Lopes In the Time of Cholera

AP Lit 2014

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Receiving help from a university librarian (Circa January)

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Gen Intro/ In Conclusion, (5)

At this point, after reading and analyzing so much, I felt that the general introduction came relatively easily to me. All of the criticisms I read and text I analyzed really allowed me to understand exactly what Márquez wrote and exactly how well crafted this intricate novel is, so I only had to write about what I already knew. As a whole, this project was(is) daunting. It’s so large and so comprehensive that I was scared to start. After a bit of fear kicked in, and after I dove in, I realized that it  was not as difficult as I had pegged it out to be— still challenging, but it was evidently doable. As I’ve mentioned in my other posts, research and familiarization is, as crazy as it seems, key to writing this research paper.

So I don’t necessarily like reading in general, but I found this novel to be enjoyable. Admittedly, however, I wasn’t able to pick out half the themes I read about in my criticisms. I don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed by that, but I do have a greater appreciation for Márquez now.

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Intro to Annotations (4)

This was, by far, the hardest part of the project. Though I learned much from my criticisms, and though I applied that knowledge to my annotations, I found it hard to express what I had learned and to connect each critic with the influence they had on my annotations. I was probably influenced by other material while searching, but I didn’t record those sources, so I wasn’t able to really write about them in my  intro to annotations. Everything that influenced me either had a subconscious effect on me or really blatantly influenced me. But I didn’t necessarily use whatever I read that blatantly influenced me in my annotations, so once again, I wasn’t able to include them in my intro to annotations.

During the annotation process, my perception of a passage usually changed. Themes I’d initially hoped to find weren’t as present as I’d thought. Consequently, my intro to annotations isn’t as cohesive as I’d have liked.

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Annotations (3)

Writing annotations was far easier than abstracting my crits.

Retrospectively, as I was reading the novel, I didn’t notice many of the themes and motifs Márquez wrote of.  With both general and specific information in mind from my criticism, though, I was able to better understand and analyze the text. Idk it kind of felt like cheating, but it was actually just using the information from my criticisms to aid me in analyzing my 3 passages. There’s only so much inferring/speculating that I can do on my own. When I did infer, it was almost like solving a mystery. I was trying to uncover Márquez’s sentiments, and I was interpreting them in a way I felt was logical.

Relative to the other components of this project, I kind of enjoyed this part.

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Abstracting the Crits (2)

The first article I abstracted was “meh.” Well, I guess the article itself wasn’t “meh,” but for me, the process of abstracting took quite a bit of familiarizing myself with the critical articles. For my first abstract, I formed an outline consisting of points from each of the paragraphs (which was a horrible idea), and I ultimately sewed that together to create an abstract. Identifying which lenses the author read through wasn’t that easy at first. I guess it became easier as I familiarized myself with the process. While writing my second abstract, which was longer than the first, I went by the articles main points, instead of those of each paragraph. This saved time, and ultimately allowed me to understand the article as a whole, rather than only its details. My third criticism is significantly longer than the other two, but I felt that, since I’d already abstract two articles, abstracting the third wasn’t bad.

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Crits (1)

Honestly, these criticisms were kind of difficult to read, let alone to choose. There were long sentences, big words, and I found that summarizing huge amounts of information wasn’t the easiest thing to do. In choosing my criticisms, I kind of just went with my gut. Though I picked out so many books and articles, I found that there was often an element (or many elements) in the articles I initially selected that rendered the criticism as blatantly unusable. One article frequently referred to/compared Love in the Time of Cholera to a novel that I didn’t have the capacity(will/energy) to research and understand. I would have had to essentially read the other novel in order to understand the article. So, by eliminating the articles with such elements as that, I was left with a pool of 6 articles, from which I chose my 3 criticisms on the basis of gut feeling.

 These definitely revealed A LOT about the novel that I hadn’t initially seen.

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LITOC 5 (Ch. 5/6)

At the beginning of the novel we were told that Fermina and Urbino had a long, happy relationship. After reading the novel, however, it seems like there wasn’t any real love between them. In fact, I felt as though Florentino and Fermina never enjoyed love until Urbino died.

Florentino’s constipation seemed to be symbolic of his inability to be loved. While he was trying to regain the love of Fermina, he was unable to poop, but when he did so  in Fermina’s house, he felt that he was unable to control his bowels-- the urge to poop overcame him. Constipation is the opposite of diarrhea, and diarrhea is a symptom of cholera (which might represent love).

A general observation: I noticed this early on, but the structure of the novel jumps around a lot. There are many moments and sections from this long period of time that are woven out of order. The novel flows cohesively though.

All in all, this book was dense and extremely well written. At times, I was quite confused, but everything was ultimately centered around the actions of the main characters. However, I didn’t really like the main characters. They were all sick with love; I guess disease never left them.  I got some good and bad feels while reading, but I think that attests to Márquez’s skill as a writer.

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LITOC 4

Well, there were a lot of things that happened in this chapter, and a lot of people died. Cholera itself is absent for the time being, but once again, Florentino has a chronic disease. Each of his relationships manages to distract Florentino from his obsession with Fermina.

Interestingly, Fermina too has a chronic disease, but she feels differently about Florentino. We’ve been taken through so many years and so many events, So I’ll focus on a quote.

“For many years he thought with terror about the signed letters, he kept track of the prison term of the murderer, who knew him because of his dealings with the boat company, but it was not so much fear of a knife at his throat or a public scandal as the misfortune of Fermina Daza's learning about his infidelity.” (217)

I can’t understand why Florentino behaves as he does. He isn’t in a relationship with Fermina, but he still feels committed to her-- so committed that he considers his flings and affairs with other women to be “infidelity.” As we saw in the beginning of the novel, Florentino’s patience and love for Fermina is so strong that he does wait until Urbino dies to win back her quasi-love. He acknowledges that loses his vitality waiting for Fermina, but he still waits.

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LITOC 3

Each chapter of the novel feels very complete and developed; the chapters seem like separate stories that remain cohesive by centering around the same characters. As the title would suggest, the novel seems to be about love and cholera. I haven’t really found a connection between the two, but the characters treat both with equal seriousness.

Just so I could understand the cholera, I did a bit of research. Cholera is an often fatal bacterial disease that causes vomiting and diarrhea, and it’s occurred several times throughout the Caribbean. As of now, cholera itself doesn't serve any significance in the story; it's the love and its similarities to the disease that do seem to be important. 

Though I know that Urbino marries Fermina, I found it strange that Urbino and Mr. and Ms. Daza repeated many of the interactions that led to the fruitless relationship between Fermina and Florentino (keeping love letters in her chest, drinking anisette, instrumental serenades).

I’m starting to see this as less of a fairytale; this novel is much more complex than that. (Aside from other details, Oscar Wilde’s appearance gave the novel a more authentic, less imaginary, feel).

Urbino is my favorite character as of now. Florentino is too obsessed with Fermina; he needs to find a better way to get over her than sex with other women. It’s as if Fermina is a chronic disease, and sex is a drug that provides him with relief.

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LITOC 2

We know Urbino is dead, and the story of Urbino and Fermina has (at least, temporarily) ended. Florentino has reiterated his love for Fermina, and Márquez has decided to describe the story of Florentino and Fermina now.

Well, this book is very detailed. And now that I’ve warmed up to it, it’s fun, although time consuming, to read. Márquez has remained very thorough in his descriptions of plot and context. The farther I go, the more this feels like like a long movie, a chick flick of sorts. The novel is well written, and its style and vocabulary isn’t necessarily all that accessible, but Fermina’s and Florentino’s love for each other seems too surreal and cliche. Their love becomes “a matter of life and death,” as it became the focus of their lives. That sounded overly dramatic to me (This kind of reminds me of Romeo and Juliet).

Fermina Daza’s rejection of Florentino seems Dorian-Grayesque. It was extremely rude and impulsive of her. She didn’t love Florentino, she loved the idea of having a lover. I’d initially thought that her father had forced her to marry Dr. Urbino, which would have added some degree of cliche to the novel, but since she rejected Florentino herself, I’m assuming that she’s going to choose him by herself too.

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LITOC 1

There was a lot of text in this first chapter. I’m getting that Márquez has a mature style of writing. He includes imagery, but it isn’t really ornate or colorful. I feel like it’s intended to be useful, to further the reader’s understanding of the novel’s characters. The text itself alternates between descriptive context/background and actual plot, past and present, but it isn’t hard to follow or distinguish.

Though this first chapter was an enjoyable read, I felt that it could have been shorter. Much of the text is descriptive, but not in a necessary way. Dr. Urbino, whom I’d thought was the main character, is dead. According to the back cover, Florentino Ariza and Urbino’s wife, Fermina Daza, will be the novel’s main characters. As of now, I felt that he explored many topics too deeply for the purpose of giving the reader some background information. This may have just served to familiarize the reader with the characters, but I feel like it might come back as important information (?).

I certainly feel as though I’m following the story in a surreal Caribbean island, suffering in humid heat. This feels like it’s going to be a solely plot-driven book. It seems to have a lot of fairytale-like elements. As of now, I’ll think of it as a grown-up, tropical fairytale.

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Picking the Work

Well, I didn’t necessarily know how to go about finding a book by myself, so I looked around online. I came across large lists of meritable work, and each one seemed to result in disappointment. I don’t really like reading books, so each novel seemed rather boring. Length wasn’t concern, nor was the novel’s accessibility/difficulty; I simply wanted a book that would be interesting. So, using the internet, I started making a list of books that had interesting names, which I have since lost. If I remember correctly, it had some Fitzgerald, Ayn Rand, and Twain— Fitzgerald, since I tolerated Gatsby, Twain, since I’ve heard of Huck Finn before, and Rand, who was recommended by Mrs. Allan. This was still just a list though, nothing I could bind myself to for the remainder of high school.

I approached Kreinbring and Alden with my list and was recommended Love in the Time of Cholera, with a sort of warning regarding its “mysticism,” which was similar to that of Ceremony. I didn’t really like Ceremony, so I was doubtful, but I realized that I didn’t necessarily dislike the mysticism in Ceremony; I just didn’t like the structure of the novel. So, after reading a few interesting summaries and reviews of it, I settled on LITOC. Oprah too seems to like this novel .

My sister apparently did Marquez as well, but I’d already sealed my fate by purchasing my book.