Context - I just watched Titanic for the first time a few days ago and it resonated with me very deeply. I was also struck by the difference in how solitude is portrayed in it and in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Hope y'all enjoy!
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Col. Gerineldo Marquez, Jose Arcadio Segundo, and Gabriel Marquez are overcome by solitude and the burden of being the only ones who remember true history. Col. Gerineldo Marquez is the only one who remembers what the Liberals fought for after Col. Aureliano Buendia renounces their central tenets, Jose Arcadio Segundo is the only one who remembers the brutality of the Banana Massacre (until he teaches Aureliano Babilonia), and Gabriel Marquez is the only one who believes Aureliano Babilonia about the Banana Massacre. He bears the burden of keeping the memory of Macondo alive since he escaped before its apocalyptic destruction.
In Titanic, however, Rose is the only person who remembers Jack Dawson, who showed her what it meant to live when all she had ever known was how to exist in the stifling confines of stilted society. Rather than wallowing in self-pity because the love of her life is dead, she devotes her life to living in a distinctly unladylike way (a slap in the face to the dignified society of her upbringing), the way she promised to live with Jack (we see this in the photos at the end of the film depicting her roguish adventures), and she relishes having her life utterly changed by him. As Celine Dion reminds us in “My Heart Will Go On”, “love can touch just one time and last for a lifetime.” Rose cherishes Jack’s secret gift and feels liberated by his memory even if she spends the majority of the rest of her life in solitude. Thus, the solitude of being the only one to remember something or someone can be a burden (as we see in One Hundred Years of Solitude) or a blessing (as we see in Titanic).
1 comment:
Hey Clara! I can definitely see where you are coming from. A lot of movies definitely fit the themes of solitude and memory. For example, I have recently seen the movie The Notebook, and the themes of solitude and memory loss definitely apply. In the movie, we see the origin of a couple’s love story and the difficulties they face in life together. Solitude definitely applies when the main man leaves the girl he’s dating for a while after he thinks they don’t belong together. The girl is left in solitude, and this reminds me of the woman Arcadio left to go with gypsies. She felt that solitude like Allison Hammond from The Notebook. Later in life, Noah and Allison (the couple from The Notebook) are still together but Allison loses her memory of everything she and Noah had, which is relatable to people forgetting their memory from the insomnia plague and the Banana Massacre. Noah then feels solitude in remembering everything the couple had been through but doesn’t let go of reminding her until she died.
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