Magic Realism

Chapter 1

• Gypsies - in this chapter, they come and play a major role as the story unravels. They bring forth new inventions as well as senses of trouble toward the community of Macondo. Melquiades, who is one of the main characters, shows signs of supernatural powers and magical transition from old to new as far as appearance goes.
• Potions/Elixirs - different (scientific) substances are combined that give off scents or make things occur that have negative connotations. It carries on the feeling that something evil or extra-ordinary is taking or will take place.
• Giants and Pirate's Chests - these are just things that are not seen or mentioned in regular daily proceedings. They're strange because they're only seen in fairy tales or fantasy adventures but nothing you would find on the seven o'clock news.
• Regions - the area that Jose Arcadio Buendia walks his men through shows sign of enchantment. Things grow faster, the sun shines less, animals act weird, etc. These can just be encounters never experienced because of being in a different environment but then the reader can also wonder how much of that is really because of nature.

Chapter 2

• Flying Carpet/Magical Lamps - objects used for entertainment and recreation not for normal uses instead as amazement.


• Pig's Tail - Ursula's aunt and Jose Arcadio Buendia's uncle had a son who was born with a corkscrew appendage that favored a pig's tail. Because of it, Ursula, as her husband's cousin, feared that their children would have the same problem so she ran from sexual relations for a year until she was forced to feel comfortable.


• Prudencio Aguilar's Ghost - because of unfinished business and a sense of suffering so to speak, he returns and is seen by Jose Arcadio Buendia, his murderer, and Ursula who feels pity for him.


• The situation involving the man who turns into a snake for having disobeying his parents.


• The fact that it took Ursula fourteen months instead of the normal time that should be taken to bear a child, nine months, to bear her and Jose Arcadio Buendia 's son.


• The Echo - there's a sound that mysterious creeps upon Jose Aracadio Buendia often that lures him from his dreams to Macondo to found the village.


• The Frog-Like Girl/Headless Girl - the first girl has frog-like tendencies and the other has to have her head cut off every night at the same time as views in the gypsies' show that was becoming a family trend.

Chapter 3

• The Mysterious Appearance of Rebeca - she appears with not too much of anything with a note from family members that neither Ursula nor Jose Arcadio Buendia recognized, having a tendency to eat earth and whitewash and when she couldn't she could go days on in without eating, but still she was taken in.


• Plagues of Insomnia - specifically one brought by Rebeca after her grand transformation into a better creature reborn as a member of the Buendia family. Along with the plague came an intense lose of memory for all. No longer was the future read by prophecies or tarot cards but instead the past was, that was so easily forgotten.


• Duel Against the Devil - the chapter mentions how Francisco the Man received his name by apparently beating the devil, literally, in a battle of improvisation. HOW REAL IS THAT? : )

Chapter 4

• Jose Arcadio Buendia's Memory - During this chapter, he's the only one who believes strongly that Monday keeps reoccurring. The events make him feel as if it always exists.


• Prudencio Aguilar's Ghost - constantly being seen by Ursula and Jose Arcadio Buendia.

Chapter 5

• The Sea Dragon - the slaying the he dragon by Jose Arcadio and his ship crew.


• The Ghost Ship - the sight of the ship of the pirate Victor Hughes.


• Father Nicanor's Levitation - he rises six inches above ground level only after drinking a thick cap of streaming hot chocolate straight. This was convincing enough to the people to make them believe him.

Chapter 6

• Colonel Aureliano Buendia's Immortality - he shot himself in the chest with a pistol and the bullet came out through his back without damaging any vital organs. He couldn't kill himself let alone could anyone else.

Chapter 7

• The Traveling of the Blood - magically the blood of Jose Arcadio managed to seep from his body onto the floor out into the streets and traveled highways and byways, far and wide, past Ursula's thresh hold into her kitchen where she followed the trail directly back to find her son dead.


• The Missing Wound - mysteriously there was no wound found on Jose Buendia from the pool of blood and gun shot being heard with gunpowder smelt, after being scrubbed, rubbed, soaked in lye, seasoned, and even boiled until finally deteriorating.


• The Size of Jose Arcadio - the coffin made seven in a half feet long and four feet wide...HUGE! : )


• The Scent of Gunpowder - the gunpowder had such an after effect that even after Jose Arcadio was buried, it still lingered about the cemetery and the town, for years until the top of the grave was finally cemented.


• Rebeca's Innocence - strange it seemed to Ursula as well as probably all the readers that Rebeca was in the next room the entire time of Jose Arcadio being killed yet heard nothing, saw nothing and didn't have the capability of leaving the bathroom because some force locked her in.


• Colonel Aureliano Beundia's Dashes from Death - thus far, the colonel has seemed to escape every attempt, even not on purpose during suicide, to not die, to the point that now it's funny! : ) He nor others can kill himself/him, how weird can you get.


• The Storm of Tiny Yellow Flowers - I've heard of snow, thunder/rain, and hail storms but never had a imagined that so many tiny flowers could fall all at once to succumb the streets. Leaves fall and cover the grounds but only because the wind blows them from the trees high above, but the question arises, where did the flowers ascend from?

Chapter 8

• The Uniqueness of Colonel Aureliano's Children - one of the children that were brought to Macondo to be claimed by the colonel as his seed was large for his age and because of his strength, was capable of crushing anything he touched. The bad part was that it stopped him from touching anything because it was controlled yet so he crushed not only anything as if it was at his disposal, but everything he touched. The second was a blond boy who managed to enter the house, that he had never been to nor seen in a photograph before, with familiarity as if he was raised there or some past soul of the Buendia family gave him the blueprints to the house or possessed him during that exact moment. He went directly for the chest and demanded for the mechanical ballerina, a gift brought by Pietro Crespi, that everyone had forgotten about. The children were truly gifted and proved in their extraordinary likeness to not only be the fruit of the colonel's loins, but a Buendia as well.

Chapter 9

• The Boiling of the Milk - while at the stove, Ursula wondered as to why the milk hadn't boiled just yet. Miraculously to her surprise when she opened it, she found that they had turned into worms. She considered it a signal of Colonel Aureliano Buendia's (supposed) death.


• Immortality - it seems as if Colonel Aureliano Buendia cannot be killed even by his own hands. At what point do the powers that be say it's enough because apparently the individual does NOT, I repeat, does NOT have the power or that privilege so to speak, in their hands.

Chapter 10

• The mentioning again of Magical Lamps and Flying Mats - they were said to be true, significant instances from Macondo's history.


• The Plague of Proliferation - Aureliano's supernatural rapid growth of animals was very strange. He felt his struck of good luck was due to the presence of his concubine, Petra Cotes.


• Meliquiades' Return - for the third time Melquiades has come back appearing as he did before but more jovial and as a ghost. He speaks to Aureliano Segundo of stories of Macondo's past and keeps him updated. He maintains his space keeping it clean and as if he still remains.

Chapter 11

• The Setting of Fernanda's Home Town - the Queen of Madagascar was from a very strange and peculiar place with ghostly nights and places where the sun never set.


• The Unremovable Ash Crosses - on Ash Wednesday when all of the seventeen Aurelianos got crosses unlike everyone else, theirs could not be removed no matter what they tried to do. They were sacred and showed that respect should be given; stamps of invulnerabilty, which was ironic because they were and caste marks as well.

Chapter 12

• The Power of Remedios' Beauty - as a disturbing individual because of the power she possessed, unintentionally, Remedios the Beauty was a daily disaster that caused men to experience anxiety and die over her, literally, at any cost, or maybe it was just karma? Caused men to cry for no reason - strange fascination. All the men wanted was to at least be a figment of imagination of love to really exist by her. That was enough.


• Jose Arcadio Beuendia's Ghost - appeared because of the intricate stew of truths and mirages.


• Colonel Aureliano Buendia's Premonitions - He envisioned the death of his children. He knew that something terrible was coming to kill them all and he tries his hardest to prevent it by any means necessary.


• The Death of the Men - the stranger jumped down from the roof to further see Remedios the Beauty and he cracked his skull but blood didnt pour, only amber-colored oil that smelled of her. The death of the man who thought he had conquered the world apparently when he attacher Remedios the Beauty and died mysteriously in the worst kind of way. It held to the dact that she tormented men beond death on into eternity because that's how powerful her beauty was.


• The Levitation Tale of Remedios the Beauty

Chapter 13

• The Reappearance of Jose Arcadio Buendia's Ghost to Fernanda and some others.

Chapter 14

• The Invisible Doctors - (telepathic surgeons) it never failed that Fernanda would not write to them. It was almost an addiction that she didn't know how neither did she want to shake.


• The Image of Death - it came to tell Amaranta she would have to sew her own shroud for the next 6th of April although it didnt tell her when or whether it was before Rebeca. Death assured her that she would die with no pain, fear or bittterness if she did as she was told.

Chapter 15

• The Spray of Bullets in the Station – after Jose Arcadio Segundo started the rowdiness and the “jump off” so to speak, there was an outburst of bullets over the crowd of people in the station, but miraculously there was no initial reaction (sadness, terror, madness, etc.) as if no one was harmed physically or mentally if they had seen a loved one hurt by what had just taken place.


• The Invisible Massacre – apparently the killing spree at the station that took the lives of hundreds if not thousands was seen my no one else than Jose Arcadio Segundo. To others it was a figment of his imagination. There was nothing known of it because there was no proof even at the station that it had ever happened. Very strange.


• Imperceptible Jose Arcadio Segundo – though Jose Arcadio Segundo was there, mind, body and soul, the officer flashed his light right over his face and left Melquiades’ room after the search saying that there was nothing there to worry about as if he didn’t exist or just wasn’t visible though he saw him. It was exactly the same way when the colonel would enter the room and see but not see. It was like he had some protective cloak that kept him from harm magically. Since then he was free from fear, period.

Chapter 16

• Rain – rain is normally nothing magical but in this case the length of time was just outlandish. It rained for four years, eleven months, and two days. There were periods of drizzle but that would just indicate that when it rained again it would come down two times as hard. Homes were flood and destroyed while animals drowned and Macondo drifted into despair.

Chapter 17

• Labyrinth of Dead People – Ursula’s view of her heritage, ancient and recent, all who had past away, in one room.


• The Death (Plague) of the Birds – some thought that it was caused by the appearance of the strange creature, half human half animal, but either way it was just so odd that they would all die simultaneously in one interval that had succumb to grief.


• The Weird Creature - magically a half-man/half-animal creature appeared supposedly causing the plague of the death of so many birds in Macondo. It was unaware of where it came from but they made no doubt that they would kill it at any cost and they hunted it down and completed their mission.


• Aureliano and Jose Arcadio Segundo's Closeness - they both described how it was always March and Monday, but the truth was, ironically, that they were just unique and saw how time also stumbled and had accidents so things like people's actions would repeat themselves.


• The Death of Jose Arcadio Segundo - mysteriously, he fell upon the parchments, dying with his eyes open after speaking to Aureliano one last time of the massacre.

Chapter 18

• Melquiades' Return - he had came back, this ime to converse with Aureliano who had learned so much while in his study. This time though, body and soul, I would believe that he really died because now the room had become vulnerable like it never had before.


• The Invincible Ants - they could not be killed by the broom, insecticides or lye.


• The Wandering About of Things - magically, according to Fernanda, things were being misplaced by her because they would get up, as if they had legs, and move from her chosen place for them to lay, that or Elves were up to mishief in the house cause her to go crazy.


• The Force - there was a force from an unknown source that lifted the children in Melquiades' room when they tried to destroy the parchments until Aureliano returned.

Chapter 19

• The Balancing of a Beer Bottle - on an "unbalancing" night, Aureliano undressed and ran through the house, mysteriously balancing a beer bottle on his unconceivable maleness.


• Pilar was Still Alive - to everyone's surprise, Pilar was still alive at over one hundred forty years of age. She saw him as well but in the image of the colonel who he reminded her of.

Chapter 20

• The Rituals of the Mulatto Girls – the girls came up with weird arrangements to be carried out for Pilar Ternera’s funeral procession that were indeed, carried out.


• The Mischief of the Elves – this time the elves were at it again but this time with Catalonian instead of Fernanda by increasing the wandering about of things. To me it was the beginning of a sign to the living that death was on its way.


• Melquiades’ Grand Premonition – one hundred years ahead of time he knew the Buendia family’s destiny, where it began and end.