Cultural Isolation: Precious but Subject to Corruption

Class discussion caused me to reflect upon the realities that we, comfortably situated within Westernized society, tend to neglect. I was particularly interested in the message Marquez was portraying through the fact that the citizens of Macondo seemed to be blind to the rapid progression that was occurring around them - instead of revolting initially, they seemed to be numb or rather immediately accepting of the drastic measures taken to advance the town. This made me consider the contrast between our adaptability to modernization and the reality that many cultures remain in primitive environments, surviving and seemingly decades in the past.

It reminded me of something that my mom, who travelled and took photographs for NatGeo, told me about a village that she went to in Africa and the startling beliefs that they held. She spoke to a woman who believed that the Earth was flat. She taught me that cultural preservation helps maintain the diversity of the world, though as was demonstrated in Macondo, these fragile societies are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. This is what happened as the banana company dictated over thousands of villagers and aggressively showed their power. The precious sense of wonder that the people had when the gypsies came into town with their foreign concepts (eg. ice) morphed into a fear that paralyzed them from taking action when the banana company took over.