The Gift of Sight

In reading One Hundred years of Solitude I found Ursula to be a very interesting character. She fears/prophesizes that one day a child will be born with a pigs tail and the subsequent downfall of Macondo. Most people are very dismissive of these fears. Later in the Novel Ursula goes blind and is able to "see clearly the truths her busy life in former times had prevented her from seeing". This reminds me of Cassandra of ancient Greek writings. Cassandra, according to mythology, was a princess of Troy. She was cursed by the God Apollo to speak true prophesies but never be believe, just because she wouldn't sleep with him. She predicts the fall of Troy at the hands of Greeks armies yet everyone is dismissive of her. She even predicts her own murder yet no one helps her and consider her insane. Another point about Ursula is that she follows a common trope, The Blind Seer. There are many accounts of blind prophets in media from Tiresias, also from Greek mythology, to more modern interpretations like Cordelia Foxx from AHS: Coven. It's ironic in that these people are able to see clearly the truth, or what others can't, yet they lack normal vision. It doesn't take a blind old woman to see that things are bad in Macondo, they just needed to open their eyes to what was right in front of them.