Two Hundred Years of Solitude

Throughout various works of literature, authors often use figurative language to illustrate their thoughts. Specifically, metaphors and symbols are employed to convey deeper meaning in an abstract and creative way. Although metaphors and symbols are used for the same purpose, they come in many different forms, all distinguishable from one another- arguably, this variety found among our language is what makes English and American literature so rich and alluring.  Metaphors range from extended metaphors to personification, ect. Symbols, for example, take on different forms such as hyperbole,  archetypes, ect. All of these were evident in 100 Years of Solitude, poems by Neruda, and The Postman.

100 Years of Solitude was loaded with metaphors and symbols to describe the pursuit of wealth, the power of nature, the brutality of warfare, and the aspects of magical realism found in the novel. To begin, the arrival of the gypsies introduce the idea of the pursuit of wealth. Entering town, “[everything was] shaken by a whistle with a fearful echo and a loud, panting respiration.” This whistle referred to in this quote is one of the many foreign objects brought into Macondo by the gypsies. To us, these objects are mainstream, every day objects but to the primitive people of Macondo, these objects are almost mystical. The gypsies and their items ignite the pursuit of wealth- wealth being defined as technology, knowledge, and gold. Each character has a different way of pursuing one of these things but there lies a major commonality amongst all of them- the more technology, knowledge, or gold they acquire, the worser off they become. For instance, Jose Arcadio Buendia immerses himself in the study of alchemy. Aureliano Segundo dug endlessly for gold, and Ursula displayed great dedication to her pastry business all in search of the same outcome.  Macondo starts off as an almost utopian, Eden-like place that slowly deteriorates as more and more foreign objects/ideas are introduced. There is a hint of irony in this as well, as innovations and ideas are supposed to improve standard of living, not deteriorate it.

Switching gears to Neruda, his poem “Walking Around”, is centered around the ideas of life and death as hinted at by the phrase used “wombs and ashes”. Although, the poem also subtly comments on Neruda’s dislike towards the shift in government and societies shift in focus towards the pursuit of material items resulting in a breakdown of society similar to 100 Years. Neruda, wishing to see no more innovation writes, “the smell of barbershops makes me break into horse sobs”. Neruda would rather be dead than be an active participant in the world around him. The word barbershops plays on the readers senses and is representative of the kind of materialistic services the upper class frivolously indulge in. He continues on to illustrate a stark contrast between the lower and upper class by writing about the “orthopedic shops and courtyards with washing hanging from the line”. In this comparison, he is practically placing blame on the upper class for the poor circumstances of the lower class- in a sense, placing the lower class in the role of the victim.

Lastly, in the movie The Postman, Neruda and Mario make many remarks that reveal how they view and think about metaphors. To summarize, Mario learns from Neruda that metaphors are a way to express oneself in an abstract and indirect way that is only understandable if the audience is open enough to understand it. Neruda and Mario first appear to be very different people but slowly, we see that “Mario is really a more complex individual. He occasionally makes some startlingly insightful observations, such as ‘the whole world is a metaphor for something'” (Berardinelli, J) similar to Neruda. With the help of metaphors, Mario, who once was unable to communicate his feelings effectively, can “express himself” (Atanasov, D.S.), as if he were a poet himself.

All in all, metaphors and symbols played an influential role in 100 Years of Solitude, Neruda’s poem “Walking Around” and the movie The Postman. Without these works and all they entail, our world would look much different. In other words, works like the ones above filter through society and bring attention to issues that otherwise might have been overlooked. From class stratification to the decline of a community, these works serve to educate and be an example for future generations of humans to come.

Berardinelli, J. (n.d.). Postman, The (Il Postino) | Reelviews Movie Reviews. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/postman-the-il-postino

Atanasov, D. S. (2016). Il Postino Blu-ray. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Il-Postino-Blu-ray/120330/#Review

The Postman! Wait? Not that one?

“Alright kids today’s secret word is metaphors”

The Postman is a about a son of a fisher who’s life got flipped-turned upside down, And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, to tell you about how symbolism and metaphors destroyed this man’s life! Joking, of course. Mario (The postman) learns of metaphors and symbolism through the renowned poet Pablo Neruda.

quick English lesson

When you use the both of those you get the idea of using symbols that do not normally apply to the object to describe it, stuff like “Work loads for classes have done to my sleep schedule what a shotgun shell does to a watermelon.” A great deal of poetry is built upon this concept, and you know who was a poet, Pablo Neruda. I smell a conspiracy. Like some benevolent being planned th… Wait, I’ve already made that joke. Well, This whole metaphor and symbolism talk mixes well with 100 Years of Solitude, like really well. Cause id say that book is 90% symbolism with an amount of literary genus thrown in to hold it together.

You have the concept that the whole book revolves around, that each of the characters are lonely in different ways (that’s the solitude part!) with examples like

• José Arcadio Buendía –  The patriarch of the Buendía clan, being driven to madness through focus on scientific progression (which can also be seen as the coutry trying to take all amounts of science from the progressed cities)
• Colonel Aureliano Buendía – Who grows up quiet and reclusive, then goes off to war and has 17 kids.(all named Aureliano by the way. I think the writer wrote a couple of names on a wall and just threw a dart. metaphor!) Then eventually war breaks him and not even the little things he found joy in help him
• Remedios the Beauty – no, not that Remedios, the second one!  So beautiful it literally kills. Who one day literally floats into heaven (Uhhhhhh, to be honest this one through me for a bit of a ringer. Maybe its a metaphor for the simple beauty that Macondo used to have but lost?)

Lesser symbols that are just as prevalent

• The 3000 workers are slaughtered, and the survivors return to find the city will not discuss (perhaps the sands of time forgetting abominable acts?)
• The idea of incest as another form of solitude
• Amnesia being a prevalent symbol throughout the book (can be seen as people forgetting the past of their culture.)
• Knowledge as power. (Seen early with José Arcadio Buendía then at the very end with the reading of the Sanskrit that ultimately destroys the town.)
• The comparison to biblical text is an easy one to make. The town starts off being this innocent thing. the possibility of José Arcadio Buendía’s exile to madness being akin to the exile of adam and eve from the garden (kinda reaching there)
• Outside forces “corrupting”(for lack of a better word) Macondo. At first you have the gypsies then with the colonists

For my next magic trick i am going to tear apart a poem by Pablo Neruda and get the succulent metaphors within.

It so happens I am sick of being a man. (pretty simple, everyone has these days where existence seems futile)
And it happens that I walk into tailor-shops and movie
houses
dried up, waterproof, like a swan made of felt(metaphor! what does a swan do? swan stuff! and swimming, a lot of that actually.)
steering my way in a water of wombs and ashes. (Wombs and Ashes. The beginning of life and the ending of it. Fun stuff…)

The smell of barbershops makes me break into hoarse
sobs. (simple harsh things are driving him to an end)
The only thing I want is to lie still like stones or wool. (they dont move.)
The only thing I want is to see no more stores, no gardens,
no more goods, no spectacles, no elevators. (he’s so tired his existential despair, has aggravated him, to the point that he wants everything gone. Once again. Fun stuff…)

There is a problem with this, this trick. In my opinion it ruins the poetry, half the fun of poetry like this is trying to understand the metaphors and connect them to your life. So go out there crack open some poems. Get that tasty metaphor meat within (that’s a metaphor about metaphors, a meta-metaphor if you will) or wait until a professor assigns you more poems so you can do it and feel productive!

I find it really fascinating how the Internet has changed over time especially in terms of the amount of people that can be reached and the influence it has allowed others to have. Benkler’s article discusses how “economic, social and cultural adaptations…make the information environment we occupy”(Benkler). Throughout the article he further emphasizes how we as “individuals, citizens, and members of cultural and social groups” have impacted technology especially in terms of our communication and culture (Benkler).

An example I’d like to discuss that has swept social media, are “social media models” . What I would classify as a social media model would be someone who posts pictures to get more likes and garner more attention. They’re goal is to achieve the right amount of attention that in the end will benefit them through minimal efforts. To clarify I am talking about “models” on instagram. Jay Alvarrez and Alexis Ren are two specific examples of social media models. They were constantly seen on extravagant vacations in beautiful cities. They became what everyone called “couple goals”, but what everyone fails to understand that this lifestyle Jay and Alexis had created was unrealistic and unattainable. But the people who follow them couldn’t help but get accustomed to seeing them live this type of lifestyle that it became a norm. This creation of this extravagant lifestyle goes hand in hand with Benkler’s argument because they are changing the way people interact with beauty and expectations. Not only do they have an effect on beauty and expectations, but on businesses.

My question deals with both Boyd’s and Gillmor’s articles. Boyd states in her article that “profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media”, the intended expression being their identity. And Gillmor states that “anonymity is enshrined in our culture” meaning that it is accepted or seen as a norm. Therefore, can someone forge a profile while maintaining their anonymity? Also can anyone actually truly be themselves on social media if they are for example constrained by what others might say?

Woman when these works were made were oppressed by many adversity and several different roles in how a woman should act or what they should do. Females in both The House of Spirits, and Women on a Verge of a Nervous Breakdown were an real diamond in the rough due to political times. Women who faced stereotypical roles in their society struggled just as similarly as women in today’s society. However the tradition of males is still just as or common as it is for women. Women on the Verge of A Nervous break down showed how women can over come, and be strong in situations. Then the women in House of Spirits showed strength in not holding their men to a pedestal and being able to live without them.

“Crazy” has been a universal accusation towards women, and men feeling this way because everyone handles things differently. Women in The House of Spirits such as Clara and Blanca may be a little closer to a stage of crazy then characters such as Pepe and Candela are viewed as crazy for not being ‘boy crazy’. Even when faced with the oppression of the man. No not that ‘man’. Just a regular man. Both sets of women over came these situations created by a man.

Though to say that women were the only crazies would be unfair to the men. Most men in both pieces of work held their little bit of crazy. So I feel men and women can be crazy together.  And another resemblance to the men in both works that are normally labeled a female trait, is the desperation the men have to hold all of the women attention and not getting it. So they all acted out in some way. Even in such different situations I feel we were shown these books to read and enjoy due to seeing women strength in what most could consider weakness.

Nunn, Gary. “The Feminisation of Madness Is Crazy | Mind Your Language.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2012. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.

In Holmes’s post, she states that surrender “is the realization that you do not have time for everything” and McNeil in her post discusses the accountability about accepting the acceptance of beauty being defined a certain way. My question deals with both of these pieces. Can peoples’ acceptance of a stereotypical bias questions, like beauty, be an acceptance or a surrender to the fact that they do not have the time to explore the different dimensions of beauty?  And since they are accepting those ideas, does that bring into account culling?

Numerical Representation: Barcodes are a good example nowadays of adding numerical representation to various items. The majority of items sold have barcodes that are determined by their uses and manufacturer.

http://www.makebarcode.com/info/intro.html

Modularity: A cellphone is a media example that can broken down into multiple parts. You can either break it down by the technology that allows the phone to function or simply the applications that personalize the phone.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone6.htm