What's the deal with the letter from Barcelona in One Hundred Years of Solitude?
March 31, 2009 11:05 AM Subscribe
I have a question after reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. Spoilers inside.
Toward the end, when Amaranta Úrsula and Aureliano are living together in the house, They receive a letter from Barcelona, which is explicitly not from the Catalonian who had left Macondo. Aureliano takes it from Amaranta Úrsula, saying he doesn't want to know what it says. They put the letter on a shelf and never read it. It's clearly bad news.
This obviously seems to have some sort of meaning that I overlooked when I read it. So what's its significance?
Also if anyone has any links to interesting interpretations of the story, I'd love to see them.
Thanks!
Toward the end, when Amaranta Úrsula and Aureliano are living together in the house, They receive a letter from Barcelona, which is explicitly not from the Catalonian who had left Macondo. Aureliano takes it from Amaranta Úrsula, saying he doesn't want to know what it says. They put the letter on a shelf and never read it. It's clearly bad news.
This obviously seems to have some sort of meaning that I overlooked when I read it. So what's its significance?
Also if anyone has any links to interesting interpretations of the story, I'd love to see them.
Thanks!
Response by poster: That's what I thought at first, but it said the letter looked official and hostile, and I didn't know what to think.
posted by motorcycles are jets at 11:39 AM on March 31, 2009
posted by motorcycles are jets at 11:39 AM on March 31, 2009
Response by poster: You're probably right though.
posted by motorcycles are jets at 12:05 PM on March 31, 2009
posted by motorcycles are jets at 12:05 PM on March 31, 2009
Johnny Assay has the same interpretation I had.
posted by arcticseal at 4:32 PM on March 31, 2009
posted by arcticseal at 4:32 PM on March 31, 2009
links to interesting interpretations of the story
Don't know if this is too obvious to mention, but learning that the book is, among other things, a retelling of the history of Colombia really added to the richness for me. The sadly funny Liberal-Conservative war in the early pages is based on actual events, e.g., as is the banana worker massacre. I got about a third of the way through before I discovered it was also an allegorical history, and loved it even more after that.
posted by mediareport at 8:30 PM on March 31, 2009
Don't know if this is too obvious to mention, but learning that the book is, among other things, a retelling of the history of Colombia really added to the richness for me. The sadly funny Liberal-Conservative war in the early pages is based on actual events, e.g., as is the banana worker massacre. I got about a third of the way through before I discovered it was also an allegorical history, and loved it even more after that.
posted by mediareport at 8:30 PM on March 31, 2009
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posted by Johnny Assay at 11:28 AM on March 31, 2009