Active Reading Journal #15

I. Elements of Magical Realism

-“Nothing has happened in Macondo, nothing has ever happened, and nothing ever will happen. This is a happy town.”(p.310) It is a magical realism, because in the world, it is impossible not to happen anything.

II. Characters

1. Fernanda – becomes irresponsible
2. Meme – becomes a nun
3. Jose Arcadio Segundo – organize the banana plantation, but soon almost lead him to be killed

III. Plot Summery

- After the tragedy happened to Meme’s love, Mauricio Babilonia, Meme shot her mouth up for the rest of her life and becomes a nun. Fernanda took her son to where she was from and hide him in Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s workshop. Although she went far away from her lover, she always thinks about him. While those things were happening to Buendia’s family, Jose Arcadio Segundo was leading the banana plantation workers for the protest of the inhumane working conditions. However, government reacts by sending 3,000 workers for a meeting, which is a trick. The army from government surrounded the protesters and killed them all. With cruelty, the dead bodies were taken to see to be thrown. Fortunately, Jose Arcadio Segundo lived but was moved with the dead bodies. Luckily, he snicks out and goes back to Macondo, but there is no one who believes his true stories, because the army killed everyone who knows about the happenings.

IV. Quotes

1.”You must have been dreaming.”(p.310) It jumped out at me because if that happened to me, I would have wanted to think I was dreaming and what happened to him was really happened fast so, I would have felt it must be dream.

2. “I’m sure now that they were everybody who had been at the station.”(p.313) It jumped out at me because I felt really scary for that long years of solitude, he just realized that now and his life was totally destroyed.

V. Themes

1. Violence – it is played through the action of the government over the banana plantation workers.

2. Solitude – It is played by Meme becoming a nun and does not speak for the rest of her life and by Arcadio Buendia being alone in Melquiades’ room.