In the novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits we see how both Allende and Garcia Marquez uses genealogy to develop Esteban Trueba and Jose Arcadio Buendia . The authors both use the genealogy of the characters to influence the characters in a different way. In the One Hundred Years of Solitude Garcia Marquez used Jose Arcadio Buendia’s genealogy to influence his development as a character. The same can be said with How Allende uses Trueba’s genealogy to greatly affect his development in The House of the Spirits. In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude it can be seen that the genealogy of the Buendia’s had a great affect on their current lifestyles. Ursula’s great-great grandmother was still having nightmares of Sir Frances Drakes attack, and this is the start of the Buendia-Iguaran genealogy. It was her nightmares that led to the family to moving into Macondo, a place isolated and “showed on no map” (Garcia Marquez 13). This is also the start of their isolationist way of life. The Buendia’s past has also affected how Ursula lived because of their isolationist lifestyle she was afraid of having a child with a deformation that she “wore a system of leather straps and was closed in the front by a thick iron buckle,” (Garcia Marquez 21) and never consummated her wedding with her husband which resulted in his ridicule. The chastity pants that Ursula wears also symbolizes the isolation that the Buendia put themselves in. Garcia Marquez uses the Buendia’s genealogy to stem the family’s isolationist lifestyle. This will also have a great impact in the upbringing of Jose Arcadio Buendia as it will be the foundation to his personality and character. The years of solitude that the Buendia spent due to the decisi...
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... prevent this from happening to Alba, but due to his actions she has to suffer. This brings out some of Trueba’s less than appealing traits to the novel. Both Allende and Garcia Marquez use genealogy to develop the characters and their novel, but they use it in different aspects. Garcia Marquez uses the genealogy of the Buendia-Iguaran to create the foundation for the isolationist lifestyle that the family portrays and how that has affected Esteban Arcadio Trueba. On the other hand, Allende uses genealogy to show the impact that Esteban Trueba creates by putting too much importance on genealogy and the treatment of his family.
Works Cited
Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Trans. Magda Bogin. New York: Bantam
Books, 1993
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. Ed.
3rd ed.New York: Harper Perennial, 2006 Print.
Enrique’s Journey is a book that I would never read for fun. It is completely different from most of the books I have read, and intrigued me because the story was about a boy. Most of the books I have read in school are about a girl who goes through many hardships, and difficulties but I felt I could relate more to this one because it is about a boy who struggles. While I may not have been left thousands of miles away by mother so she could send money back, it was great to see what life was like on the other side. In this paper I will be talking about the micro and macro cultures of Enrique’s town Tegucigalpa. The situation and context of the characters decision making and how they adapted.
La Inca is a very unselfish woman, she took care of Beli after the death and imprisonment of her parents. La inca believes that Beli deserves the best education the island can offer. She offers a safe place and support to her grandchildren Lola and Oscar. In chapter three on page 80, La Inca was not able to support herself and Beli but did what she can to support herself and Beli. Diaz states in the book, ¨Sharing a bed with her mother, the inability to buy the dresses she wanted.¨ This quote shows that La inca is in isolation from being a wealthy mother not being able to give her children what other parents can. Diaz uses the history of La Inca to show that she is in isolation from having a normal childhood as a kid. In chapter three on page 80, La inca did not have a home as a kid, she passed through rough times when she was young and she'll never forget those horrible days. Diaz states in the book, ¨Those first years of her life when she´d been an orphan, the horrible scars from that time.¨ This shows that La inca had a hard life since she was young she was not able to have a childhood because of what she went through showing she is in isolation from people who didn't have a hard life when she was
? . . . it made no difference if they studied medicine or had the right to vote, because they would not have the strength to do it, but she herself [Nivea] was not brave enough to be among the first to give up the fashion.? (6, Ch 1) The women in this society are dependant on the dominant male figure to handle political and economical duties. This point of view is intended to mimic the older generation of women ad present a foundation for the growth of an enlightened generation. Allende uses this excerpt to present a foundation of structure to the novel by beginning with the extremes of opinion, which are followed in the novel through different generations. Alba for example, become a very outspoken activist by trying to attend the student protests and follow Miguel on his demonstrations, a sharp contrast to the indifference or shallowness found in her great grandmother.
Initially Reyna Grande and her siblings Carlos and Mago were left behind while her parent immigrated to the United States to work. During that time Grande faced many struggles among the most prevalent were her feelings of abandonment, the neglect she and her siblings faced at the hands of their paternal grandmother, and the ostracization. Reyna was left behind when she was a baby by her father and had no concrete recollection of him and her mother left when she was four. Until that point Reyna’s mother had been the only parental figure she had known. The abandonment didn’t stop at the physical absence of her mother, but also at the emotional unavailability of her mother when she finally did return. In the absence of their mother the Grande children were to be cared for by their paternal grandmother Evila who was largely hostile and neglectful. Though their grandmother provided them with housing and at least some nourishment she was in no way emotionally supportive or loving toward them often blatantly displaying her preference for their cousin Elida prominently as if to reiterate the favoritism. The children were often ostracized amongst their peers due to their status as “orphans”. In opposition to their cousin who, although in the same predicament she was seen as
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