The Ogre (Day 4)

“Tiffauges, you are a reader of signs- I could see it, and you have proved it to me…Signs are strong Tiffauges- it is they that brought you here…Your vocation has revealed to you phoria, malign inversion and saturation…For these symbols are diabols, and no longer symbolize anything. And saturation with them brings the end of the world” (303). Tiffauges’ participation in bringing the boys to these Napolas is his contribution to the war. He does not realize what he is doing, but really he is helping to bring the “end of the world.” Of course, his intentions were never to bring harm to the boys so he carries Ephraim on his shoulders and tried to be his protection. “Ephraim,” said Tiffauges, “I’ve lost my glasses. I can hardly see. You’ll have to guide me.” The head usually represents Christ, a child and intellect, and here Ephraim could symbolize all three. Ephraim is a young child guiding Tiffauges.

“He had to make a superhuman effort now to overcome the vicious resistance grinding in his belly and breast, but he preserved, knowing al was as it should be. When he turned to look up for the last time at Ephraim, all he saw was a six-pointed star turning slowly against the black sky” (370). I saw this ending of the story as redemptive because we have Tiffauges acting more as a human and less as an ogre, a mythical character. Tiffauges could not make a superhuman effort and get himself out of this one. He protected Ephraim and tried to lead him to safety. Instead, Ephraim ended up guiding him. Since, Ephraim did seem to symbolize Christ and they did end up sinking in the mud, Tiffauges realized this was his fate and how things were supposed to be.

The Ogre (Day 3)

2. Throughout The Ogre there has been several references to animals, for example when Tiffauges nurtured the pigeons. While in Rominten, however, he is instructed to kills the animals. He was given the role of slaughterer and even though he found it cruel “it was charged with meaning and therefore beneficient.” He almost fainted when he killed his first one by killing it with a “pistol shot behind the ear.” This shows the Gilles et Jeanne or Weidmann side of Tiaffauges that he often compares himself to. Instead of caring for animals and acting motherly to them he is killing them without the intent or even desire to eat them afterwards. Although he is given this new role, he is still deeply pained at the sight of the dead horse. On his way back from Goldap he encountered Aurochs, a prehistoric animal that Dr. Lutz Heck tried to crossbreed with bulls to try re-create the original aurochs. “The Master of the Hunt howled with laughter and slapped his thighs” at each new fact that Tiffauges told him about his encounter with the animals. “Then Tiffauges was chaffed about his glasses: perhaps the magnifying lenses had made him mistake some rabbits for giant bulls.” Tiffauges then realized the masters “hatred for men in glasses, who for them embodied intelligence, study speculation. In short, the Jew.” Here he is being referred to as a Jew. Tiffauges is under Hitlers’s control, but he is blind as to what is really going on around him. The aurochs could represent the Jews in a sense because the aurochs were domestic animals that were killed huge numbers that led to their extinction. Similarly, the Jews are being killed in huge numbers, as well.

3. Bluebeard serves as a mirror image for Abel. “For a while the pigeons of Rhine had been first his conquests and then his beloved children, it was really himself he was tending when he devoted himself to his horse. And it was a revelation, this reconciliation with himself, this affection for his own body…” (223). This horse represents Abel. They had to find a horse large enough to carry Abel and this one could carry three of him. This is similar to Abel because he likes to carry children. So when he says that it was himself that he was tending to when he took care of the horse, it is because the horse represents Abel.

The Ogre (Day 2)

Something that I found interesting was when Abel compared himself to Eugene Weidmann. “He’s nearly six foot three and weighs two hundred and forty-five pounds. Exactly like me” (95). Weidmann was a murderer of seven people. Abel brings this back up again on 114, “Every day I read the reports of Eugene Weidmann’s trial. Not only does the sight of all society seeking the destruction of this one man…but it’s as if fate were going out of its way to make him and me alike.” Abel went on to say that Eugene committed all of his sinister crimes with his left hand; just like Abel write his sinister writings with his left hand. The fact that they both write with their left hand represents their superiority of other people, but also foretells the bad heading their way later on. Eugene is the last person to be executed in France. Also, society looks at them both as monsters. What these men do society sees as horrific and wrong. Murder is wrong, but I supposed they both had their personal motives for what they did.

Another aspect of the reading I found interesting was Abel and his camera. “I enjoy being equipped with a huge leather-clad sex whose Cyclopean eye opens like lightening when I command it to look, and closes again inexorably on what it has seen. It is a marvelous organ, seer and remembrancer…” (103). It is interesting that Abel personifies this camera by calling it an organ and also gives it monstrous characteristics. Abel’s sexuality is other and he is viewed more as a monster. He gets pleasure from taking pictures of these children. The camera he uses is what helps him get this pleasure, since he is neither homosexual nor heterosexual.

The Ogre (Day 1)

Question 1: At the beginning of the novel Abel explains how Rachel used to call him an ogre, “a fabulous monster emerging from the mist of time.” He believes there is something mystical about himself, but in order to fit in, he cannot act as a monster. Monsters are usually pointed at and are more “exhibited” he explained. His career of running a Parisian garage could be a way of fitting in with society. Although he is called an ogre he has a completely normal job. The term ogre is used in a “metaphorical sense to disgusting persons who exploit, brutalize or devour their victims” (wikipedia.com). This term could be used then as a metaphor to the nazis.

Question 2: “But the reason I’m sitting down for a second time with my pen in my left hand, in front of this blank sheet of paper-the third page of my “Sinister Writings”- is that I’m standing at a crossroads…” (4-5). Crossroad are where things meet, both physical and abstract. Perhaps, it is Abel himself who is the abstract one. He is called an Orge so he is misunderstood. His “Sinister Writings” allow him to be himself. The way he thinks is also abstract. “I’ve always been shocked at the frivolous way people agonize about what’s going to happen to them after they die and don’t give a damn about what happened to them before they were born. The heretofore is just as important as the hereafter, especially as it probably holds the key to it.” (1). He believes he is from the “mists of times” which represents his “supernatural powers.” The term ogre is often used in fantasies and fairy tales, which would make sense that he has a mystical side. When he writes in his diary he can escape from his garage, his “paltry” or worthless, preoccupations and from himself. He believes everything happens for a reason so the time before birth would of course be just as important as the time after.

100 Years of Solitude (Day 4)

After it rained for five years a flood occurred and wiped away all of the banana plantations and Aureliano Segundo’s animals (which were his fortune). Once the banana plantations were washed away it was as if the massacre never happened, it erased the memories of the past. In the story of Noah’s Ark in the Bible, God sent the flood to get rid of the all the evil and corruption on earth. Here in One Hundred Years of Solitude the flood plays the same role. Macondo was constantly declining until finally incest and modernity corrupted the whole town. The flood symbolized the removal of all the evil and memories of the evil from the past and for a new start.

Ursula shrinking and becoming like a doll serves as a metaphor for the town. She has become so old and senile that she serves no purpose anymore but to tell tales from the past. She was full of wisdom and held the Buendia family together. She always feared that incest would be the end of the family and at the end Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano’s do have a child with a pig-tale. Since Ursula was the strongest character in the novel and worked to keep the family together, she could represent the end of Macondo. After her death it shows that the end of the city is near. With Amaranta and Aureliano’s son being born with a pig-tail it shows the ultimate sign of incest, the thing that Ursula worried about most.

100 Years of Solitude (Day 3)

Ferdnanda is a very religious and prude person. She was raised from a rich family of aristocrats and was bound for great things in her life. She is looked down upon by the Buendia family because she is not from Maconda. Aureliano Segundo married her, but he is unfaithful to her with Petra. He seeks pleasure from her because his wife is so prude and because his animals reproduce everytime they have sex. Fernanda becomes stern and tried to impose things on the Buendia family that they are not accustomed to, such as religion and its view on sex. Yet, they end up having two children together.

The arrival of modern technology had to do with the invention of the railroad. New technology was being brought in. This kind of confused the inhabitants of Macondo in a sense. The people who live there have seen magic before, but not this modern new town of theirs. Their town is very cosmopolitan now, but also confusing and chaotic. This town was supposed to be controlled and orderly, but all the uproar attracts new inhabitants. Remedios is the only one unfazed by the rapid growth of the town. Remedios is too simple and innocent for this new world she is living in.

100 Years of Solitude (Day 2)

Tragedy or death is one theme we can say that is apparent in these chapters, specifically chapter 7. In this chapter we have the mysterious death of Jose Arcadio. It is not evident how he died, but it is nonetheless tragic. Here we also have his wife becoming a hermit. She went on to live life alone in grief. Jose Arcadio Buendia dies next after living along outside tied to a tree for years. The yellow flowers falling from the sky represents his death. In chapter 8 Aureliano Buendia is killed by a soldier. Following his death is Jose Raquel Moncada. Like the repetitive deaths, incest has showed up a couple times. Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula are cousins who eloped and had children together and Aureliano Buendia sleeps naked with his lonely aunt Amaranta. So the theme of tragedy within the family and death is very evident within these chapters.

Another Theme that keeps appearing throughout the novel thus far is solitude. We start off with Jose Arcadio Buendia secluding himself in the laboratory working on experiments and then later on being tied to a tree. In a sense his wife Ursula lives in solitude, as well because her insane husband does not provide much company to her. He remained there alone until his death years later. Rebeca slipped into solitude after the mysterious death of her husband, Jose Arcadio. She keeps herself in her house to dwell on the memories and her husband.