FL 380: An Archaeology of the "Boom": Modern Latin American Prose Fiction


Reading Guide to García Márquez #2
One Hundred Years of Solitude

  1. 106 A preview to the wars: "Colonel Aureliano Buendía organized..."
  2. 107 The allure of power: "Arcadio gave a very personal interpretation.."
  3. 108 Úrsula's strength: "I dare you to, bastard!"
  4. 109 Life and Fiction: "Then she decided to lie to him..."
    a. 110 "She got to be so sincere in the deception that..."
  5. 112 Amaranta's character: "Don't be simple, Crespi..."
    a. Solitude: "Don't waste your time..."
  6. 113 A lay saint of love: "In a way that neither you nor I can understand..."
  7. 113 A stupid cure for remorse: "...put her hand into the coals"
  8. 114 Solitude: "She had lost Arcadio, not when he had put on..."
  9. 115 Mother & Son: "Don't play the saint . . . you're a whore."
  10. 116 Santa Sofía de la Piedad
  11. 117 A partnership: Arcadio and José Arcadio take the land.
  12. 119 Cross-dressing and military technique: Gregorio Stevenson
  13. 122 The other side of solitude: "He thought about his people ..."
  14. 126 Úrsula's resolve: "So if you have orders to shoot, start..."
  15. 127 A crucial revelation: "Time passes (. . .) but not so much."
  16. 128 The colonel and death: "he thought that death would be announced"
  17. 132 Brotherhood: "Don't shoot..."
  18. 134 Remedios, José Arcadio Segundo (II) and Aureliano Segundo (II) daughter and sons of Arcadio and Santa Sofía de la Piedad.
  19. 135 Magical Realism: "A trickle of blood came out under the door..."
    a. 136 "They scrubbed him so much that the arabesques..."
  20. 137 The confused nature of life: "This is silly; the defenders..."
  21. 139 Disenchantment: "Tell me something, old friend: why are you..."
    a. Existential angst: "Or fighting, like you, for something that..."
  22. 141 Amaranta's pride: "I don't have to go around hunting for men..."
  23. 143 The insane and the dead: "...the only person with whom he was able to have contact for a long time was Prudencio Aguilar."
    a. "the tedious Sundays of death..."
    b. "the dream of the infinite rooms..."
  24. 144 Magical Realism: "...a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling."
  25. 145-146 Incest revisited: "He felt Amaranta's fingers searching..."
  26. 153 Incest and Repetition: "Can a person marry his own aunt?"
    a. "I don't care if they're born as armadillos..."
  27. 154 A curious custom: "...of sending virgins to the bedrooms of soldiers..."
  28. 162 Úrsula's tenacity: "but don't forget that as long as..."
  29. 163 General Moncada's views: "At this rate. . . you'll not only..."
  30. 167 Amaranta's solitude: "But for four years he kept repeating..."
    a. "Let's forget about each other forever..."
  31. 168 The weariness of war: "Don't be a jackass, Gerineldo..."
  32. 170 Power and its ravages: "The same night that his authority..."
    a. 171 "Lost in the solitude of his immense power..."
  33. 172 Meaningless Struggles: "That means. . . that all we're fighting for is power."
    a. "If these changes are good, it means that the Conservative..."
  34. 173 Úrsula's threat: "But I give you one warning..."
    a. Her intimation: "It's the same as if you'd been born..."
  35. 175 The Colonel will to power: "...a defeat that was much more difficult and much more bloody and costly than victory."
  36. 177-178 The Colonel realizes: "that Úrsula was the only human being who had succeeded in penetrating his misery (. . .) the war has done away with everything."
  37. 179 Literature: "They're things that a person writes to himself."
  38. 181 A rebel arrives at Neerlandia: Read: García Márquez's No Letter for the Colonel
  39. 184 The government and the military pensions: "They'll die of old age waiting for the mail to come."
  40. 187 A destiny: "That's what they're all like. . . crazy from birth."
  41. 189 Literature: "When he finished the book (. . .) deciphering the manuscripts."
    a. A visit: "Aureliano II recognized him at once..."
  42. 190 A cautionary remark: "No one must know their meaning until..."
  43. 191 Sex in the farm: "There are some corrupt Christians..."
  44. 192-193 Petra Cotes: "At the end of two weeks Aureliano II realized..."
  45. 194 A Pope is born: "This one will be a priest..."
  46. 197 Petra Cotes and Aureliano II's "delirious prosperity."
  47. 199 Úrsula's realization: "I know all this by heart..."
  48. 200 Remedios the Beauty: "It was a long time before..."
    a. The solitude of physical perfection.
    b. 202 "Remedios the Beauty was not a creature of this world."
  49. 205 The Colonel's solitude: "Waiting for my funeral procession to pass."
  50. 209 The power of desire: "The only candle that will make him come..."
  51. 210 Fernanda del Carpio: "a woman who was lost in the world."
    a. 211 "One day you will be a queen."
    b. 214 "Fernanda carried a delicate calendar with small golden..."
    c. 215 "I married a Sister of Charity."
    d. 216 "Thifisif . . . ifisif onefos ofosif thofosif..."
  52. 218 Renata Remedios, daughter to Fernanda and Aureliano II
  53. 221 SEVENTEEN Aurelianos: "They smashed half of the dishes..."
    a. 222 Magical Realism: "...when the youngest tried to clean his forehead..."
  54. 226 Úrsula confirms her hunch: "...time was going in a circle."
  55. 228 The train: "that was to bring so many ambiguities...."
  56. 229 Cinema: "They became indignant over the living images..."
  57. 230 Progress: "It was as if God had decided to put to the test..."
  58. 231 One gringo: Mr. Herbert: "Among those theatrical creatures, wearing..."
    a. 231 "Later on Mr. Jack Brown arrived in an extra coach..."
    b. 233 "The gringos, who later on brought their languid wives..."
    c. 233 "No one knew yet what they were after..."
    d. 233 "Endowed with means that had been reserved for Divine..."
    e. 234 "Look at the mess we've got ourselves into... some bananas."
  59. 238 Remedios the Beauty revealed: "In reality, it made no difference..."
    a. 240 "Remedios Buendía did not give a off a breath of love but..."
    i. "...possessed powers over death..."
    b. 241 "Perhaps, not only to attain her but also to conjure away..."
    c. 242 Magical Realism: "Quite the opposite . . . I never felt better."
    d. 243 "Fernanda, burning with envy, finally accepted the miracle..."
  60. 244 The Banana Company: "This is a regime of wretches."
    a. 245 "During the course of that week, at different places..."
  61. 246 The Colonel's anger: "As had happened with the death..."
  62. 248 The Colonel and death: "Tell him. . . that a person doesn't die when he should but when he can."
  63. 249 The Colonel and Age: "Oh, Aureliano. . . I already knew..."
  64. 251 Úrsula's conviction: "The years nowadays don't pass the way..."
    a. 252 "she discovered that every member of the family..."
    b. 253 "You're not sitting where you're supposed to."
    c. 254 "She realized that Colonel Aureliano Buendía..."
    d. 254 "Amaranta, however, whose hardness of heart..."
    e. 255 "Rebeca, the one with an impatient heart..."
    f. 257 "Shit!" she shouted.
  65. 259 Fernanda's alienation: "But that heroic gesture was just..."
  66. 265 Meme's barbarity: "How awful. . . This child is as much..."
  67. 267 Solitude: "In reality, José Arcadio II was not a member..."
  68. 273 The final solitude of death: "Then he went to the chestnut tree..."