Thursday, August 28, 2014
Pretty Hurts
Even though this is a famous song by Beyonce, many of the men who flocked towards Remedios the Beauty realized shortly after that her beauty was just a lead to death. Remedios' body screamed stereotypical beauty. But my question to you all is what makes a person beautiful? Is it just mere physical appearance or is it something deeper? Many people of the family thought Remedios to be "retarded" while some thought she was intelligent in her own way. Do brains make a person sexy? I believe that it is in the eyes of the beholder because love is blind. But if you look just in Remedios' case it seems that it isn't love leading the men but another member that seems to do the picking. Does anyone really have beauty at all? Is it an idea made in the minds of men and women to describe why we are choosey in who we like? I
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6 comments:
I thought that the attraction the men had towards Remedios the Beauty was really interesting, for her beauty is so striking "that it was possible to point out the exact place where she had been and the time that had passed since she had left it" (231). I think that Remedios the Beauty did not attract men only because of her beauty. Like Breuna mentioned, I think "beauty" in general and especially with Remedios means something much deeper. In my opinion, Remedios the Beauty is one of the characters that lives in the most solitude, for she is never really in a deep connection with the other characters in the novel. She always lives in her own world marked by strange behavior and dissenting from any type of norm. I think that Remedios the Beauty's solitude could possibly be drawing the men towards her along with her physical beauty. As we've discussed in class, solitude can be positive and desirable. I think that the men might be unconsciously drawn to this solitude that Remedios lives in and maybe that helps to characterize her "beauty." I feel that this deep state of solidarity that Remedios lives in does ultimately lead to her death. Maybe Marquez depicts life as a constant acquirement of solitude that ultimately leads us one step closer each time to the ultimate state of solitude, death.
To Breuna... I think that there is no "universal beauty" that will affect everyone in the same way. This is because people seek out different traits that they consider desirable. These traits are formed from life experiences of the seeker. For instance, a man who hunts might want to find a woman who also hunts. Further, I'm sure that many academicians are sapiophilic. Thus, Remedios the Beauty's universal attractiveness appeared especially disconcerting to me, and led me to a hypothesis similar to that of Tiffany.
To Tiffany... In the mysteriously beautiful scene of Remedios the Beauty's ascension, she is clothed in a white sheet. This, perhaps, is one of the rare cases where Marquez uses a archetype according to a traditional definition - namely, white = pure. Because of the solitude you described in your post, she has no opportunity to disrupt the purity of her childhood voluntarily. Thus, she ascends (which recalls to mind the ascension of Christ) clothed in white.
When thinking of Remedios the Beauty, I always think light (referring to the Unbearable Lightness of Being). She went with the flow, and just did things. It all worked out. She shaved her head without a second thought. She was open with her sexuality and didn't really care that everyone was perving on her. Could it be this lightness that attracts men to her? She is one of the only light characters (if not the only) surrounded by a world of heaviness. In my opinion, this sole lightness is what keeps her in solitude from the rest of the characters.
Sri, that is a really interesting analysis! The idea of lightness separating Remedios from the heaviness of the world surrounding her is one I had not thought of before. I find it interesting because in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tereza's heaviness and Tomas's lightness attract, which contrasts Remedios's experience.
At Sri... Also, not to be the literalist here, but she's also visually light in that she FLOATS INTO OBLIVION. She literally is too light to stay in the heavy environment of the people and things around her.
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