100 Years of Solitude (Chapters 16-20)

Choose two of the discussion topics below for your blog post.

1) The fact that Ursula shrinks and becomes like a doll

Marquez writes, "She finally mixed up the past with the present in such a way that in the two or three waves of lucidity that she had before she died, no one knew for certain whether she was speaking about what she felt or what she remembered. Little by little she was shrinking, turning into a fetus, becoming mummified in life to the point that in her last months she was a cherry raisin lost inside of her nightgown...She looked like a newborn old woman" (341). Ursula's wisdom and reason was gone. I think she is shrinking because it symbolizes the fact that all good things must come to an end, meaning Ursula's life and also meaning that Macondo is going to experience more horrible things. She was always trying to make everything right and provide everyone with the knowledge she had. I also think that her shrinking shows a sign of returning to the past in terms of Macondo. There is a constant repetition and the town continues to go through the same things and experience misfortune.


2) The assassination of Aureliano Amador

Aureliano Amador is the only survivor of the 17 sons from 17 different women and they all have to die so I sort of knew that he was going to die at some point. Marquez writes, "Two policemen who had been chasing Aureliano Amador for years, who had tracked him like bloodhounds across half the world, came out from among the almond trees on the opposite sidewalk and took two shots with their Mausers which neatly penetrated the cross of ashes" (374). Aureliano and Jose Arcadio did not remember him and pushed him into the street. Aureliano stayed alive not because of self preservation but because of fear. I think it is interesting that the shots "penetrated the cross of ashes" because that makes a reference back to the marks that all seventeen brothers had on their foreheads, indicating that what they brought to Macondo was finally over now that all of them are gone.