Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Heraclitus in OHYOS
We've talked a lot about the meaning behind Heraclitus' theory "you can't step in the same river twice" in relation to The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but I think it also relates to One Hundred Years of Solitude. OHYOS too has a very obvious cyclical nature to its events. One of the clearest examples of that is the generations of Jose Arcadio Buendia's and Aureliano's. Each man bearing that name has striking resemblances to his forebearers, but each time he is also changed, and the town of Macondo has likewise changed. Perhaps there is no stunningly drastic change in Macondo, such as it spontaneously becoming New York City, but similarly a river's banks may erode or its flow of water be altered slightly, and still it does not just change into an ocean in and of itself. When we go to step into the river, we aren't the same either; we have newer, fresher experiences that may have changed our perception of the world, even though we usually still retain the most prominent aspects of our character. Likewise, Macondo changes throughout the generations, and so do the bearers of the name Jose Arcadio and Aureliano, despite the elements that remain the same.
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What you wrote about us 'stepping into the river' and coming back with 'newer, fresher experiences' is pretty cool. When we go off to college, that's gonna happen to us :P Anyway, I agree with you on Macondo's evolution. The town's development sort of ties in with each new generation of the Buendía family; although Tereza and her mother are individuals in their own right, Tereza's life is almost an exact reflection of her mother's. And like Ursula and José Arcadio Buendía, Tereza can never escape her past, a manifestation of her mother; Prudencio, Ursula and José's ghost. The past can come back to us in many forms, like that of an old acquaintance, a family member, a childhood friend, etc. Faint memories of who we were/are. I include are because the past helps shape us into who we're supposed to be, and hopefully most of us grow up without becoming crazy like José or existentially weary like Tereza and co. Hopefully we retain the best parts of our past or take the bad from it and try to turn it into, say, a paradisiacal Macondo.
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