I agree: aging is a very important theme in this book. I want to add a few more comments about this theme that really stood out to me.
In your first post, you mentioned how Jeremiah de Saint-Amour committed suicide because he was afraid of becoming old. Well, he had something in common with many characters in this book, predominately Florentino. Florentino was also afraid of dying. At first, Florentino didn't pay any attention to the fact that he was aging. He was waiting around for Dr. Urbino to die so he could get another chance with Fermina "as if time would not pass for him but only for others" (p 218). With a shock, he realized he had been waiting around for more than thirty years and he was only getting older. He became obsessed with the idea that age would be the one factor that would stand in his way of at last being Fermina's lover. "He was never as afraid of death as he was of reaching that humiliating age when he would have to be led on a woman's arm. On that day, and only on that day, he knew he would have to renounce his hope of Fermina Daza" (p 257). It wasn't death that he was afraid of per say, it was the humiliation and the decrepitness that came along with old age. As a result, Florentino obsessed over ways to sustain his youth. He became infatuated with reversing the gradual balding of his head. He "cut out every advertisement concerning baldness that he found in the newspapers" and after six years had "tried one hundred seventy-two of them" (p 261-262).
Florentino wasn't the only one afraid old age. At the end of the book when Fermina and Florentino started to rekindle their old love, Florentino leaned to kiss her on the cheek and she pulled away, saying "I smell like an old woman" (p 329). In addition, Fermina had lost hearing in one ear and "did not tell anyone, for she was resigned to the fact that its was one of the many irremediable defects of old age" (p 338).
To kind of answer your question, I didn't like this book very much, but I did think the ending was kind of beautiful. Although they were both in their seventies and love at their age could be perceived as "disgusting," when they rediscovered their love for one another, they became a little younger and a little more enlivened. I think that was the message the author, Marquez, was trying to get through to the reader when he described Fermina's transformation at the end: "Fermina Daza was horrified when she heard the boat's horn with her good ear, but by the second day...she could hear better with both of them. She discovered that roses were more fragrant than before, that the birds sang at dawn much better than before..." (p 344). Even in old age, when united, the two felt young in spirit.
Florentino wasn't the only one afraid old age. At the end of the book when Fermina and Florentino started to rekindle their old love, Florentino leaned to kiss her on the cheek and she pulled away, saying "I smell like an old woman" (p 329). In addition, Fermina had lost hearing in one ear and "did not tell anyone, for she was resigned to the fact that its was one of the many irremediable defects of old age" (p 338).
To kind of answer your question, I didn't like this book very much, but I did think the ending was kind of beautiful. Although they were both in their seventies and love at their age could be perceived as "disgusting," when they rediscovered their love for one another, they became a little younger and a little more enlivened. I think that was the message the author, Marquez, was trying to get through to the reader when he described Fermina's transformation at the end: "Fermina Daza was horrified when she heard the boat's horn with her good ear, but by the second day...she could hear better with both of them. She discovered that roses were more fragrant than before, that the birds sang at dawn much better than before..." (p 344). Even in old age, when united, the two felt young in spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment