Time: For the characters in the novel, time alternatively moves quickly and stagnates for years. In general, children grow up quickly, but when they are adults<particularly the male adults<time abandons them, leaving them to sit with their own nostalgia and bitterness for years on end. Time abandons Colonel Aureliano Buendia after the civil wars, and Jose Arcadio Segundo, both of them locked in Melquiades' laboratory, refusing to join the …showed first 75 words of 1203 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1203 total…surface regarding the theme of women's sexuality. In general, the women who have unconventional relationships<Rebeca, Petra Cotes, Amaranta Ursula<are happier and more sympathetic than the women who cling to society's standards of behavior<Amaranta and Fernanda del Carpio. The fact that Aureliano Segundo's coupling with Petra Cotes dramatically increases the proliferation of his animals is a signal that free love can be healthy for society at large.