Run Lola Run

I saw the mythic elements in Run Lola Run in the fact that everything was done three times. I related it more towards Don Quixote because of the stories we saw within the overall storyline, such as each person Lola comes into contact with has their own story that changes. For example, the woman who called her a bitch, and her story.

In the film, I saw it as more of alternate outcomes of the same story, ending up with either the death of Lola or Matti.

In the third "outtake" I related it more to 100 Years of Solitude, with the magic realism. For example, the chances in real life of someone winning that much money doing very little at the casino is very unlikely, so the gods must have been on her side that day. Also one can relate that too Grimm's Fairy Tales where everything has a happy ending.

The Ogre day 4

In Hebrew, the name Ephriam means "fruitful". In Genesis, Ephriam, son of Joseph, is a leader of one of the tribes of Israel. He is blessed by Jacob, his grandfather, and then establishes himself as they wandered in the desert and finally settled in Israel.

In the novel, Abel saves Ephriam from death and brings him to the school. Unlike Abel's gathering of the Aryan, blond boys, Abel saves Ephriam from harm. As the other boys end up destroyed, Ephriam becomes stronger and survives. As the Russians attack the castle, Ephriam is celebrating the Passover seder, asking "Why is this night different from all other nights?" (p. 365). Abel delivers the Jewish boy just as the Jews were delivered out of Egypt in the story of Passover.

"All right, we'll go... The soldiers of God are striking down the eldest born of the Egyptians, but they will protect our flight." (p. 365)

Early in the novel (p. 40-41), Abel learns the story of St. Christopher saving the travelers and the Christ Child by carrying them across the river. The novel ends with Abel acting like St. Christopher and carrying Ephriam, saving him while he is sinking into the swamp.

I interpret this ending as redemptive. Despite the destruction of the children at the castle, he saves the innocent Ephriam, as a symbol of the Nation of Israel, continuing east.

There is a Talmudic saying, that says "Save one life as if you have saved the world".

The Ogre day 3

Goering uses animals to feel powerful and in control. The aurochs were genetically bred and then allowed to run in the woods (p. 201). Goering brings home a lion, which is treated like a plaything. He seeks entertainment from Abel's story of his encounter with the aurochs (p. 202-203) and sharing his dinner and teasing the lion (p. 206).

The hunts, to me, are disturbing. The big hare shoot (p. 228) is an organized slaughter with no purpose except to kill. On pages 209-210, a horrible slaughter is described, which Goering enjoyed because he was unable to shoot the largest stag.

The animals are the innocents of the war in the woods. They are teased or killed not for a challenging sport but for being available victims of corrupt power. The animals are described as beautiful creatures, while Goering is described as a gross figure: fat, selfish, shallow, and moronic.

Abel finds himself comfortable around the children, but also with routine and structure. The school at the castle Kalteborn gives Abel clear guidelines for all aspects of daily life, even how to salute, and to whom to salute.

The school is a reflection of Germany under Hitler. Abel shows insight into the frightening world, which he captures in his diary on pages 253-254 when he went to Johannisburg and saw a military parade in the Adolf-Hitlerstrasse ("Adolf Hitler Street):

"This part of the crowd is in an advanced state of the metamorphosis that makes several million Germans into one great irresistable sleepwalker, the Wehrmacht." (p. 253)

To me this refers to the genetic efforts to "cleanse" the German people. The sleepwalking people represent the fact they have all been brainwashed.

In the same way Abel describes the crowd at Johannisburg, the rituals at the Napola also brainwash the boys and drive out any individual thinking or free will.

"All this ritual ritual enchantment secretly works on their nervous systems and parralyzes their wills. A mortal pleasure grips their innards, brings tears to their eyes, and freezes them in an exquisite and poisonous fascination called patriotism. Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer." (p. 254)

The Ogre day 2

What I noticed about the text was how each journal entry gets shorter and shorter as the novel progresses. But as the second part of the novel begins, it refers to Abel in the third person instead of the first person.

On page 153, when Abel is in Strasborg, I was reminded of the massacre of Jews that occurred there in the Middle Ages, as, in the time of the novel, the Holocaust is occurring.

100 Years of Solitude, day 4

Chapter 16 opens with, "It rained for four years, eleven months, and two days" (p. 315)

The unending rains seem to parallel the biblical flood, washing away the sins of the world. In Macando, the flood washes away the last remnants of the banana factory and the massacre. It signals the beginning of the return to a primitive society. Even the characters become more natural and less materialistic, like Aureliano Segundo. He is home (instead of at the home of his mistress), so he simply stays there, waiting for the rain to end. He begins to work around the house and lose weight. By the end of the book, following the ruins of the flooding and draught, the town and its final inhabitants are destroyed by a hurricane. To me this means that the author is trying to tell us that there is no salvation in modernity.

At the beginning of the novel, I felt that Ursula's character was the strongest. She was in control of her family and her home. She was the thread that continued through generations. Even as she became blind, others were unaware because she was so in tune with each person's daily routines. Because Ursula lives to be between 115 and 122 years old (p. 342), she is a witness to the early Utopia that was Macando in the early years. She was also witness to the advancement of modern times in Macando, war, the banana massacre, and the eventual capitalistic destruction. I think her slowly shrinking, even becoming like a doll or plaything for the children in the house (during the flood the children carry her around and decorated her like a doll), is a symbol for the disintegration of Macando.

100 Years of Solitude, day 3

In ch. 12 (pages 235-236), while folding sheets with the other women in the garden, Remedios The Beauty simply rose to heaven. She is portrayed as simple, uninterested and uncultured by conventional expectations. She wore simple clothing, shaved her head, all the while becoming more beautiful. Because she is a character who retained perfect innocence while other themes in the book (such as modernization, infidelity, incest and war) drag the main characters into states of despair, violence and hate, it seems that there could be no other way to save her character from the cruel world. Rising to the heavens, while still pure and innocent, Remedios escapes the fate of the other inhabitants of Macando, where Utopia is crumbling.

The episode in ch. 15 is very disturbing to me. After striking, the banana factory workers are invited to the center of town, where they are brutally slaughtered, along with innocent bystanders, by machine guns set up around the square. This episode seems like the culmination of how far Macando had come from its previous peaceful utopian state. Modernization and capitalistic greed caused the slaughter of thousands, in stark contrast to the community portrayed in the early chapters of the novel, where no one had died.

Especially disturbing was the complete denial of the murders, not only by the authorities but also by the townspeople of Macando. The theme of memory loss and amnesia is again evident. I drew a connection to the Holocaust in Europe during WWII. Was it memory loss or desire not to know the truth, like what happened in Europe during WWII? This event in Macando and the inhuman pulling of bodies from the train and dumping them into the ocean are both very reminiscent of the Holocaust in Europe and other genocides throughout history (Armenia, Darfur, Yugoslavia, etc), and also of modern political abuse of power on behalf of the United States in Latin America and worldwide (Vietnam, Panama, Chile, Iraq, etc.).

100 Years of Solitude, day 2

So far, there has been mystical intervention into the course of the characters' lives. For example in ch. 10, one of the twins (sons of Arcadio and Pilar Ternera), Aureliano Segundo, enters the gypsy Melquiade's room, which had been padlocked since his death. The room is clean without signs of age. Everything is left as it was. Aureliano Segundo becomes interestedc in the papers and manuscripts, including the stories of the gypsies' visits to Macando. After continued interest in the manuscriots, Melquiade began to appear and to converse with Aureliano Segundo. As when other dead characters appear in the novel, the author portrays them as alive and vibrant, not as ghosts. Even though they are dead, they are still active characters in the novel.

Early in the novel, when the young Rebeca first arrives, the loss of memory is the result of the plague of insomnia. The theme of amnesia is again evident and seems to be used for the main characters of older Rebeca and Colonel Aureliano Buendia to close out pain. After Jose Arcadio is shot, Rebeca becomes a hermit. In pages 156 and 157, Rebeca is writing past memories and seems aware of the current war and the world around her.

In ch. 9, when Colonel Buendia is crushed by the futility of the years of war, he comes home and seems unable to connect with his past, his family, and his interest in his old alchemy laboratory.