I have been creating a list of character traits that go along with each character and their namesakes in order to keep them all straight in my head, and to see if certain personality traits are handed down from characters to their namesakes. This what I have come up with:
In the José Arcadio Buendía line:
José Arcadio Buendía is an inventor, careless in his dress, obsesses over his ideas and creations, takes an interest in his sons educations, is a careless dresser, unusually strong, clairvoyant and of course, goes crazy in the end and is tied to a tree in the backyard.
José Arcadio (married to Rebeca) is said to have his father's character (p.14), though, unlike his father, lacks imagination, he enjoys excess (drinks, gambles and sleeps with many women until he marries Rebeca) and is also unusually strong and dies young, shot in his own house.
Arcadio (son of Pilar and José Arcadio and Pilar) does not recieve the full name of his father because he is illegitimite, takes an interest in education like his grandfather, but unlike his father, also has tremendous hereditary strength and dies very young. After impregnating Sofia de la Piedad with the twins, José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo and fathering Remedios the beauty, he faces a firing squad, and is killed.
Aureliano Segundo (son of Arcadio). I put him in the José Arcadio line because the wise Ursula suspects that, during their mischievous games of pretending to be the other, they became confused and never changed back to the other. He was also a big, burly and strong man like his grandfather and great grandfather, was excessive, also like his grandfather. He had a good sense of humor and was very lucky. He marries Fernanda and fathers José Arcadio, Ursula Amaranta, and Meme.
In the Aureliano line:
Colonel Aureliano Buendía (who marries the young Rebeca) is silent and withdrawn, thinner than the Arcadios, is clairvoyant like his father, very proud, intense, brave and doesn't have the capacity for love (as observed by Ursula). He dies of old age against the tree in the backyard.
Aureliano José follows his father to war and I think he doesn't return? If anyone remembers this, I am missing a characterization of this Aureliano.
The 17 Aurelianos have the same intensity as their father and the same eyes.
José Arcadio Segundo (who was probably born Aureliano Segundo) follows in his Great uncle's footsteps and organizes a strike against the banana company. He is also quiet and reserved like the Colonel and spends his later years locked in a room reading Melquíades writings, similar to the same obsession Aureliano had over his gold fish.
(their are two more Aureliano's but I haven't gotten that far yet. I will fill the rest in perhaps at a later date)
My conclusion then is that, there are definite personality traits that are handed down through the names. The first José Arcadio Buendía seems to hand down traits to both his sons, but then after that, the José Arcadios seem to be strong and burly and drawn to excess. And the Aurelianos are more reserved, thinner and more intense, but are driven to fight (for the war and strike) and are natural leaders. This seems to be the same with the women as well but I will end this here because I could go on for another hour or so I am sure of I wanted.
3 comments:
Your characterization tree seems accurate, but the women to me seem more complex. There are many women and each seems different to me. The only similarity among the women is that they are scared of giving birth to pig tailed children, but they usually give into their fears. The women also seem more reserved and do not explore like the men. Maybe that is why they live longer. They live simple lives but are in constant solitude. For me Amaranta is the only smart one that likes to take care of other peoples childern to break her solitude.
Thanks for the breakdown of the characters. The more we talk about them in class the better my recollection of who’s who becomes. But this will definitely help. Its funny how it has taken us nearly 2/3’s of the book to properly figure out the characters. I think that most of the time we would put a book such as this back on the shelf. Well at least I would but I am glad that I can’t do that because it’s an incredibly interesting and funny book. I don’t know if you see this but i usually find something funny on every page, mainly due to so many characters doing so many different things.
I agree with Ronika. It's interesting how the women, whose names show a little more variation, tend to be a little more varied personality-wise.
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