Loss of Strong Female Characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude and the House of the Spirits Essay Example
Lineham 1 Blair Lineham Ms. Davis IB/AP English 23 January 2008 Loss of Strong Female Characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits In both Isabel Allende’s novel The House of the Spirits and Garcia Marquez’s One
Hundred Years of Solitude, strong female characters form the structure and center of the family units.When they die, their families start to break apart.Marquez and Allende manipulate the relationships between family members to show how the absence of strong female characters leads to the destruction of their homes and families; both physically and emotionally.
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ursula Iguaran is the strong woman that holds the
Buendia family together.Ursula is the oldest member of Macondo; she helps discover it and is alive almost until it’s destruction over one hundred years later.Her sagacious and overseeing nature is implied by her sheer age and seniority.Marquez describes Ursula’s strength when he writes that, “Although she was already a hundred years old and on the point of going blind from cataracts, she still had her physical dynamism, her integrity of character, and her mental balance intact.No one would be better able than she to shape the virtuous man who would restore the prestige of the family” (Marquez 205).This passage directly follows Ursula agreeing to raise
Aureliano Segundo’s newborn son.Marquez employs magical realism to express Ursula’s extreme mental strength.A woman that is over one hundred years of age and on the verge of being blind cannot raise an infant, and does not have “physical dynamism”.This use of
Lineham 2 exaggerated magical realism exemplifies Ursula’s motherly qualities and how she provides the structure for the family because she wishes to take care of a child when she is at the age that most people can no longer even take care of themselves.
Although it may seem harsh at times, Ursula’s strong willed nature leads her to do whatever is necessary to keep her
Hundred Years of Solitude, strong female characters form the structure and center of the family units.When they die, their families start to break apart.Marquez and Allende manipulate the relationships between family members to show how the absence of strong female characters leads to the destruction of their homes and families; both physically and emotionally.
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ursula Iguaran is the strong woman that holds the
Buendia family together.Ursula is the oldest member of Macondo; she helps discover it and is alive almost until it’s destruction over one hundred years later.Her sagacious and overseeing nature is implied by her sheer age and seniority.Marquez describes Ursula’s strength when he writes that, “Although she was already a hundred years old and on the point of going blind from cataracts, she still had her physical dynamism, her integrity of character, and her mental balance intact.No one would be better able than she to shape the virtuous man who would restore the prestige of the family” (Marquez 205).This passage directly follows Ursula agreeing to raise
Aureliano Segundo’s newborn son.Marquez employs magical realism to express Ursula’s extreme mental strength.A woman that is over one hundred years of age and on the verge of being blind cannot raise an infant, and does not have “physical dynamism”.This use of
Lineham 2 exaggerated magical realism exemplifies Ursula’s motherly qualities and how she provides the structure for the family because she wishes to take care of a child when she is at the age that most people can no longer even take care of themselves.
Although it may seem harsh at times, Ursula’s strong willed nature leads her to do whatever is necessary to keep her