100 Anos de Solidad I

Well I never made this connection before, but I guess I can see the parallel between José Arcadio Buendía and Don Quijote, in the sense that they both kind of live in their own world. José Arcadio Buendía is obsessed with the new-found gadgets of the gypsies, which is interesting in itself since most times gypsies were viewed as social outcasts. Interestingly enough he has a little bit of a violent side as well (as we see when he kills Prudencio and essentially rapes his wife).Although he seems to be a “man of few words” his actions speak pretty loudly.

I would say that one of the biggest symbols in this novel (ok so they're kind of like symbols) are the gypsies. While each individual has their own significance in the novel the group as a whole represents this idea of the unknown or the magical. José Arcadio Buendía sees their inventions as wondrous and becomes intrigued by them and eventually obsesses over them. They kind of become a symbol for his madness, and maybe to some extent the madness of others.

Fairy Tales Part 2

So I kind of get the “prodigal son” kind of feeling from a few of these stories. (The two stories about the thumbling and to some extent the Golden Goose one). They all kind of go along with the idea that the beloved son “goes away” for whatever reason and then comes back and we all rejoice. It's kind of like the non-biblical version of a biblical story. It's like the theme is the same as the biblical story, the idea that the sons go out and have these experiences and then come home to the ever loving father/family. I do find it interesting that the Grimm Brothers have stories like these that seem to be almost translated from biblical story to fairy tales for ordinary people.

Fairy Tales

I guess these stories have become so universal because they “teach a lesson” (i.e. snow white and the consequences of vanity). I think that since we have things like Disney Princesses that most little girls “look up to” it sort of becomes a way to get a moral across in a fun, little kid kind of way. These stories are also internationalized because the morals and lessons they teach are pretty universal. (it's not like we're reading the Prodigal Son here). They are pretty much free from all religious ties and can relate to all cultures. I mean no one really wants to teach their kids to lie so stories about not lying seem to work pretty well, especially when we put them into “Disney land.”

Good-Bye Don Quijote!

As I think I've made rather clear in this class I don't enjoy this book at all. But, having said that, I can appreciate certain parts of the book and I guess I understand why it's considered such a literary classic. My primary “appreciation” is what Cervantes does for women in the book and the roles he allows them to play. What he did for these women, by giving them free-thinking, independent and speaking roles was something very very controversial for his time. This sort of “breaking the rules” about the roles of women is probably one of the few things I can actually say that I do like about this novel. I won't lie, unless I'm assigned to read it again I probably never will, but I can say that Don Quijote was one of the first novels to portray women's “inward thoughts” as part of an outward story (I'd argue that La Celestina also attempted to do this). So even though I don't like this novel at all, I can appreciate what it did for not only the Spanish Language, but for the role of women. (Not saying that women all of a sudden turned out to be these women in the novel,but it certainly “gave the hopes for the future”).

Don Quijote Part V

“Lela Zoraida / Maria the woman presented in these chapters. How do you interpret her multiple identities (Arabic / Muslim / Christian / "Spanish")”
I think that this woman directly imitates the culture of the time. As we remember Spain, especially southern Spain had a heavy influence of Los Moros for quite some time. The idea that this woman is a combination of the Moros and the Spaniards in a way combines “everyone” living in Spain at the time. There were Spanish Catholics and Arabic Muslims (if I remember correctly mostly from northern Africa) and their cultures coexisted to some extent for 500 years. This idea that the this woman has multiple identities is somewhat misleading. She does not exactly have multiple identities but rather the identity of Spain as a whole (given the time period of course). She is a representation of Spain as a whole but at the same time a representation of all the parts/peoples that make up Spain. In some ways she may in fact represent the unity of Spain. Spain was divided into north and south, with Christian rulers in the north and Muslim in the south. In this woman we have this unity of northern and southern Spain and all that Spain is, and interestingly enough, once again we have a woman (not a man).

Don Quijote Part IV

In Chapter 29 we meet Dorotea. The interesting thing about her is that she is once again this “radical woman.” She is said to be intelligent and shows it by playing her “princess role.” Again we see this portrayal of women that are radical. Throughout this book there have been portrayals of women that are incredibly radical for the time period. We have peasant girls portrayed as beautiful, prostitutes as princesses, women who can chose who they love and women who can trick men. In some ways this entire scene is saying something about the radical changes women are going through ( or maybe the ones Don Quijote wants them to go through)

Again with the quotes from Sparknotes (I swear they can be so helpful sometimes)
“2. I shall never be fool enough to turn knight-errant. For I see quite well that it’s not the fashion now to do as they did in the olden days when they say those famous knights roamed the world.
Explanation for Quotation 2 >>
In this passage from Chapter XXXII of the First Part, the innkeeper responds to the priest, who has been trying to convince him that books of chivalry are not true. Though the innkeeper defends the books, he says that he will never try to live like Don Quixote because he realizes that knight-errantry is outdated. The innkeeper’s remark is important for several reasons. First, it inspires Sancho, who overhears the remark, to resolve—as he does at so many points throughout the novel—to return to his wife and children because knight-errantry has fallen out of fashion. The fact that Sancho does not leave Don Quixote becomes even more poignant when juxtaposed with his temptations to leave.
Second, this quotation highlights the priest’s hypocritical nature. The innkeeper appreciates knight-errantry from a distance, but the priest, who plays the role of inquisitor against Don Quixote throughout much of the novel, cannot escape his fascination with knight-errantry. The priest furtively encourages Don Quixote’s madness so that he may live vicariously through him.”
Here we can see several themes from the novel. This idea of chivalry coming from novels like Don Quijote thinks (because we all know he thinks whatever he reads in these books is true) and this idea that this mission Don Quijote is on is outdated. Here we can kind of see how and why others view Don Quijote as crazy. He has not only created his own version of reality, but has based it on what others feel as an outdated concept. It also says something about Sancho since he thinks about leaving but decides against it. It is almost as though we can really see Sancho starting to buy into Don Quijote's warped vision on the world.