More Active Reading Chapters 11-18

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Magical Realism: Ursula predicts the destiny of her great great grandson which has happened times before in the book. Also all 17 Aurelianos get ashes on Ash Wednesday and they never come off.

Character Development: Fernanda del Carpio is introduced in the chapter. Rebeca is still living as a hermit.

Plot Summary

The chapter starts by introducing Fernanda and then Aureliano Segundo starts to like her. He looks throughout the town for her and when he finds her, they marry.She gets pregnant and gives birth to Renata Remedios also known as Meme and Jose Arcadio also known as baby Jose. Ursula believes that he will become pope. However they are total opposites and in order to keep his animals in top condition, he still has sex with Petra Cotes. Simultaneously Fernanda is trying to transform the buendia house into one of her liking. Aureliano Buendia gets an award on the anniversary of the war and all 17 of his kids come to see him. Since it was Ash Wednesday they got their ashes which never came off their heads. The Aurelianos decide to try and build an ice factory in memory of Jose the Father's dream. Segundo and one of the 17 Aurelianos build a railroad.

Quotes

1. "Petra Cotes, aware of her strength, showed no signs of worry. She had made a man out of him While he was still a child she had drawn him out of Melaquiades' room, his head full of fantastic ideas and lacking any contact with reality, she gave him a place in the world. " - This quote tells that Aureliano Segundo was somewhat like a servant to Petra because of what they did. It tells us that if a conflict were to arise between his new wife Fernanda and her that she would not be worried about it in the least.

2."I was saying" she would say, "that you're one of those people who mix up their ass and their ashes."- This quote is where Aramanta gets fed up with Fernanda and her quest to change the house.

Themes

Hostility- Fernanda hates Petra Cotes because her husband would rather live with her and Colonel Aureliano resent the honor award that he was going to get because he didn't want to be made a fool of.




CHAPTER TWELVE

Magical Realism: Remedios ascended to heaven in this chapter and what makes it magical is that she was still alive when she ascended.

Character development: Macondo even though not a person, has developed a large amount because of the new railroad. Also Aureliano has become a supporter of war once again.

Plot Summary

Macondo is getting bigger and better by the second in this chapter and it now has movie theaters, hookers and imports. However everyone is not ecstatic about the new changes. Remedios the Beauty is unaware of what is happening around her and goes to heaven and never comes back. The plantation owners set up a police system are punishing and attacking people for the smallest things. Aureliano decides to declare another war since he has 17 boys to fight for him. However 16 of them die by getting shot in the head where their ashes from Ash Wednesday would not rub off. Aureliano wants to start another war and asks Gerineldo to help but he refuses.

Quotes

1. "I just wanted to see you"- This is a quote from a stranger who wants to watch Remedios the Beauty take a shower even though the tiles are breaking and he could fall and die. This shows how a woman can affect how someone thinks and how they act.

2. "One of these days I'm going to arm my boys so we can get rid of these shitty gringos!"- This quote is Aureliano's way of getting ready for war.

Themes

Rapid Change- This theme is evident through the city of Macondo as well as the characters in the book, Aureliano changes once again with his opinion on war.


CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Magical Realism: Ursula is remembering people's daily routines, and Colonel Aureliano uses the bathroom on his father's ghost.

Character Development: Ursula is getting older, Aramanta is preparing for death, Fernanda is still trying to change the way the household operates and Colonel Aureliano Buendia is so depressed by the previous war that he dies.

Plot Summary

Ursula is slowly but surely dying but is still trying to get Jose Arcadio the baby to be a pope. However when he and his sister Meme go away to school Ursula is upset that the house is so empty. Fernanda takes this as an opportunity to force her lifestyle upon the buendia family. Aureliano Segundo disagrees with this and leaves the house to stay with his little side girl Petra Cotes and competes in eating contests where he almost dies. He comes back every time his kids come back just so that they would have the security of knowing that they do actually have a father in their lives. Jose Arcadio Segundo comes to talk to Colonel Aureliano but he continues his life of solitude and his hobby of making gold fish slowly comes to a stop. He soon dies afterwards.

Quotes

1. "He won't ever come into this house again as long as he carries the rash of the foreigners." - This quote shows us that Fernanda is not affected by her husband's decision to leave the house.

2. " It's your fault you're not sitting where your suppose to".-This quote shows that Ursula is getting older and is going blind because she knows where people usually sit and now they are not.

Themes

Seclusion- Ursula becomes upset because she realizes the house is uncomfortably empty and Aureliano is making it more and more clear that he want to be alone and is ready to die.


CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Magical Realism: Amaranta sees herself dying, which is not normal in the least bit and she offers to hold letters from people send to the dead which is not normal at all. Also yellow butterflies follow Meme's boyfriend Mauricio Babilonia.

Character Development: Meme now acts just like her father and gets interested in men and Ursula stay in solitude now because of the death of her only daughter Amaranta.

Plot Summary

This chapter starts off with the birth of Fernanda and Aureliano's third child Amaranta, Ursula. Amaranta now ignores the outside world and focuses on the past and all of the memories that she has about her life. She tells the town that she is going to die at dusk because she saw it in a daydream that she had and now told people that she would take cards and letters to the afterlife. Amaranta Buendia dies and her mother Ursula now stays in her bed. Baby Amaranta comes to visit her frequently and they grow a strong bond. Meme and Aureliano Segundo are now together and the two find more and more in common with each other such as their hatred for Fernanda. Meme starts to hang out with American people and hooks up with a plantation worker named Mauricico Babilonia that stays with yellow butterflies following him constantly. They go out to a movie and Fernanda catches them kissing and locks Meme in the house. This doesn't stop Mauricio though, he sneaks back into the house to have sex with Meme but when he gets caught, the guard shoots him and paralyzes him for life.

Quotes

1. "The first thing I'll do when I get there is to ask for him and give him your message." - This quote enforces the fact that Amaranta really believes that she will come in contact with someone in the afterlife.

2. "This child is as much of a barbarian as her father!"- This quote is from Frenanda and shows that even though they are still married and still having children, that they don't really like each other as much as they thought they would that one day at the carnival.

Themes

Bad Luck- The unfortunate death of Amaranta is just bad luck in regards to her mother as well as the shootings at the Buendia house and getting Mauricio paralyzed for life.


CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Magical Realism: The whole town forgetting what happened when the government shot up the whole plantation is nothing but magical because such violence should be learned in Macondonian history classes. Also the heavy rain erasing all traits of it is magical realism as well because granted rain can wash away some proof but yet there should still be guns lying around somewhere where the people can see the destruction.

Character Development: Jose Arcadio Segundo changes from a leader to yet another person who hides in order to stray from their problems.

Plot Summary

In chapter 15, Meme is forced to live in the city her mother was born in and become a nun there. Her baby, named Aureliano is sent back to the Buendia house and placed in a room because Fernanda is ashamed of her daughter's actions. Jose Arcadio Segundo on the other hand is defending his plantation workers because they are getting treated unfairly. Thinking they were going to have a meeting to resolve the problem, they went to the government, but it was all a trap and the workers all get killed, except for Jose who escapes from the train all the dead bodies were on. He comes back to macondo where no one knows about the murders and hides in his old house. Eventually he gets caught and continues studying Melaquiades' books and trying to keep alive his workers' memories.

Quotes

1. “It’s as if the world were repeating itself”- This quote from Ursula tells us that she notices the repetition of the family's actions.

2. "Cultivation stopped halfway, the fruit rotted on the trees and the hundred-twenty-car trains remained on the sidings"- This shows that the strike is officially on but little did those workers know that it would lead to their deaths.

Themes

Lies- This theme is expressed through the origin of Meme's baby as Fernanda told it as well as how everyone thought the workers were on a train but in all actuality they were killed.


CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Magical Realism: Continuous rain for 5 years is magical ant at the same time real because of Hurricane Katrina we've learned that rain can go on for a long time but not 5 years. The town is also forgetting more and more by the second. Lastly, Aureliano Segundo has changed from outgoing to quiet.

Character Development: Ursula is inching towards death and the Buendia house is getting old and dilapidated.

Plot Summary

The chapter starts off with aureliano segundo beginning to care for the children, Armanta Ursula and Aureliano and Meme who is the son, who has escaped from the room Fernanda hid him. Ursula is growing more senile, and talks the kids who learn from her stories. Fernanda tries contacting doctors, who are trying to heal her from a disease and she also is bothering her husband, Aureliano Segundo, who gets fed up and breaks everything in the house. Aureliano Segundo tries to find the money in gold coins that Úrsula hid in the backyard. The banana plantations have been washed away, and the town is losing memory.

Quotes

1. "Please shut up,"- This quote from Aureliano Segundo to Fernada tells us that he is getting fed up with how he is being talked to and wishes it would stop.

2. "I'm only waiting for the rain to stop in order to die."- This quote shows us that Macondo has become a place where not many people wanted to live.

Themes

Magical- This chapter starts and focuses on how it rains for almost five years and how it affects the family.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Magical Realism- Ursula is extremely old and is reaching 120 years of age. Jose Arcadio Segundo is still stuck in Melaquiades' room after years of sitting and studying which is definitely magical. Lastly, the twin brothers Jose Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo die at the same time and that is unheard of in any time period.

Character Development: In this chapter, Petra Cotes and her boy toy are struggling because their animals died in the rain and yet they love each other more. Aureliano Segundo is not spending time with the kids anymore and they are grownig into young men and women. Also the town is looking older and poorer.

Plot Summary

This chapter statrs out with Ursula trying to clean the house after the rain and finds Jose Arcadio Segundo still in the same room he's been in since forever ago. Unfortunately Ursula dies at 120 years oldas well as Rebeca. After that, the town gets beat up and looks bad but Aureliano Segundo is focused on getting enough money to send his kid Amaranta Ursula to school which is taking a lot out of him and he begins to get old and weary. His twin Jose Arcadio Segundo is dying and figures out Melaquiades' writings and tells Baby Aureliano to follow through with them. After Aureliano Segundo gets word that Amaranta can go to Europe, he dies at the same time as his twin brother. Jose Segundo's last wishes were to make sure to keep alive the souls of the workers who died earlier.

Quotes

1. "Nevertheless, even the most pitying purchaser was getting a chance to win a pig...."- This quote shows how extreme the poverty was in the city.

2. "When the owner appears, God will illuminate him so that he will find it."- This quote shows how hard Aureliano wanted to get the money for daughter because he's trying to ask dead Ursula where the gold was so that he can take it.

Themes

Death-For obvious reasons......

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Magical Realism: Melaquiades is reappearing to baby Aureliano which is a ghost and definitely magical.

Character Devlopment: Sofia is fed up with the house and decides to leave, Fernanda is now stuck mistreating her husband and then dies, baby Jose Arcadio is now in what seems to be the cool thing to do which is seclude himself while waiting on a huge inheiritance.

Plot Summary

Baby Aureliano is still in the labratory where he learns how to write differently and the whole family is in poverty but live off the food that Petra Cotes gives to them. Sofia decided to leave and Fernanda dies. After that baby Jose Arcadio comes back to Macondo and finds out where Ursula hid the gold and starts to be aquainted with baby Aureliano. Their friendship is cut short when Jose gets killed in his bath for the gold.

Quotes

1. "Only then did he understand how much he had begun to love him."- This quote tells us that the two were getting closer and how unfortunate it was to lose him.

2. "For the first time in her long life Santa Sofia de la Piedad let a feeling show through..."- This shows that Sofia was a very reserved person and didn't really say much which made it even more surpirsing to find out that she left.

Themes

Greed- The characters were driven to take another man's life just to obtain stolen gold.