Outside Reading - Week 4, Post A

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The element that differed from the Mexican to the American cultures that I noticed while reading this week was the how the Mexicans believe in at home remedies to cure all ailments. There is a fix for everything from physical sickness to mental oddities to eating dirt, "She put some orange juice and rhubarb into a pan that she left in the dew all night and she gave her the dose the following day on an empty stomach. Although no one had told her that it was the specific remedy for the vice of eating earth, she thought that any bitter substance in an empty stomach would have to make the liver react" (47). It goes on to say that Ursula's mother taught her all of these potions and what they cure. From what I have seen, these cultures develop these "cures" because they don't have the money or the expertise to go to a doctor or practice medicine, where in our culture, doctors are readily available, and there are insurance programs available for those who can't pay.