100 Years of Solitude 16-20

1. Meaning of flood & subsequent drought
In Macondo, it rained for four years, eleven months, and two days. On page 315 it said, “The sky crumbled into a set of destructive storms and out of the north came hurricanes that scattered roofs about and knocked down walls and uprooted every last plant of the banana groves.” The flood seems to symbolize Noah’s Arc. The town had been filled with so much water, that they would need a large arc save them. The flood and the drought affected the entire city of Macondo. Whenever something comes to the city, it doesn’t affect just one person, but the entire population. If they had brought in an Arc into the book, it would have expanded to the modernity in the town. On page 316, “The worst part was that the rain was affecting everything and the driest of machines would have flowers popping out among their gears if they were not oiled every three days, and the treads in brocades rusted, and wet clothing would break out in a rash of saffron- colored moss. The air was so damp that fish have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms.”

5. Assassination of Aureliano Amador
On page 374 it says, “It was Aureliano Amador, the only survivor of Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s seventeen sons, searching for a respite in his long and hazardous existence as a fugitive. He identified himself, begged them to give him refuge in that house which during his nights as a pariah he had remembered as the last redoubt of safety left for him in life. But Jose Arcadio and Aureliano did not remember him. Thinking that he was a tramp, they pushed him into the street. Then they both saw from the doorway the end of a drama that had begun before Jose Arcadio had reached the age of reason. Two policemen who had been chasing Aureliano Amador for years, who had tracked him like bloodhounds across half the world, came out from among7 the almond trees on the opposite sidewalk and took two shots with their Mausers which neatly penetrated the cross of ashes.” Aureliano Amador tried to get forgiveness for what his brothers brought into the town, the big force brought in. It was sad that they didn’t recognize him, and pushed him into the street. It seems like Amador really wanted forgiveness because he didn’t mean for any of it to happen. It was interesting how the cops had shot him on the cross of ashes, because it had been referred to before. Aureliano Amador was the only brother who tried asking for forgiveness, and seeking shelter, but was turned down. It was the only place left for him to go, and he was not even recognized by his family. This ties back to the fact that members in Macondo were being forgotten, just like how his family didn’t recognize him.