Apr
17
Gabriel Garcia Marquez 3
Posted by: | April 17, 2010 | Comments Off on Gabriel Garcia Marquez 3
The theme of death becomes quite apparent in this last section of the book as the Colonel Aureliano Buendia and Amaranta both pass away. These events seem to change the overall tone of the book as Macondo plunges into further darkness as sadness and solitude deeply affects each of its residents.
I thought it was very interesting that there may be a slight symbolic relation between Aramanta’s death and the loss of ‘innocence’ of the town of Macondo. Aramants dies with her chastity, and as her attribute of innocence dies with her, so does the town’s it seems. The people and the town lose their innocence through the increased appearance and acceptance of foreign technology that used to be strage to them. With the arrival of technology, their imagination and the concept of magical realism seems to fade. It is almost as though the arrival of technology makes the town loose a little of its spirit that it held through its ‘magical’ culture, and hence loose even more hope. the town is no longer so isolated and unique, and neither is its culture.
This loss of spirit or magical culture is also seen through the progrssion of Aureliano Buendia’s character, who in his youthwas the most imaginative character in the story who cared for feelings, whereas towards the end of the story he is detached from everyone else. I also found it interesting that although the characters become cold and distant there are relationships mentioned in this last section. I think that what differentiates these relationships from real closeness is the fact that they are mainly physical and do not serve for the most part for characters to be able to share and explore their feelings, hence no real closeness is established, and the feeling of emotional distance despite physical closeness is emphasized.
