Chapter 3

Magical Realism

In this chapter, the magical realism is the insomnia and amnesia that everyone seems to get. It is possible for people to get insomnia and amnesia but it isn't contagious as the book makes it seem. Rebeca's condition, in reality, wouldn't have been caught by a whole town of people, but the magic comes in of how all the towns people have it and say it is because of Rebeca.

Character

The characters that truly change in this chapter would have to be the whole town. They all are "infected" with insomnia and have to grow through all these little task that will help them remember the things they have been taught, such as milking a cow, or calling a street God exists. The town as a whole has to go through the most work to make the best of their condition.

Summary

In chapter three, the town of Mocondo continues to grow as far as land and family members. Pilar has José Arcadio's son and names him Arcadio, and a girl named Rebeca joins the family as well. Rebeca seems to just appear to the Buendia family and has no identifiable background or origin. Unfortunately she has insomnia as well as short term memory loss that infects the entire town. They end up having to put up many different signs and labels to help them remember, but they are afraid that on day they won't be able to read them. The gypsies finally return to the town and cure the people of their disability along with Melquíades, who José Arcadio Buendía thought was dead. Along with him he brings a daguerreotype and José Arcadio Buendía tries to use it to prove that God is real. Aureliano starts to pick the more recent habits of his father and isolates himself, especially from females. With the major expansion of Mocondo, an administrator named Don Apolinar Moscote tries to change the color of the Buendia house. Infuriated, José Arcadio Buendía drives him away and forces him to give up some of his wealth. He is now the enemy of the town, but Aureliano falls in love with his Don Apolinar Moscote's daughter.


Quote

"This is the cow. She must be milked every morning so that she will produce milk, and the milk must be boiled in order to be mixed with coffee to make coffee and milk."


-This quote is significant to the mockery that Jose had to face and how he responded to it.

"I'm doing this," he said, "because I would rather carry you around alive and not have to keep carrying you around dead for the rest of my life."

This quote is significant to show the significance he once had to the town and how is isolation is constantly taking away from it.

Theme

Expansion- The way the family grows over the years with different births and how the city itself is being to connected to other cities widening its territory.