward to what his eldest son will accomplish, being the only one left alive.  The new additions to Macondo were rather shocking to me, I did not in the least expect Macondo to develop into a rough town.  The size increase was not all that shocking, but the way in which the incomers behaved and separated themselves was.  Remedios the Beauty was also a character that caught my attention.  Firstly, the way that she over simplified everything was rather clever.  She ended up getting to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.  The way that all of the "gringos" were attracted to her was another piece of the story that I thought could have a lot of potential, possibly setting Remedios up to be a very powerful figure.  This opportunity was taken away when she literally ascended.  One day when in the backyard, strong winds came and carried her into the sky.  Although not the ending of Remedios the Beauty I was looking for, this type of even has come to be expected by this point in the novel.

Memory

Memory comes up throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude.  The village nearly falls to insomnia, when people die they become memories, when Colonel Aureliano Buendia goes to sign the peace treaty he destroys all physical memory of himself.  An interesting note about the memory of Colonel Aureliano Buendia and his present self is the difference between the two.  He has returned a man beaten by war that appears to have very little emotion left and certainly does not care about his old hobbies such as crafting the gold fish.  When the village looses all memory, it falls into the hands of a deck of cards.  Memory is the way that we recall the past.  It is not necessarily accurate and therefore not always true.  I do not believe that heredity memory exits in reality although I am sure there are plenty of people who would argue the point.  In these ways, memory not only what makes us intelligent, able to speak, read, and write, but also human.

Current Event

While this does not apply to what we have been reading in class I found it to be an interesting article that applies present day Latin America.

Venezuela's Chavez Calls for Obama to End U.S. Embargo on Cuba
By Steven Bodzin

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for U.S. Senator Barack Obama, favored in opinion polls to win the presidential election on Nov. 4, to end his country's trade embargo of Cuba.

``A black man may become president of the U.S., and we can say that's no small thing,'' Chavez said in a speech on state television. ``Hopefully, the next government of the U.S. will listen to the mandate, not just of morals, ethics and the times, but also the mandate of the UN that days ago voted, once more, asking the U.S. to eliminate its savage blockade of Cuba.''

The U.S. declared a trade embargo on Cuba almost 50 years ago and has maintained it in the face of criticism from around the world. In a United Nations vote Oct. 29, 185 nations pressed the U.S. to drop the embargo, with only the U.S., Israel and Palau voting against the resolution.

Venezuela is one of Cuba's closest allies. Chavez referred to Cuba's government during the broadcast as having a common government with Venezuela, and he offered his customary greeting to Fidel Castro, the former Cuban president, by saying ``How are you, Fidel?'' in English.

Chavez also called on the U.S. to end ``threats'' against Venezuela and Iran, without elaborating.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Bodzin in Caracas at sbodzin@bloomberg.net

This article is from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=akxvk6N5NAOE&refer=latin_america

I did not know that our Embargo on Cuba was so widely criticized.  It shocked me that only three countries in the entire world voted for it.  I also thought that this article demonstrated how strong of an ally Israel is, and that Palau is clearly trying to get on our good side.  I also don't see how the embargo can be all that effective since no one else is participating in it.  It also seems that if this Embargo is effecting Cuba in such a strong way, it is probably effecting the United States as Well.  My last thought on it was that John McCain is not addressed in the article at all.  I wonder if this is because they do not think he will be elected or if they think that he will be to stubborn if he is.

Pentachrome - Julia de Burgos

Pentachrome follows a similar theme to other poems that we have already read.  It talks about how a poet can be what they want to be when they are writing.  This goes along with Ars Poetica in that a poet can create what they want to create.  When I wrote about Ars Poetica it was commented that similar situations would come as the course developed.  This is definitely the case here and I again like the poem as it is not all the hard to understand.  The first five stanzas are all relatively on the same track of a poet feeling free when they are writing and being whatever they want.  The odd part of this poem is that Julia de Burgos is talking about being a man in every one of these stanzas.  Here I get the feeling that she feels limited being a woman and would enjoy having the experiences of being a General, Hero, Bandit, or Laborer.  The last stanza is the toughest but I believe that is simply exemplifying the fact that she wishes she could have some of these experiences.  She states more exciting things that she could do if she were a man and then says that she would "rape Julia de Burgos" her current self.  This is a pretty clear statement that she thinks a lot more can be accomplished by the masculine gender and that he being female may be holding her back.