Comment at least twice on this post. Comment at two different times so that others can comment in between your comments. Respond to the prompt and to each other -- it's like a conversation -- but use specific text references. Here is the prompt material:
When Aureliano Segundo enters Jose Arcadio Buendia's workshop, nothing has changed, "nor had the embers gone out under the water pipe where Jose Arcadio Buendia vaporized mercury." Melquiades speaks to him and is but forty years old. Yet when Jose Arcadio Buendia sees Prudencio Aguilar, Prudencio has aged and decomposed in death. Why do you think Marquez depicts an aging, rotting Prudencio in Jose Arcadio Buendia's eyes and an ageless Melquiades to Aureliano Segundo's eyes? How are these perceptions revealing about the history of the town? Consider what Aureliano Segundo is doing when Ursula comes to clean the room, which does not need cleaning. He is reading or deciphering manuscripts...Be fresh and piercing here! Try not just to go through the motions.
40 comments:
lalalala.... anyway... in my opinion, prudencio aguilar seems aged and decomposed because he is dead and also jose arcadio buendia feels guilty about killing him (pg. 30). he felt tormented by it and that was portrayed through prudencio's really bad looks. melquiades looks ageless because he is a hero to aureliano segundo so he looks young. "beaty is in the eye of the beholder."
Interesting intro Angela... BUT, anyway I feel that the stress and guilt of Buendia makes him see Prudencio as an aged, decrepit old man. Much like what Angela said. I do think that the passing of time in one circumstance and the standing still of time in another creates a difference in feeling and shows the stress created by the situation.
Mk. I feel that you, Angela, bring on strong ideas. I agree with most of this. I think it's cool how Melquiades looks ageless, considering he's a hero. That makes me think about what a hero really is. Wouldn't we assume that a typical or mythological hero goes down in time? Like some sort of legend...and legends are TIMELESS. So, wouldn't his looks be ironic? I think so.
i agree - to an extent - with angela. the words that describe prudencio illustrate/exemplify his actual death. melquiades looks ageless because of the connotations of his "hero" status (as angela said)...the idea of life vs. death seems to be non existent in this situation - the only "existing" appearance is that of the situation..not the characters.
TO angela. I think that melquiades is more of just an Idol not a hero. And I think that he appears as an Idol to Jose Acardio Buendia, Does this count as a post?
haley, you totally got it right...lalala.... but anyway... to mr koon... i used a different book for my citation in the first one and it doesnt match up to the rest of the books... ill show it to you when you get back:)
yes jessica... you clicked the "publish your comment" button... ergo that means you what you wrote was a POST!!!!!!
TO: the class
we have not yet responded to the "history of the town"
i will attempt to do so
the history of the town is filled with incest and much deceit. the idea of a hero or "idol" may be stretched and/or skewed. this will give the "appearance" of the characters different connotations and ties. i think that makes sense..
david... i think your right... anyway... the town is also almost completely isolated and the only connection to the real world were the gypsies. there were several confused ideals and beliefs in the town and this could easily have skewed the belief in heros which could change their appearances...
lalalala
Melquiades? A hero?
And where are the rest of you today?
I agree with Mr. Koon on this one. Melquiades is by no means a hero and he even brought many of Jose Arcadia Buendia's problems to him. He is, in my opinion, a thieving charlatan and possibly caused the ruin of Jose Arcadia Buendia and has possibly contributed to his later insanity.
i think mr koon was referring to the rest of our class in his comment joe...haha but i can respect your view...do you agree that if melquiades is not a "hero," the town views him as, in your words, "a theieving charlatan?"
I don't see him as a charlatan but a wise man who commits a great folly by not using his knowledge for the good of all. It seems that the technologies he introduces are only to amuse however he does not present an item that is very useful/helpful to the people of Macondo.
okay, going back up to the first few comments =] ... i think Joe & Angela explain the appearance of Prudencio pretty good. I think that he looks old, rotty, and aged because Buendia feels so bad about killing him .. I mean, guilt can do that to you .. it's like Buendias seeing himself in Prudencio(old, aged, etc.) because he's guilty of what he's done. (I'm tryin to say if you stay guilty and worried, you can make yourself physically ill, which in this case is Buendia being aged, etc. which is shown through Prudencio!!!)
I pretty much agree with angela b/c as the reader you can tell that there is guilt there. Buendia visions Prudencio as being that way b/c that is the way he feels. Like Catherine says guilt can have many different affects on you and in this case it was physical.
In my opinion, Melquides is not a hero, so to speak, but more of an idol that reveals to the characters living in the town of Macondo that they are not living in isolation. Melquides comes from the external world and appears and disapears strangely, even returning from the dead,to reveal to the twon of Macondo that it is not isolated.
Like Kinsey, i also think that the people of Maconda see Melquiades as an idol rather than a hero. He brings the town many new things and lets the people of Maconda see objects that are in the "outside world." I think the town looks up to Melquiades in a way because he brings new things into the town and lets the people experience new things..
I also agree that Melquiades is more of an idol than a hero. However, I think that the reason why he Melquiades is viewed as ageless is because he is so well thought of by so many people because of the fact that he showed the people of Macondo a different perspective of life and the world.
I believe that Jose Buendia sees his deceased rival in a decomposed aged body due to the pain and suffering he brought to Prudencio. Aureliano Segundo is seeing Melquiades as a man no older than forty because in deaths eyes, Aureliano has done Melquiades no harm and did not bring about his death.
Well, I'm still wondering why B-day gets 45 comments and A-day only 18.
Consider that Aureliano Segundo is reading when he sees Melquiades? What of that?
I absolutely feel that Melquiades is a hero. He rescued an entire town from a plague of insomnia/amnesia. Even if he is not a buff sword wielding typical hero, he is still a hero. As a hero, his life is remembered so he appeared later as a "alive" spectre. However, Buendia remembers Prudencio for his death, rather than his life. So he appears as a "dead" bogey.
I agree with Anna Rae. I believe that Melquiades is viewed an idol. Many people in the town look up to him because of the new discoveries he brings to the town. He is most likely viewed as ageless because he has brought so many new ideas and experinces to the town of Macondo.
I think that Melquiades' agelessness relates to the way that the town never seems to change or grow outside of a few families. and Prudencio, rotting and aging, shows how disconnected Macando is from the rest of the world. This relates to the history of the town because, like david said, its filled with incest.
I think you are right Carolyn. I was looking at the comments from the other class and agreed with them that the town was cyclical because things never seem to change and people in the town of Macondo tend to follow what the other town people do.
Well i agree with the last few comments on Melquiades being an idol to the people of macondo. i believe that through Aureliano Segundo eyes Melquiades is and will remain a symbol immortality on the other hand Prudencio appeareance being old and decrepit is a manefestation of Jose Arcadio Buendia's guilt for killing him. As for the town i read that the memory of one person is taken as history for the whole town, which is a characteristic of magical realism. taking that into consideration why wouldn't the way one characters sees another become the way that character is portrayed to others in the town of macondo.
i agree with them on melquiades being an idol too. the characters look up to him because he brings new things to the town.
but i dont see prudencio's age as a manefestation jose arcadio buendia's guilt. if he felt guilty for killing him wouldnt he see the life that prudencio could have had?
yeah carolyn you raise a good point. if he felt sorry for him you think he would see positive aspects, not an old decaying man.
Going along with what Haley said in the beginning, an 'ageless' Melquiades corroborates his heroic quality and also the overall mythological element of the novel, including the wonderment surrounding the technologies that the gypsies brought to Macondo in the past. I think Aguilar seems to be an antithesis to all these fantastic, 'magical' elements in that he is realistically 'aged.' Usually when we think of history or historical things we think of things that have aged or decomposed so it makes sense that Aguilar is part of the ancient history of Macondo, but Melquiades is also part of this history, so the concept of time is, like somebody said, 'skewed' or possibly somewhat irrelevant. I also like Hannah's 'manifestation of Jose Arcadio Buendia's guilt for killing him' concept; it makes me think of a scary ghost that haunts someone in movies, which would also corroborate Aguilar's aging and decomposition.
Going Back up to what mr. Koon about Aureliano segundo reading when he see Melquiades, I think maybe this happens because well books go toghether with knowledge and thats what Melquiades was all about. He was the one who introduced thinking "outside the box" to their family by first sparking Jose Arcadio Buendia intrest in science
I agree with tyler's comment about the "concept of time being scewed." It is for that very reason i sometimes have trouble understanding the novel The scewed time concept also adds to the fantasy element of the novel because it is not the concept of time we understand and are used to, making the idea of time an illusion.
Jessica, you bring up a great point...
Yes, I would associate books to symbolize knowledge. I feel that through that, it certainly does portray Melquiades.
Speaking of Melquiades, I am now torn between the "idol" and "hero" perception. Tim brings up a good point about how he saved the town from the fatal insomnia (magical realism haha). And heros are considered idols as well. Tough one.
Or Jess, you could look at it from our perspective in real life. We read these books in English and are encouraged to find the deeper meanings of everything, and when we read sometimes the illusions or metaphors just pop out at us. Mr. Koon teaches US to think 'outside the box' and to practice critical and analytical reading, thus presenting the question of the night: Is Melquiades a fictional embodiment of Mr. Koon (or an English teacher, in general, for that matter)?
From what I read, Melquiades always seemed ageless which is how JAB saw him. He was something from another world where new inventions were made far beyond the technology of their little town. Prudencio, however, was alive once like everyone else, and was killed as a regular person. Dead people rot. Mel is ageless. This seems to be how JAB considered them, so he may have left indications of his feelings in his manuscripts.
Melquiades's youthfulness shows how the town as a whole had always yearned for his new discoveries; how they desired to know of a definite past. Aureliano Segundo (AS) sees Melquiades as with innate familiarity because the town's desire for the future never dies (pg 183). However, it seems that Jose Arcadio Buendia (JAB) encounters an aging Prudencio Aguilar because Macondo seems to have gradually lost touch with its humble beginnings. During the time of AS, all that remains of JAB are his immortal almond trees. His ideal isolated community, founded by a humble murderer, had become corrupt. Macondo looked not to its past for wisdom, but to its future; not to the experience and compassion of a dead enemy and companion, but to the novelty fortunes of a mysteriously familiar gypsy.
Disclaimer: Sorry about posting twice in a row - yes I know it's "lame" - but I'm pessimistic about someone posting after me, considering it's three in the morning.
Tyler stated that Aguilar is "an antithesis to all the fantastic, 'magical' elements" of the story. This may be true because he seems to represent a plausable reality and history. But is it not Prudencio Aguilar who searches for Jose Arcadio Buendia by asking the dead where he may be found (pg 77)?
This search leads him to Melquiades, who connects him to JAB via Macondo. So it may be said that Melquiades is a mediator between the Past and the Present; between the Present and the Future. Rather than a hero, Melquiades is no more than a middle-man - just as hey brings great discoveries to Macondo, which are not born of his own genius, only exploited to his benefit. His wisdom is not his own, it is only an illision created by his status as a messenger of knowledge.
That's true. I never thought of it like that before but Melquiades is more of a mediator than a hero or an idol. He brings together people from the past and present and sets it up so people from the present and future can come together as well.
I agree with Tyler and Andrew. He brings people together and shows them new things, like a teacher, as mentioned earlier. I think he is more than just a middle-man to the people of Macondo, especially JAB and a few others from his family, but in the story as a whole, I see that that's pretty much what he is.
Well, these things, if I can only have faith, do come around. Good job.
I'm left unclear about two big points above: what is an idol? what is a hero? No vaguely, but as specifically as possible?
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