The society in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is a patriarchal society. In a patriarchal society, women play a vital role to maintain the community and families. This role is displayed in the actions of Ursula, Santa Sofía de la Piedad, and Fernanda. Ursula is a perfect example of this vital role, throughout the story she works to maintain the community and her family. Her role in her family is to try and preserve the family and the house. When Jose Arcadio Buendia isolates himself in his lab Ursula steps up to care for the entire family. She not only took care of her children without Jose Buendia’s help, she raised many of her children’s children.
In her husband’s, José Arcadio Buendía, pursuit of knowledge he often jeopardizes the family, causing Ursula to intervene for her family’s sake. In order to preserve her family Ursula often resorts to manipulation, using her influence over others to achieve this goal. When, during one of his quests for truth, José Arcadio Buendía threatens the family financially. First by selling the animals Ursula “relied on... to increase their poor domestic holdings” for two magnetized ingots he would attempt, and fail, to use to get gold from the earth. Her stubbornness and her influence on not only the family but the town as a whole is shown when Jose Buendia wants to move Macondo. She does everything she can to make it so that Jose Buendia can’t move Macondo. “With the secret and implacable labor of a small ant she predisposed the women of the village against the flightiness of their husbands, who were already preparing for the move”(Marquez 14) Her determination to hold the family together is so strong that she not only gets all of the women of the village to refuse to move but she also threatens to kill herself. When she is trying to convince Jose Buendia that they need to stay because they have a child here he responds “A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground” in order to keep the town and her family where it is she says “If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die.”(Marquez 14) Because of her determination the Buendia house stands for more than one hundred years. Infact when she eventually dies the house shows an exponential decline. “But when Ursula died… overnight the house had plunged into a crisis of senility” moss began to grow on the wall, weeds sprouted, and red ants invaded the home and …show more content…
She is rarely talked about/refered to and when she is mentioned it is almost always about her bringing someone food or cleaning something or caring for someone. She doesn’t have the tenacious drive like Ursula. But her role is still as vital. Her vitality is shown when she leaves after growing tired of trying to keep the house going. Her importance and the effects of her absence are seen immediately when Fernanda burns herself trying to light a fire. Santa Sofía de la Piedad used to light the fire and get breakfast and coffee prepared for Fernanda and Aureliano. Without her there to do that Aureliano has to light fires and make breakfast for Fernanda, who never had to light her own fire before.(Marquez
In her husband’s, José Arcadio Buendía, pursuit of knowledge he often jeopardizes the family, causing Ursula to intervene for her family’s sake. In order to preserve her family Ursula often resorts to manipulation, using her influence over others to achieve this goal. When, during one of his quests for truth, José Arcadio Buendía threatens the family financially. First by selling the animals Ursula “relied on... to increase their poor domestic holdings” for two magnetized ingots he would attempt, and fail, to use to get gold from the earth. Her stubbornness and her influence on not only the family but the town as a whole is shown when Jose Buendia wants to move Macondo. She does everything she can to make it so that Jose Buendia can’t move Macondo. “With the secret and implacable labor of a small ant she predisposed the women of the village against the flightiness of their husbands, who were already preparing for the move”(Marquez 14) Her determination to hold the family together is so strong that she not only gets all of the women of the village to refuse to move but she also threatens to kill herself. When she is trying to convince Jose Buendia that they need to stay because they have a child here he responds “A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground” in order to keep the town and her family where it is she says “If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die.”(Marquez 14) Because of her determination the Buendia house stands for more than one hundred years. Infact when she eventually dies the house shows an exponential decline. “But when Ursula died… overnight the house had plunged into a crisis of senility” moss began to grow on the wall, weeds sprouted, and red ants invaded the home and …show more content…
She is rarely talked about/refered to and when she is mentioned it is almost always about her bringing someone food or cleaning something or caring for someone. She doesn’t have the tenacious drive like Ursula. But her role is still as vital. Her vitality is shown when she leaves after growing tired of trying to keep the house going. Her importance and the effects of her absence are seen immediately when Fernanda burns herself trying to light a fire. Santa Sofía de la Piedad used to light the fire and get breakfast and coffee prepared for Fernanda and Aureliano. Without her there to do that Aureliano has to light fires and make breakfast for Fernanda, who never had to light her own fire before.(Marquez