100 Years of Solitude Essay: Ursula
Uploaded by Skeo on Nov 4, 2004 |
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The Foundation of The Buendía family in 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez is the strong matriarch Ursula Buendía. Ursula is the pillar of strength in which the rest of the family relies. She is not only the mother of the children but she is also the one who brings in the money. Without Ursula, the Buendía family would not have been able to survive as long as they did.
Marquez does not show the strength of Ursula in the beginning of the book. The reader is left to think that she is just the wife of Jose Arcadio Buendía, an adventurous and intelligent man. The reader is shown the true strength of Ursula when Jose Arcadio Buendía and the rest of the men of Macondo decides the move the town, Ursula violently screams, “If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die.” During this critical moment that happened in the beginning of the novel, the reader is immediately aware that Ursula is not a soft creature but a strong individual and that Ursula makes the critical decisions in the family (Marquez must have stole this scene Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck). Of course, the men of Macondo decide to leave the town where it is.
During the frantic escapades of her husband, Ursula was able to achieve many things. It was Ursula, who had “found the route that her husband had been unable to discover…” Ursula was also able to setup a thriving candy business in while her husband was not doing anything productive for the development of the family. She was also able fulfill the duties of being a wife and raise the children, Aureliano, Rebecca, and Amaranta, while forging new frontiers of her own. The events show that Ursula had not only become the mother figure of the family, put she has also adopted the role of being the patriarch of the family, and Jose Arcadio has become another “child” that she is raising.
Ursula’s power and strength is finally revealed when Aureliano leaves to fight his many wars. During the reign of Arcadio, the town of Macondo was kept in a constant blanket of fear. When Arcadio was prepared to execute Don Mascote, Ursula quickly “let go with the first blow of the lash.” Arcadio was left to run back home and he “curled up like a snail in its shell.” The true strength of Ursula was shown in this instance.
The Buendía household was no more when Ursula became old and senile. The power that she once held was passed from her to Fernanda who did not understand the role that Ursula had played. Fernanda’s lack of knowledge would ultimately lead to the destruction of the Buendia’s because they were left without a strong support. The death of Ursula, marked the beginning of the end for Macondo for that is when the plague of dead birds began. |
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