Love.

Over the weekend I went to the movie theater to see the new Love in the Time of Cholera movie. I thought the make-up was caked on, the acting was over done, and the progression of scenes was choppy and lacked flow. I also felt that the movie left out some parts of the book that I enjoyed, but accentuated seemingly meaningless scenes. For instance, there is a five-minute period in the movie that consists only of Fermina Daza sitting by Juvenal Urbino’s coffin while her friends and family walk by offering their consolations. I cannot possibly imagine why the director thought that this scene deserved so much attention. Fortunately enough, I happen to greatly enjoy the Love in the Time of Cholera book. I think the book is so much better because Marquez brings you inside the characters minds and souls, where as the movie only shows you external characteristics.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s style is unique and captivating. He describes the ordinary events of three people in love with ornately poetic language. He even discusses vile bodily functions like urinating in a flowery manner. One line in particular caught my eye: “The ship made its way across the bay through a floating blanket of drowned animals…” I felt that this was a particularly aberrant way of describing the horrifying picture of rotting flesh that Florentino Ariza encounters on his passage across the ocean back to the country of Fermina Daza. Love in the Time of Cholera would not be nearly as enticing had it been written in plain language with more dialogue.

I also didn’t like how the movie stripped the mystery from the book. It happens almost every time I see a movie based on a book I have read. I have this idea in my head about how gallant a character is or how handsome he is and then the movie totally destroys that image. Javier Bardem, the man cast to play Florentino Ariza, appeared older and plainer—and by plain I mean ugly—than any of the other characters. It disappointed me to see such a crazy, ugly man chasing after Fermina, rather than the tall, dark, slender, tortured, and mysterious boy I had pictured in my mind.

However, seeing the movie before finishing the book did help me in a few ways. It helped point out the themes that are carried from beginning to end in the novel. One theme I noticed and found intriguing was that of learning to cope and developing coping mechanisms. Marquez portrays this theme when he says that Fermina not only learned to live without love, but in spite of it. One coping mechanism that is very clear in both the novel and the movie is the way that Florentino “attempts” to get Fermina off her mind. By the end of the third section, he conquers a total of 622 women and logs them into his notebook. He loves only Fermina, but uses the passion of physical encounters to forget her in the moment. Another coping mechanism that Florentino employs is eating flowers to remember the way that Fermina smells.

So far, this book is definitely my favorite of the ones we have read. I often find myself reading past the required section because I can’t put it down. I am excited to see more differences between the movie and the book once I complete the latter.

No more sound. No more fury.

After finishing The Sound and the Fury, I was filled with a sense that it had not been completed. There was no big finish, no conclusion to the life of the Compsons, and certainly no happy ending. The story ends and all we know is that Mrs. Compson is needy and self-pitying, Jason is embittered and conniving, Benjy is distraught, Father and one Quentin are dead, while the other has run away, and Caddy is still the promiscuous exile. To me, Faulkner’s ending resembled one you might see in a horror film. Just like in The Hills Have Eyes, the pretty girl barely manages to get out alive and escape her evil pursuer. However, the fact that both the pretty girl and the pursuer both manage to survive the entire movie leaves the viewer with the ominous feeling that maybe this tale isn’t quite over. And in a year, that viewer’s suspicions are justified when she sees the cheesy previews for upcoming sequel.

Comparing The Sound and the Fury to The Hills Have Eyes is really only to point out that neither instilled in me a definitive answer as to why the story began. There is one major difference between these two endings, though. Faulkner did not make me feel as though Jason would continue to be a powerful character that could cause problems for Quentin in the future. Jason seems worn down physically and mentally. The scene in which he is so plagued by a headache that he has to pay a “negro in overalls” to drive him home shows just how weak and vulnerable he really is. Even though Jason would hate to admit it, Quentin won the war.

Quentin coming out as the strong, independent character in the end symbolizes a kind of rebirth for the Compsons. If she is strong enough emotionally to endure all of Jason’s torment and strong enough mentally to reclaim all the money that he had swindled her out of, then she is most definitely strong enough to restore dignity and class to the Compson name. She is the one character that leaves the reader with a sense of hope for her well-being after the completion of the novel.

I was left with a few lingering questions towards the end. I have this nagging desire to know if Quentin will reunite with her mother or just stay with the man with the red tie? I would also really like to know if Quentin’s decision to flee the Compson household was influenced by Caddy at all or if it was purely to spite Jason? I think perhaps some of Quentin and Caddy’s correspondence could have evaded Jason’s dictatorial control. That would explain Quentin’s knowledge that Jason had been hoarding all of the money that was intended for her. If they were able to do this, Caddy and Quentin could have planned and pulled off a proper escape. Besides the details of Caddy and Quentin’s relationship, I am also wondering about the significance of a couple passages. I did not understand what the purpose of the Reverend Shegog’s appearance was. I also did not understand what the altercation between Jason and the disgruntled old man was about.

Hopefully our class discussions will help me solve these mysteries!