Solitude is brought up SO many times throughout this whole book. Throughout the book however the family is always together yet they are all individually so alone. Especially in Rebecca's case, she is left alone for so many years and the family just forgot she even existed. Solitude to them is of course being alone, but also being without love or purpose. In Colonel Aureliano Buendia's case, he needs to be in solitude because his purpose was to fight in a war for power, and then he turned back to making fishes but is still in solitude because he is home without a lover. That is also why I believe they all sleep with each other, because they are afraid of being alone. Yet with every "reincarnation" of the children named after their father, brother, uncle, sister, it seems like the curse of solitude is put onto them. I see this especially with Rebecca (even though she isn't really in the family), and Remedios the Beauty. Remidios is the beauty of the town yet she can't even conceive the idea of men really at all. In her mind she isn't cursed, but she is solitary her whole life then is just taken away. This video really helped me grasp what was actually happening in this book (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNcCs__vQg)

This is brought up so often, and is the first line of the book! It's crazy to start off a book with this random connection to the future. Because it tells us at the beginning that he is going to be a colonel, and that he is going to die. Severe foreshadowing! As well as him discovering ice . . .then talking about the origin of his family and village. But when I first read this i just went right over it! Then it brings it up again after is is already Colonel Aureliano Buendia. Aslo really connects to your husbands presentation about fighting for the left or right in Columbia and he just goes after it and is the face for the left. Then he has to be killed for it along with all of his children (with several wives it seems like). The jist I have gotten from this novel is doing things just based on instinct. This family doesn't really seem to have control of themselves and just does things on a whim. It's especially prevalent with Rebecca because she eats dirt! Then if I am remembering correctly dumbs her husband for hr brother!

This is when Okonkwo knew that even though he had worked so hard his whole life to prove himself he still managed to do the wrong thing, and is in the wrong in the eyes of the clan.

This poor woman is probably so sad because she's thrown away eight children already, and she knows she is going to have to throw away two more. Which is so sad to think about because they're her babies and in this culture they think having twins is evil, and she's looked down because of it. At this point she probably just wants answers to why she keeps having them, and why she has to keep throwing them away. Same goes with Nwoye, he is running to the Christians because his whole life he's grown up in a household where he was looked down on because he isn't man enough. In his mind Okonkwo is unfair and abusive, so he believes these new men can save him . So sad but also happy for Nwoye's story.

I have already read this book, but I didn't see this before! Certainly foreshadowing

I really wanted to know what the kola nuts looked like before they where all small and dried up

Didn't really notice this before! Foreshadowing? Also along with further in the chapter when Ezinma becomes sick again and she is Okonkwo's favorite daughter . . . and he actually shows emotion by caring for this daughter which kinda goes against his "Manly man" portrayal

Hey before I start annotating, I'm just a little confused if I have to do #7 right now too? Confused, sorry. Anyways! This part of the book really character development to Okonkwo, not his father Unoka, but Okonkwo. This really describes why Okonkwo is the way he is. Okonkwo throughout the whole book does things out of fear because he does not want to be viewed like his father. Even though Okonkwo could still relax and be easy going and people would still view him as a powerful man, but he feels he has to be a man to the extreme of this community. Never let the wives ever mess up, don't let the son stop working, and so on.

James Baldwin writes Hella in as a stupid woman in my opinion. I would like to think I would know something is up. Or maybe he writes her as smart, but not letting on that she knows. Because they both clearly slept with other people and they told eac hother, but to me it seems kind of obvious. Even if she doesn't know the whole truth I feel like she knows a little and is playing dumb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ADfS8WQmw

Wouldn't let me annotate the whole passage starting with "what is this thing about time?" David is making everyone wait. He isn't sure about what he is doing with his life of who he really is so he makes everyone else wait for him: Giovanni and Hella.

Getting at the idea that nobody is perfect in a way I believe. Or that even if someones life is perfect, and everyone views their life to be perfect and fulfilled, they're always going to want more. Also connects to later in the book when David is at "home" with Giovanni and that room is his Eden for while, but then his Eden becomes more of a cage where he has no freedom. Changing tones a little to David feeling trapped - this is how I view a lot of people in relationships. Weather or not he's gay/bisexual, I feel like a lot of people who aren't questioning their sexual identity can feel trapped. So maybe he is just bisexual and doesn't want the relationship because it's not working. But he ends up viewing it as his hell in the end. The opposite of Eden. As well as his trap in the "gay world."

Very repetitive about death the darkness of the river, but the darkness of the unknown. He is only afraid because the people of the forest behave different;y than him and his English friends. https://telemachusunedited.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/colonial-powers-in-africa-c-1908.jpg

Very repetitive about death

Even in death they are viewed as weak and slaves. They're only allowed to be free in death. Does seem racist but at the time that was expected. I feel in this passage he does feel a little sorry for them.

This passage make me think that Marlow is saying we were all savages at some point. at even as they stand on the river Thames he says that not too long ago there was darkness here. Not to long ago, in a flicker of light there were nights conquering the land.

Also Sherlock and Watson viewed the little man as a savage, so possibly Conan Doyle believes that these people indigenous to Tierra del Fuego are crazy and cannot control themselves

I find it funny that throughout this whole story they were trying to find and convict the man who had wronged Sholto and Mary's father, when both of them had wronged Mr. Smalls and taken all of his wealth and he spent his whole time trying to get revenge for his brothers or "The Sign of Four." To Mr. Smalls home is the bond that he made between the three other men. To Mr. Smalls it didn't matter what race they were because they made a promise to each other and he tried to help them.

hannahokarg