百年孤独论文

Abstract
In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude Ursula Iguaran is the wife of Jose Arcadio Buendia clan , who is the patriarch of Macondo. The tenacious matriarch of the Buendia clan , Ursula Iguaran lives to be well over one hundred years old, continuing with her hardheaded common sense to try and preserve the family .Every now and then , when things get particularly run-down , Ursula Iguaran revitalizes the family both physically and emotionally , repairing the Buendia house and breathing new life into the family. She is a great woman. As a matriarch , she does her best to preserve the Buendia clan and their town . As a a wife , she is considerate. As a mother, she is tender and strong . And as a woman , she is co urageous, incredibly tenacious,reliable, honest and smart.
Key W ords: Ursula Iguaran; great woman ; considerate; tender; courageous
摘要
乌苏拉是带领创建马贡多小镇的年轻族长霍塞阿卡迪奥布恩地亚的妻子。

她是布恩地亚家族中顽强的女族长，活了100多岁。

她以顽强的意志竭尽全力的维护着这个家族。

每当家族面临危机时，她总能在关键时刻身心力行，出谋划策，使家族重获新生。

她时常修缮宅第，接纳新的家庭成员。

她是一个伟大的女性。

作为女族长，她竭力维护着自己的家族；作为妻子，她体贴入微；作为母亲，她温柔勇敢；作为女性，她异乎寻常的坚强，诚实守信并且精明于事。

关键词:乌苏拉,伟大女性,温柔,勇敢,坚强
1.Introduction
One Hundred Y ears of Solitude (1967) is the story of seven g en erations of the Buendía Family in the town of Macondo. The founding patriarch of Macondo, JoséArcadio Buendía, and Úrsula, his wife (and first cousin), leave Riohacha, Colombia, to find a better life and a new home. One night of their emigration journey, whilst camping on a riverbank, JoséArcadio Buendía dreams of “Macondo”, a city of mirrors that r eflected the world in and about it. Upon awakening, he decides to found Macondo at the river side; after days of wandering the jungle, José Arcadio Buendía’s founding of Macondo is utopic.[1] Founding patriarch José Arcadio Buendía believes Macondo to be surrounded by water, and from that island, he invents the world according to his perceptions.[1] Soon after its foundation, Macondo becomes a town frequented by unusual andextraordinary events that involve the generations of the Buendía family, who are unable or unwilling to escape their periodic (mostly) self-inflicted misfortunes. Ultimately, a hurricane destroys Macondo, the city of mirrors; just the cyclical turmoil inherent to Macondo. At the end of the story, a Buendía man deciphers an encrypted cipher that generations of Buendía family men had failed to decipher. The secret message informed the recipient of every fortune and misfortune lived,bythe Buendía Familygenerations.[6] Buendía Family is really a big family. It involves all kinds of people who represent the people of Clombia in the real world. The long developing process of their town Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia is a representation of the history of Colombia at that time when Colombia society has involved in independent wars against the colonial Spanish Empire and has wrestled with the dilemma either progress into the modern industrial world or perish in backwater barbarism in the 18th century and the war against racial discrimination late after. This is the same situation faced by the Buendía Family.Thus one hundred years of solitude of the Buendía Family is one hundred years of solitude of Colombian people. Anyhow, this kind of time will pass and never return as the author said at the end
of the novel, because all people have stood up to fight for their own fate and right.
In the novel, the author qualified each character with different personality either good or evil. Among them, Úrsula acts as a main role to balance all. She lived through one hundred years to witness the development and fall of her family. Though at the end of the novel, Buendía Family disappeared in the dust, Úrsula has fight all her life to protect her family when she was alive. No matter as a matriarch, a wife, a mother or just as a woman, she devoted anything she can to others unselfishly. Ordinary as she is, she is a heroin and set up an good example for all, no matter the people in the novel or the people of Colombia in the real life.
3. Methodology
This study is in nature a qualitative study. The related data and information from the Internet and library sources are collected and analyzed. In this thesis, the author analyzes the virtues of Úrsula, the Matriarch of Macondo, the guard of the Buendía Family. Most of the theories and examples are taken from published works of the researches of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Chinese masterpieces of comment on all aspects of the book, for they seem quite powerful and persuasive in demonstrating many important points of the book, including not only the complicated human relationships, people’s different personalities, the social and time background, the history of the development progress of a family which metaphors the development of Latin, but also the moralities to be a good person which can enrich people’s mind.
Several steps and procedures are followed to accomplish this thesis. Firstly, the author collects abundant information about the study on One Hundred Years of Solitude from the library and the Internet. Secondly, these materials are sorted into different categories. Thirdly, based on the literature analysis, the author comments on the recent research achievements gained abroad and at home, and points out their merits and limitation and then proposes her orientation of research. Fourthly, the problems are analyzed and discussed in three different perspectives: (1). Úrsula, as a Matriarch; (2). As a Wife; (3). As a Mother; (4) Courageous as a Woman.Finally, a conclusion is made by using both inductive method and deductive method to restate the thesis statement.
4. Analysis and Discussion
We often consider men are great in the world .They do a lot of great things that women can not do. However, there are also great women in our life. They can do what men can not do. Ursula Iguaran is the model of women, I think. She is considerate, tender, strong, courageous, tenacious, reliable, honest and smart.
1.As a Matriarch
After founding the town Macondo , Jose Arcadio Buendia is addicted to doing some scientific researches. When he finds out that their town is surrounded by the sea , he thinks that there is no hope living in this place . He thinks about it in his lab again and again. However, the town has not been founded for more than 30 years . Houses here are designed in very good order and streets here are also built appropriately. In only a short time, Macondo becomes the best-ordered and most diligent town that the villagers have ever seen.
In order to preserve the peaceful and happy country, Ursula Iguaran tries her best to stop her husband’s crazy plan. Her determination to protect the little town is so fierce that she unites all the women to be against their husband s’crazy plan before they can carry out their plan.
When Jose Arcadio Buendia packs up his things, Ursula Iguaran just stands as a looker . Because Ursula Iguaran knows men in the town will not follow him. Jose Arcadio Buendia becomes confused why the men give him lots of excuses that they will not move along with him.
At the moment Jose Arcadio Buendia puts down the room door, Ursula Iguaran asks why. He says,“We leave here by ourselves though no one wants to leave with us.”Ursula Iguaran says no . Jose Arcadio Buendia says that there is not a person dead here since we came, and one does not belong to a place that he has not a dead relatives buried there. Then , Ursula Iguaran replies ,“If I died , you can stay here . I am going to die.”Her fierce determination shocks her husband . In the end, Jose
Arcadio Buendia has to give up his plan and stay here.
From all above, we see Ursula Iguaran is responsible for her town . What is more, what he dose to preserve the town reflects that she is quite a delight and determined woman. First, she unites all the women togethe , not only stopping her own husband by herself . She combines outside advantage and her own act, so she breaks her husband’s dream from outside and inside. Second, she is so determined that she can give up her life if necessary. This makes her husband astound and finally gives up .
Ursula Iguaran and Jose Arcadio Buendia are very close relatives. So their marriage is a kind of incest. Long ago, in their Buendia clan there was a couple who are in incestuous relationship giving birth to a child with a pig tail . All these make Ursula Iguaran is afraid of incest. She wants the Buendia clan to be a healthy and strong family. When her son Jose Arcadio marries his sister Rebeca (Though they are not real relatives, they are brought up together as sister and brother in the family.), Ursula Iguaran dose not let them come back home again. As master of the family, she deals with not only the everyday things but also the future of their family. By keeping Jose Arcadio and Rebeca away, she makes the clan purer in quite a long time by keeping incest away.
2. As a Wife
As a wife , Ursula Iguaran is very tender and considerate to her husband when he is about unconscious from doing his scientific researches in his closed room .Ursula Iguaran cares about all that happens to her family for her husband loses his interest in making the town or their family better . Even though Jose Arcadio Buendia’s solitary and obsessive quest for knowledge drives him mad at the end of his life and he becomes indifferent to everything and everybody, Ursula Iguaran tries her best to preserve the family and care about him considerately and carefully
After Ursula Iguaran protects Don Apolinar Moscote from being killed by her grandson Arcadio , a vicious dictator who is obsessed with order . She feels very lonely. She goes to see her indifferent husband who is forgotten by the family. Ursula
Iguaran tells him what has happened during these days and also tells her loneliness to him. Jose Arcadio Buendia sits on a small stool under the 栗树and Ursula Iguaran washes him from head to foot, one part after another. Here, we can see Ursula Iguaran is tender as a wife. She does not let her husband who is tied to a tree and is mad become dirty even though he is not responsible for the family and does not care about her. She often goes to talk to him, helps him to wash and move away his shits.
Now, here comes a “dialogue” between Ursula Iguraran and her husband. From this, we can see how considerate she Ursula Iguaran is as a wife.
When Ursula Iguaran washes her husband, she says,“Aureliano has gone to war more than 4 months . We have nothing from him. Jose Arcadio has come back. He is taller than you and he becomes a person of bad quality. After he comes back, he does nothing but loses face of our family.” Hearing what Ursula Iguaran says,Jose Arcadio Buendia seems sad . Realizing it, Ursula Iguaran changes her topic and voice all at once. She is so careful that she does not want to transfer anything bad to her husband. She lies to him,“Do not believe what I have just said . It is God who wants Jose Arcadio and Rebeca to get married. They live a very happy life now. Arcadio has grown to be an adult. He is brave and he looks very nice when putting on his uniform. Good luck comes to us. Amaranta and Pietro Crespy are going to be married.” From the lie, we can see a wife full sadness but protects her husband’s heart with all her heart.
Husband and wife should rely on and care for each other. However, without husband’s care, Ursula Iguaran manages the family and takes good care of her husband both physically and mentally. She is a great wife.
3. As a Mother
As a mother, Ursula I guaran is both brave and tender. She can go to visit her son in the prison alone and she is very tender to her son though her son is not very good. Ursula Iguaran’s second son Colonel Aureliano Buendia joins the Liberal rebellion and becomes colonel. After they are defeated by the government, Colonel Aureliano
Buendia is sent back to Macondo to be killed. When he is sent back, Ursula Iguaran would like to visit him.
It is difficult for Ursula Iguaran to see Colonel Aureliano Buendia. At first, she condiders that she can get Don Ppolinar Moscote’s permission, who is the government-appointed magistrate of Macondo, but Don Apolinar Mosconte loses his power after the Conservative soldiers come. Ursula Iguaran can not turn to anyone to help. Then she packs up all the things she has prepares for her son and goes to the army camp all by herself. Nothing can stop the brave mother seeing her son.
We can see how brave Ursula Iguaran as a mother is from below. Ursula Iguaran goes to the camp and says to the doorman,“I am the mother of Colonel Aureliano Buendia .”The soldier stops her way. “I must go into it whatever.”Ursula Iguaran says to the soldier seriously, “So, if you get the order that you can fire ,fire now !” She pushes away one soldier and goes into the camp, which is the building used as classroom before.
Inside, there are several soldiers rubbing their guns with oil . “I am the mother of Colonel Aureliano Buendia.”Then, she says it once more . A soldier stands up and repeats her words more formally and literarily. Ursula Iguaran agrees and says,“Sir , you can say it as you like if you can let me see my son . ” She succeeds and gets 15 minutes to stay with her son. The dialogue implies Ursula Iguaran is a incredibly brave mother who has the determination to overcome all the difficulties she meets, only wanting to visit her son.
When they meet, they just talk about some everyday things. At the moment Ursula Iguaran is leaving, she speaks to her son quietly, “I bring you a small gun.”Then she takes it out from her bra. She prefers her son to die in decency rather in the hands of his enermy. Here, she is so calm when she sees the soldiers, hanging a gun behind her bra. She acts as bravely as she can be. Also, as a woman, she is tender.
Before Ursula Iguaran goes to see her son, she prepares a clean suit, a pair of shoes and some sweet food made of milk for him. She has made the sweet since she felt that her son would come back. She finds out the shoes that her son wore when he got married and takes to him. Besides, the last thing she tells her son is ,“Put some
warm stone on your wounded part.”We can see she thinks of all about her son and prepares everything carefully.
A few years later, the government and the Liberal rebellions makes a pact on stopping the war. On that day Colonel Aureliano Buendia is brought to the ceremony of signing the pact, Ursula Iguaran wants to put a new cover on him. In order to avoid the government making misunderstanding of her son, she says to him “They will have the idea that you surrender because you can not afford to buy a new cover.”But Colonel Aureliano Buendia does not accept the new cover and goes away. As a mother, Ursula Iguaran ignores his son’s indifference and yells to him aloud, “Promise me one thing –If anything bad happens to you there, you will remind of your mother. Promise me.” Thus, we can see how deeply she loves her son.
Ursula Iguaran is great. No matter what Colonel Aureliano Buendia has done, no matter how indifferent he is, she thinks for him all the time. She gives him strong support from her deep heart. She tries her best to make her son feel at ease and that he is not solitude in the world for his mother is always with him. She uses her tender heart to comfort her tired son, even though she herself also suffers a lot in her life.
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4. Courageous as a W oman
As a woman, Ursula Iguaran does a lot of things with her great courage. She is courageous enough to do what other women are afraid to do or even what the men are not brave enough to do.
Arcadio is Ursula Iguaran’s grandson. He becomes schoolmaster of the town. When Colonel Aureliano Buendia places him in charge of Macondo during the uprising, however, Arcadio proves a vicious dictator who is obsessed with order . He gives the order to make young men who are 18 and over 18 years old serve the army, to forbid animals to walk in the street after 6 o ’clock in the afternoon and to force adults to wear red marks, which makes people rather angry . Besides, he together with his followers kills people in the hotel and takes people who are opposed into prison, giving them only a little bread and water to eat.
Facing all these, no one stands out to criticize him , except for Ursula Iguaran . Every time Ursula Iguaran hears about what Arcadio have done, she will say, “Y ou are a murder. If Aureliano knew what you had done, he would kill you. By that time, I will be the first one to cheer for it.” However, Arcadio continues his “career”. One day, the former government-appointed magistrate of Macondo Don Apolinar Moscote says, “Now, all of you taste the bitterness of the different governess. This is the heaven of Liberal Party.”Hearing this, Arcadio takes some soldiers to Don Apolinar Moscote’s family. They break their furniture, lash his daughters and take away him by force.
Ursula Iguaran flies into a rage when knowing her grandson’s deeds. She runs to the place Arcadio lives in with a big whip herself. When she arrives, Arcadio is about to order a soldier to shoot Don Apolinar Moscote. She hollers at him, “Don’t you dare shoot him. Y ou son of a bitch.” Not until Arcadio realizes, he is given a heavy lash on his head. Ursula Iguaran cries aloud and whips him. She whips him as if she was mad till Arcadio is forced to the corner of the yard like a bend worm. No soldiers dare stop her. And the soldiers run away, dropping the guns and leaving their leader Arcadio alone. What a courageous woman Ursula Iguaran is. She regards the danger she may meet as nothing. She saves Don Apolinar Moscote and all the other people kept there. There is one more thing we must mention to prove Ursula Iguaran a courageous woman.
By the time Colonel Aureliano Buensia comes back to Mocondo, his army arrests the general of the town who is from government. The general is kind to the people of the town. Ursula Iguaran thinks the general has been the best leader of the town ever since. She wants to protect him. She becomes the only one to criticize the unjust to the general. She begs her son for help, however, he refuses . He tells her to go to watch the trial. Without hesitation, Ursula Iguaran goes to the trial . She gives a serious description of the general’s great deeds. Her convincing and eloquent speech shakes the process of the trial. Here are some of her words. She says, “Y ou all treat the terrible game seriously and you did well, because you just do your duty. But there is one point you all should not forget-If we are not dead, we are still your mothers. No matter how you act in the revolution, we have the right to take off your clothes and
lash you heavily. ” Not until she finishes her words, the judges escape to have a talk .
The general is a good man. As no one dares save him, Ursula Iguaran manages not to let the soldiers kill him. She tries various means, even speaks publicly in the trial, as if she dares nothing. Indeed, her courageness frightens all the judges .
5．Reliable , Honest and Extremely Smart
As mentioned above, Ursula Iguaran is considerate, tender, brave and courageous, but these are not enough. Also, she is an extremely reliable, honest and smart woman .
We know during her life, a war between the Liberal Party and the government breaks out. Near the end of the war, 3 men come to her family to ask her to help them keep statuary till the rain stops. Day after days, the 3 men does not come back to take away the statuary. One day, a servant breaks the statuary. And 2 hundred kilos of gold are found inside the statuary. Ursula Iguaran hides the gold and asks whoever comes to her family whether he knows someone who asks her to keep statuary for him. No one knows, but she never stops until she is very old. She is honest and reliable and she is always having the idea of returning the gold to the men.
One day a friend of Aureliano’s , a son from Buendia clan ’s fifth generation, trained by him comes to pretend to be a man who had left the statuary years ago, wanting to get the gold. He has never thought that he would be questioned so precisely by Ursula Iguaran that he escapes without saying anything more. At this time, Ursula Iguaran is more than 100 years old. Her mind is rather clear and she is as smart as before.
6. Incredibly Tenacious as a woman
We are all healthy people, so we can not fee l what the blind feel. We will speak highly of a blind person if he or she can live as well as a normal person. Ursula Iguaran becomes blind when she is quite old. She is so old that she could not remember how old she is. Though she is blind, she does not surrender to the blindness.
She is as tenacious as you cannot imagine.
As she finds she can not feel the light any more, she never tells anybody. She does not want people feel sympathy towards her. Instead, she remembers the distances between things in her family, identifies the voices of people and feels the smell of everything around. By doing this, she keeps on “seeing”things, relying on her memory. No one knows she is blind. She can stick the needle, does washing and knows when the milk is going to be boiling. She knows clearly where everything is. From time to time, she does not feel she is blind. She can tell how much money their family totally spends every year without any hesitation.
It has been 3 years since Ursula Iguaran found herself blind. She leaves her bed which she has been stayed there for quite a long time for she is ill to join the family life again. She manages the family as before as if she is not blind at all. No one knows she is blind till she dies. Here, we must be shocked by her tenaciousness. She does not beat over by the physical uncomfortable ness. Instead, she does her best to live a life like a normal person.
The tenacious woman lives a very hard life and glorious life. No matter how hard life is, she never gives up hope and she cares all the family member even though she is blind. She is kind, considerate, patient, tender, brave, honest and reliable. Maybe we can say her great quality is beyond description. All above here is only a little part of this woman, but even from this small part, her greatness as a woman is exposed to us all.
5. Conclusion
Living in the social background of independent war, Ursula Iguaran makes life continue with her resolution and strong-mindedness. She tried all her best to support the family, raise her children, and help others to get through hardships. She used her effort to prove that women play the same important role as men when faced with obstacles. Though life is lonely, she lived through it in a meaningful and worthy way. So Ursula Iguaran is really a great woman who deserves to serve as a typical example in our real life.。