100 Years of Solitude Chap 11-15 Part 1b. Petra represents NATURE vs. Fernanda represents SOCIETY & its shallow aritificiality

a. FERNANDA is an external force of change, hierarchy, and societal trends that smother the vitality and chaos of Macondo: PETRA REPRESENTS FERTILITY & NATURE; FERNANDA REPRESENTS FICTION & SOCIETAL HIERARCHY.

Nature/Fertility of Petra: * “…but an influence of Petra Cortes, his concubine, whose love had the virtue of exasperating nature,”(p. 189).

* “At first Aureliano Segundo did not notice the alarming proportions of the proliferations…it was a delirious prosperity that even made him laugh, and she could not help doing crazy things to release his good humor,”(p. 191)

* “She had made a man out of him. While he was still a child she had drawn him out of Melquiades’ room, his head full of fantastic ideas and lacking any contact with reality, and she had given him a place in the world. Nature had made him reserved and withdrawn, with tendencies toward solitary meditation, and she had molded an opposite character in him, one that was vital, expansive, open, and she had injected him with a joy for living and a pleasure in spending and celebrating until she had converted him, inside and out, into the man she had dreamed of for herself since adolescence,”(p. 203).

* “Don’t worry,’ she told them. ‘Queens run errands for me, the only candle that will make him come is always lighted,”(p. 204).

è Ultimately, Petra represents the untouchable force and fertility of MOTHER NATURE. She is unrelenting to class status or social structure enforced by Fernanda and the church, society is a mere manifestation of man, powerless and aritificial to the force of nature.

è Fernanda & Aureliano Segundo were both born with similar tendencies for solitude and shyness – the difference being that Aureliano was influenced by mother nature in the form of Petra, and destiny chose a path for Aureliano that led to fulfillment and happiness beyond what his demeanor foretold – Fernanda was trapped in disillusioned solitude, without the external forces of nature as an influence in her direction and happiness in life. Since she has no knowledge of what holds true value in life, she tries to compensate by pursuing the traditions of her family and religion – both of which are powerless to the ultimate force of nature, superior and benevolent.

Don Quixote Chap 36-45 (Part 3)

3) Quote 2 – Chap. 37 & 38 Quixote esteems Knight Errantry above Scholars over Dinner

(a) “This is a goal that is certainly noble and generous and praiseworthy, but less so than the goal that arms have before them, which is peace, the greatest good to which men can aspire in this life,”(Don Quixote, chapter 37, page 354).

-Quixote earns the eager attention of everyone at the table with his arguments for peace, supported by the divine “letters” of the Bible – as God asks us to fight for peace. But as he shifts to talking about chivalry, his audience deems him as crazy with a “good brain.” It also interesting that he makes such a strong argument for peace when he spends so much of his time fighting with everyone he encounters – he later states that peace is the goal of ALL war, the ultimate treasure.

(b) “So although the soldier’s hardships are greater, his reward is much smaller.’ ‘…Grappled together the soldier has no more room for his charge than the two-foot wide timber at the prow; and despite this, and seeing before him many ministers of death threatening him as there are guns being aimed not a lance’s length from him, and knowing that one slip of his feet will send him down to visit the depth’ of Neptune’s dominions, he still, with an undaunted heart, and sustained by the honor that inspires him, makes himself a target for all those harquebuses and tries to storm his way across such a narrow bridge into the enemy vessel. And what is even more astonishing is that as soon as one soldier falls, never to rise until doomsday, another take this place; and, if this one also falls into the sea that waits him like one more enemy, another and another replace him without a moment’s pause between their deaths: the finest example of courage and daring to be found in all the extremities of war,”(Don Quixote, chapter 38, pages 357-358).

-Quixote compares and contrasts the importance and also the sacrifices made by scholars who write letters and knights who fight for peace. He argues that knighthood is not solely based on physical action and fighting, but that it also takes brain-power and logical reasoning to discern which battles are worth fighting to obtain the greatest good.

-Quixote is careful not to criticize letters written in the Bible, instead he esteems these as the most noble and valuable letters ever written, which articulate the ultimate goal that he and all knights fight for: peace.

-He also notes that “arms & letters” have a symbiotic relationship; letters/laws are needed in knighthood because there are laws in war, just as arms are needed to protect these letters/laws through defending each nation and government that carries out the letters of scholars.

-I was taken aback by Quixote’s arguments about the costs & rewards of being a soldier vs. that of a scholar. Things that cost the most are the things we value the most – this still rings true today and is relative to both material goods, but also the freedom of our country and lives of Americans that we fight so hard to defend today. He also talks about death, which is the COST for a soldier fighting for peace. The risk of one’s own life is the biggest and most costly sacrifice that once can give; we are no longer in existence without our own life. Quixote also describes the honor and courage that is upheld by soldiers, who in the face of death stand their ground because of their deeply rooted values. Also that for every soldier that falls to death, there will be another waiting to take his place.

-I don’t think that Quixote was talking like a crazy man at all – I think that his audience only looked at the surface of his speech, and assumed that Quixote was diminishing the value of an education and exalting knighthood (as he so often does). However, his illustration of what the TRUTH of honor, virtue and sacrifice are as individuals perform their functions in society and “fight for peace,” in their own way – some risk their lives, others take a less drastic approach. Luscinda demonstrated the characteristics of a soldier when she said she was willing to give her own life for her own virtue and truth - if she could not live her life truthfully and faithfully with Cardenio, she would rather die.

-Finally, I found it interesting that Quixote (the crazy fool) and Dorotea (a mere woman of inferior rank) are the characters bringing the TRUTH to light in these chapters. Dorotea and Quixote represent radical views of roles of women in society, and the role of the soldier in society – but they use valid arguments to defend knights and truth of honor and duty in society. Cervantes’ turns his back to what society deems as “reality” and uses the fiction of Quixote and inferiority of women to show everyone else what is the TRUTH & the SEEDS OF ENLIGHTENMENT. Making EVERYONE ELSE who esteems ABOVE Cervantes’ truth bearers (Quixote & Dorotea).

-Cervantes flips fiction, reality, societal truth & virtuous truth on its head.

Don Quixote Chap 36-45 (Part 1)

1) Lela Zoraida/Maria Character Analysis:

Zoraida’s story and past actions set her apart from the other women in Don Quixote – as she flips the stereotypical role of women on its head.
a. Zoraida falls in love with the captive who she has never met – solely based on seeing him. This is the way that all of the foolish, lustful men of the novel (Grisóstomo, Fernando, etc.) fall in love with women – solely based on their beauty, and not at all concerned with their virtues or beliefs.
b. Zoraida delivers a bundle of money and a letter to the captive through the prison window to help him escape. This money was from her own father who she had run away from – and the letter stated that she had converted to Christianity and wanted to become his wife in Spain. The fact that Zoraida is not only helping a man escape prison to marry her, (thus satisfying her OWN desires, instead of the desires of the MAN) but Zoraida is going against her own family and father.
a. The stories of Dorotea and Luscinda, the women had to dress like men to escape their homes and run away to solitude. Marcela even dressed “drably” as a shepherdess in the woods, all the while disguising their beauty, which was detrimental to their lives and honor. Zoraida has a thin veil over her face, which is dropped to reveal her amazing beauty – more beautiful than Luscinda and Dorotea.
b. This idea of a ‘veiled/disguised’ identity continues when Zoraida objects fervently that her name is: Maria! Maria! Which is the name she wishes to be baptized by.
c. Zoraida represents a more modern woman, though she is a radical character in the novel based on the time period. Zoraida conducts herself based on her own personal honor and dignity – despite the fact that her sex is perceived as “inferior to men” and despite the honor of her father or family, she is more independent as a figure. (Or at least much more independent than any of the other female characters who remain indebted to their lover or family). Her individuality is emphasized because of her various backgrounds: Moorish, “Spanish,” Arabic, Muslim, and Christian – she has shaped her individual identity from her own heritage and also the choices she made for herself, such as moving to Spain and becoming a Christian.
d. The notion that a woman is capable of choosing her own path in life and shaping her own identity is utterly radical. She is a strong, individual character who pursues her own desires, but at the same time she never speaks. This muteness is a reflection of the reality of her status as a woman during Cervantes’ time: although she has achieved so much through her actions, she is mute and cannot understand the Spanish being spoken around her. In a way, just as Zoraida cannot understand the Spanish being spoken by Dorotea, Luscinda – Dorotea and Luscinda cannot understand the Arabic being spoken to her. This could represent the idea that these women cannot comprehend the lifestyle and beliefs that they live by, as Zoraida’s life is so different from the other ladies.
e. I think that Cervantes presents us with Zoraida as a representation of the radical, practically “fictitious” notion that a woman has equal power and choice as a man. That a woman can choose to love based on sight just as the men do, and that she has the power to disregard her own heritage and family to pursue her own desires. Extremely radical ideas for the time.