This has been one of my favourite readings so far, and now I can really REALLY understand why Juan Rulfo used this novel as an inspiration for his writing. The themes of solitude and family were seen to stick throughout the novel, but the introduction and emphasis on themes such as religion and repetition is really interesting and allows us the readers to experience a different yet complementary side of the novel.

I would like to talk about the massacre on the train station in Macondo, and how even though Jose Arcadio Buendía told and would speak about the true version of the story, people would not consider it true and would rather belief the official statement that there was no tragedy surrounding Macondo or any acts of violence. Even though the people in Macondo knew this happened, they would rather ignore that side of the past and “move on” from it. It reminded me a lot of what happens in Latin America, specially a very dark moment in Mexico’s history of October 2nd of 1968. This was a day that a massacre of students took place in Tlatelolco and even though many people witnessed the horrors of this night, there are some citizens and even the government that lie to themselves and say that nothing happened. They would rather ignore the past. The similarities between Macondo and Mexico in this situation are astounding, and although this novel was published one year before this incident, I believe it is an accurate and sad portrayal of Latin American countries. We would rather forget and ignore about our bloody past.

But then this leaves us to discussion about the theme of repetition, how this is such an important theme in the novel. The family keeps making and repeating mistakes, Macondo is a place where they are not free from this “curse” of repeating mistakes, but how could they not keep repeating them if they do not akcnowledge them? I think that is a really interesting side of the story but what do you guys think? Do you also think that this applies not only for Macondo but for countries as well?

I would also like to talk about the ending of the book which I find to be really on “theme” with the rest of the book. I was expecting something big to happen, but the rather “simple” way Marquez ends the book really goes with this repetitive, cycle, ordinary theme that we have gotten throughout the book. There is really nothing to be expecting as we all figure out that the Buendía family are doomed to keep repeating their mistakes and even though we looked forward to it throughout the novel, we never really saw that happening.

Lastly I would want to note on the several ways solitude was represented in the novel, the first instances being Macondo appearing as a lonely and rural town, then Rebeca staying locked in her house and living there by herself, the rest of the family forgetting her, and also the portrayal of solitude through Ursula was really interesting.

A quick fun fact about this novel and my name: my mom loved this novel and decided to name her first child either Ursula or Rebeca because of the characters of this book, although now that I know what Rebeca’s and Ursula’s faith was I kind of wanted to have a conversation with my mom lol.