Ursula's Blind Insight

           Though blind, Ursula is able to see more clearly through the past than any other seeing member of her family.  Aureliano no longer has the ability to see the past, and his visions of the future have been greatly limited.  Amarata is able to know the future enough to predict her own death, and she can look back in nostalgia on her life unlike Aureliano, but Ursula is the true keeper of the family’s history.  When Fernanda lost her ring, Ursula is able to look into the past, read the constant movements of her family, and distinguish between a habit and a break in their usual paths, “the search for lost things is hindered by routine habits and that is why it is so difficult to find them” (Marquez 247).  I think this image, one of constant motion without really seeing what is happening, is a nice micro chasm of the entire story.  People filter in and out without realizing that the ritual of life is not special for them.  Ursula, in her 100 years of solitude and wisdom, understands that there will always be children to raise, children to hide rings from, mysteries and new inventions. 

            While Ursula grows old, Marquez is able to introduce to the audience ideas of old age that are not necessarily mainstream.  Ursula is surprised to learn that she is seeing more clearly than anyone, even though she is blind.  For instance, they cannot even tell that she is blind.  She has formed an entire way of life, including making the young children give her hints to the seeing world, that allows her to know more than anyone.  She discovers Meme’s lies by listening to her daily activity.  She realizes that there are lies being spread when Meme showers in the evening.  Fernanda is not able to see the truth because she is blinded in another sense.  Ursula can see because spiritually she has the sight of a Buendia.  Fernanda is an outsider, so her inability to see the truth is not surprising.