Aureliano Segundo And Jos Arcadio Segundo example essay topic

Women are portrayed differently in literature depending upon the societal customs and the acceptance of women in the culture of the author. Although this is true, it is only partially so. An author is not obligated to write about his customs and norms, and in fact may use completely different ones in order to show dissent to the ones he has lived with. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude takes place in a Latin American setting. The passage (1) used from the novel in the comparative analysis involves a strong willed woman who is respected, however, is unaware of the situation she is part of. The young woman is unknowingly sleeping with two men who are identical twins.

Similarly, Jorge Borges's hort story "The Intruder", also set in Latin America. The woman, in this case, is involved with two brothers, but she is weak and her awareness of the situation is questionable. Both selected pieces share common ties in situation, however, differing outcomes arise, thus, a thoughtful analysis can be generated. Petra Cotes, the young woman in the selection from One Hundred Years Of Solitude, intrudes in the narrative and distracts the Segundo twins from their normal daily activities in the isolated village of Macon do. Aureliano Segundo meets Petra Cotes while she is selling raffle tickets for an accordion.

He doesn't reveal to her that he has a twin brother when she oddly greets him familiarly. Petra likes Aureliano Segundo and his brother Jos Arcadio Segundo. She does not know that they are two different people. Aureliano Segundo discovers after two weeks of sleeping with Petra Cotes that she has been sleeping with his brother too. Once again he doesn't clear up the girl's confusion that they are one person and instead he continues to share her wit his twin for two months. One morning Aureliano Segundo is really sick and he does not know why.

A few days later Jos Arcadio Segundo becomes sick and tells Aureliano that Petra Cotes is disgusted with the "low-life sickness" he has given her and consequently refuses to see him. Jos Arcadio Segundo never finds out that his brother had shared Petra Cotes with him. Aureliano Segundo secretly is cured of his sickness separately from Jos Arcadio. He begs forgiveness from Petra Cotes and once they live with each other, their animals begin to proliferate at an alarming rate. A fortune is made by selling the extra animals and through raffles.

Aureliano takes advantage of his shared physical appearance with his brother in order to sleep with a woman. Furthermore, he neither informs his brother, nor the woman he "loves" that there he is a third party in the relationship. An interesting element of the passage involves Petra Cotes' name. Aureliano Segundo describes the entire situation and after the line "Aureliano Segundo obtained her pardon and stayed with her until his death" a new paragraph begins with "Her name was Petra Cotes". Aureliano Segundo's future with Petra is revealed to the reader before her name is.

Does this suggest that her name is an unimportant detail according to the Aureliano Considering Aureliano Segundo irresponsibly doesn't inform Petra that he and his brother are sharing her it is a possible assumption. Without respect for the truth, he may not have respect for the woman involved. A deeper level involved with Petra's name is that it means "rock" in Spanish. She could be considered the "philosopher stone" of the novel due to this association and her purpose in the story. Petra Cotes (the rock or stone) brings wealth to Aureliano Segundo. The philosopher's stone is a magical substance in alchemy which will cause the transmutation of metals (e.g. a plentiful supply of aluminum into gold), is a cure for all problems and can provide immortality.

This substance, however, exists only in the imagination. It is relevant because Petra can propagate money (gold) by her supernaturally rapid animal breeding. Also related to the stone is Aureliano Segundo's preoccupation with alchemy prior to Petra's arrival, and his later obsession with making gold fish in his laboratory. Garcia Marquez use of magical realism in his novel makes this conclusion a fairly valid one.

In Jorge Luis Borges's hort story "The Intruder" one woman is primarily involved. The story is told by a man writing down the account of the Nilsen brothers as he had heard it in a bar. The Nilsens names are Eduardo and Christian. Christian Nilsen brings a woman, Juliana Burgos, home to live with him. Eduardo, like his brother, leaves town to pick up a woman but he ends up "thr (owing) her out" (2) a few days later. Eduardo loves "Christian's woman" (3).

One evening Christian tells Eduardo to "make use of her". Eduardo realizes that Juliana is an object to Christian and even so, from then on they "share her" (4). The brothers, who had never disagreed on anything, begin to argue about trivial skin dealings when "they were really arguing about something else" (5). The two brothers decide the only way to stop their fighting is to sell Juliana to a prostitution house and divide the money between themselves. Temptation brings the two men separately back to Juliana. Christian decides that it is ridiculous to wear out the horses (or so that is his excuse) and it is necessary to take action to halt the destruction of his and Eduardo's family relationship.

The men ultimately decide to sacrifice (by killing) Juliana in order to mend their brotherly bond. The brothers obviously see Juliana as an object not worth calling by name. She is trapped in this situation and isn't strong enough to say "no". Interestingly the man who is retelling the tale of the brothers before delving into the story writes: "I write it down now because, if I am not wrong, it reflects briefly and tragically the whole temper of life in those days along the banks of the River Plate" (6) This provides a possibility that the women in Latin America at the time of the story were treated roughly and used by men. However, the way that Juliana was treated in relation to Latin American women can only be a reflection of the society at the time because life can only be a base for literature. The two men in the story are built up to be tough and rough cowboys but end up being weak as they succumb to their urges.

The short story and the passage are comparable. The narrator in "The Intruder" describes a Bible in the Nilsens' house which "records the misfortunes of the Nilsens" (7). This is quite similar to the overall narrative of One Hundred Years of Solitude which is being read out of Melquiades' history book by the last of the Buendia family. This mystical book contains all of the Buendia family's history. The family was doomed to extinction, hence all that was written in the book was a misfortune.

In both stories, the men who shared a woman were brothers. Also at least one of the brothers consented to the sharing of the woman. Petra Cotes' name wasn't mentioned until Aureliano Segundo revealed the truth to her and the reader learns of the future of Aureliano Segundo with her. Juliana's name wasn't uttered by either brother after they both became involved with her. Neither of the "sharing" situations lasted more than half a year. For the Segundos it was two months, and the Nilsens "some weeks".

Both sets of brothers were around the same age - their early twenties - and the girls were beautiful and youthful. These examples illustrate the similarities between the two stories and the behaviour of the men towards Petra Cotes and Juliana. With the common Latin American setting it is possible to attribute these similarities to the way life progressed around the Latin American authors perhaps it is not the sole factor relating to the women's treatment, but it can be regarded as one reason. There are differences between the stories as well. In One Hundred Years of Solitude Petra Cotes is unaware that she is being violated, whereas Juliana, in "The Intruder", does.

An issue arises here. If Juliana knew she was being used as an object to satisfy the desires of the two men, why didn't she attempt to leave A reason, that further supports the explanation of the similarities in the story is, Juliana was not permitted, culturally, to react to the ill treatment she was receiving. Brotherly relationships are priority. The women are not important, as they are potential intruders into the brotherly love. Petra Cotes ultimately marries Aureliano Segundo whereas the Nilsens kill Juliana. Aureliano Segundo marries Petra because he tells her the truth and then respects her.

These significant differences in the outcome of the tales influence their analysis. The stories could have resulted in the same manner if Aureliano Segundo and Jos Arcadio Segundo were closer and more rough and tough. It is safe to attribute the history of the Nilsen brothers and their cultural opinion of women to their choice to kill Juliana. The treatment of the women by men within One Hundred Years of Solitude and "The Intruder" depended upon the characters' backgrounds. The twin Segundos hadn't ever been violent. The Nilsens always were protective of their brotherly bond.

Without the violent background in one story or the gentler background in the other story, the results of a similar situation were unique.

Bibliography

1.1 Appendix 1: Passage from One Hundred Years of Solitude, 192-197 2.2 Borges, Jorge Luis. A Reader, "The Intruder". ed. Emir Rodriguez Mon egal. trans. Alastair Reid. Fitz henry & Whiteside: Toronto (1981), 291 3.3 Ibid. 291 4.4 Ibid. 5.5 Ibid. 6.6 Ibid. 290 7.7 Ibid. Appendix A Passage from Gabriel Garcia Mrquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. p. 192-197.