The Ogre Day 4

The first thing that I will discuss is the idea of signs, and the Kommandeur's explanation of Nazi symbols. He is foreshadowing the whole rest of the book. We know already that the book is written on the same blueprint that the bible is written by, ending with the apocalypse.Which will be the destruction of the Nazis. It is interesting however, that this man can see all of this so clearly through the signs, and is trying to tell Abel. At this point however, I do not think that Abel even remotely understands what is going on. All the signs of the Nazi’s are pointed left, representing evil. We also already have discussed how Abel under the Nazis is comparable to the Devil in the Bible. I just think it is interesting that Abel says he can read the signs, and the Kommandeur admits that Abel can read signs as well, but Abel is wrong because he is not putting all of the signs together. It is as if Abel can see individually all the signs, they are right in front of him. But until he puts them all together it is meaning less. It is although Abel is getting a warning.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about the symbols of red and white. It reminded me of Perceval. In Perceval the red and white represent the contrast of good vs evil and I think that it is safe to say that the extreme amount of red, represents the evil and death in Napola. I think that it is interesting how the twins and Lothar become friends and when they stand together their hair colors are red and white. They talk about swords of red on white sand. The three boys form an image that is perfect, and representative of the Nazi regime. It is very bizarre, but the reason they must die, I would say, is because the Nazi’s must die as well. The regime must fail and good must win.

The Ogre Day 3

The first thing that I wanted to talk about was the animals that are in the book. There are a lot of animals in the Rominten and they all must represent something in the book. However, I am having trouble figuring out exactly what animals represent what characters. One of the most disturbing parts to me was when Abel was in charge of the slaughtering of the horses. I think this is foreshadowing the slaughtering of all the Jews. Clearly it bothers Abel too, but because he was given this task he completes it. It is his job to go get the feeble horses and bring them to a remote part of the forest to kill them, as if in secret. Also description of the horses was sad. They were described as being so weak and skinny, and if they were too sick along the road they were given a shot, just to get them to the final place. This mimics what the Germans did to the Jews, worked them till they were too skinny and weak and then killed them. This was done to make a perfect place for the boars, so they would not bother the humans anymore. It is possible that the boars represent the Nazis because they wanted a perfect place to live where there were no Jews. However, I think that the stags have a representation of the Nazi s because they are the animal that was most liked and powerful in the forest. I am not sure about that. All of the animals references confused me a little bit. I thought that the Goering was represented by the King Stag Candelabra and also the Lion which they bring in. Both because they are such strong animals and Goering seemed to be the most powerful person at Rominten.
The other thing I just wanted to mention was the repeated references to fecal matter, from all the animals. I know that it shows Abel’s obsession and the representation of Omega, but it just seems gross. There is a whole page devoted to what all the animal droppings look like. Gross. The only part that was interesting to me was how Abel decided that the horse was necessary to kill the stag because the Stag was Alpha and the Horse Omega. The killing of Alpha through Omega. This was strange but showed Abel’s obsession with eating and defecation.

The Ogre Day 2

After the reading for today I have decided that I am not really fond of this book. I think that it is hard to follow at times and Abel is a very bizarre character. However there are a couple parts in the book for today’s reading that I have found interesting. They play even more so off the themes that we discusses in class on Tuesday.

 

The first is the continued commentary of the significance of the left hand. I think that it is interesting that Abel finds that he is able to write equally as well with his left hand and he didn’t even realize it. It is very interesting that the handwriting is different. I think this distinctly shows the duel sides to his personality.  Building on this theme is how he has come to find his “twin” The man, Weidmann, is a murder and I has been found out that he is left handed committing all of these murders with his left hand. Abel even writes the sinister murders or killings like his own sinister writings. I think this is just a bizarre coincidence. It is also even more strange that the woman he goes with to the execution sees the physical similarities enough to call them twins. 

 

It caught my attention when Abel writes that the reason he does not have the urge to kill is because of his infatuation with Martine. However, it is strange how she almost betrays him by saying that he raped her.

 

This sinister side to his personality is represented through being a ogre.  I was trying to figure out exactly which actions are ogre like and I keep going back to the photography that he takes. There is one point (not sure of the page number) where he describe taking pictures almost like eating. Like when the photo is snapped the image is captured. I think this action is where he is being an ogre. By taking photos this is his way of capturing and eating children.

 

One additional comment is with his infatuation with cuts. On page 106 he goes into great detail of this boy who falls and has a cut on his knee, and how he sets him up to take photos of it. It kind of reminded me of when he licked the cut of the boy back at St Christopher’s. This to me is ogre like as well. The need for blood. I think again by taking pictures of it, it is like him ingesting it.

 

He even writes by taking these photos I have given up eating raw meat and have not lost weight. 

100 Years of Solitude ch.16-20

The end of this book is really sad to me because it is as if all of Ursula’s fears came true and it was the downfall of the family. Once Ursula dies the Buendia family completely falls apart. This really shows through the ultimate insestual act between Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano, aunt and nephew. They have an affair which results in a child. The child is born with a pig tail, which is the fear that Ursula has in the beginning of the book. She was aware that all of the family seemed to be drawn to each other because that is how the Buendia family was started in the beginning. Her original fear was to have children with tails like pigs. Although through out the novel this attraction to family members was shown before with another Aureliano (Aureliano Jose) and his aunt Amarantra, who had a very close relationship. The repetition of the names shows again the pattern of history repeating itself, and how the family is tuck in a repetitive cycle, except they are spiraling downwards and to their complete demise.

 

I also wanted to discuss the survival of Pilar Ternera through pretty much the whole novel. I sort of see her as a figure that sees the whole history of the Buendia family  and she acts as a reminder of how similar all the generations of the Buendia family are. She was alive through all of it. She almost even reminds the reader of the past generations so that we can see the family through the whole novel and how history and the characters really do repeat themselves. 

100 Years of Solitude ch. 11-15

I wanted to talk about the female characters in the current chapters because I think they all stand for something in the novel thus far. First I will discuss Fernanda opposed to Petra and what roles they play. Fernanda is uptight and religious. She is also not very nice, understanding or caring. The religious aspect is not seen as a good quality about her because it seems as if she takes life too seriously. Although she is very beautiful and Aureliano S. decides to marry her he has a mistress/concubine on the side, Petra. Petra is rewarded in life by having the ability to promote fertility, in almost a magical way. For this reason Aureliano wants her around because she makes him a lot of money, through the raffling of the animals. These two women are opposites of each other. It is interesting that Petra who does not practice religion has the best luck, it is almost a gift from above, and Fernanda who does follow religion to a tee is unhappy and rigid.

This is interesting timing because it is around the time that modernity is taking over Macondo. Petra could represent the old way of Macondo and Feranda could represent the new ways taking over. Petra is the last of the residents who believe in the magical aspects that the town once had, while Fernanda buys into the new customs.

Remedios the Beauty is also an interesting character. She also does not seem to understand Macondo becoming more modern, in that she does not become excited by it. She also does not take a lover because she begins to understand that her beauty drives men insane and to their death. She remains innocent. Then one day she just floats back to the heavens. I see this as she was just too good to live in the world that Macondo has become. This is like a symbol of the change that takes place in Macondo and now there is nothing left of the world that Macondo use to be.

100 Years Ch. 6-10

The first theme that I want to talk about is the military and war aspect that we see starting in chapter 6. As we talked about in class before we see Marquez’s influence from politics coming through in this novel. However, the most interesting thing about this is the actions of Arcadio. On page 110 it talks about a reason for Arcadio’s madness, which is that fact that no one really ever cared for him. Both his mother, father and grandparents never really paid much attention to him, in the midst of all the other scandals and distractions he had during his childhood. This is interesting because it begins to show a pattern of what happens to children when they grow up in a unhealthy environment. Or even just how your environment shapes the person you will become.
This is seen in Arcadio’s malicious actions in the war. However, it is rooted back to the neglect that his father received from JAB. It is a cycle that is shown through the Buendia family. Jose Arcadio did not have a father figure so he did not know how to be a father. He abandoned Arcadio, leaving him neglected as well. The neglect the boys received lead them to an unhealthy adulthood. Jose Arcadio marries inside the family and then is shunned. This is a very bizarre family!

The aspect of Love is also very bizarre in this book. Not only what we talked about in the last class with the marriage inside the family, but also in other ways. The example I will use is Amarantra’s story. What I really want to speak about is how she denies Pietro Crespi. I cant figure out why she would do that when it seems that he is what she really wanted.