One Hundred Years of Solitude

By: Aaron Schwartz
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:43:27
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This book was considered to be a masterpiece written by Nobel laureate – Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was first written in Spanish and then translated into English. This book is about 100 years of life of one family – Buendia. They live in an unnamed African country in jungles. It is called even a tale by some of the readers, as this novel is full of supernatural events and unusual characters. Many layers of fantasy are mixed up in the lives of the main heroes of several generations of Buendia family. They all are living in the world of half truths, the laws of physics are not taken into account at all. The story seems to have no plot, it is more like a collection of fantastic stories of each of the members of the family. All of them have their own obsessions, problems and insanity. The author has a specific writing style, he jumps from one character to the other, he presents many parallels and symbols, and at last the family seems to be a kind of a model for the whole human race, not depending on the country or state.

The mysticism starts already with the setting for the events, it is a strange village, called Macondo – “it was a truly happy village where no one was over thirty years of age and where no one had died”, at least at the beginning. Realism and magic seem to be the opposite notions, but in this novel they are used to convey the author’s message and conception. The reality in the novel is presented not “as if it experienced by one observer, but as it is individually experienced by those with different backgrounds.” (Bell – Villada, Gene H. Garcia Marquez: The Man and His Work. Chapel Hill: University of North Caroline Press, 1990 pp.2-3) It is also connected with the unique reality of Latin America - it was between modernity and the stage of pre- industrialization, after a civil war and attacked by imperialism. Thus this was a strategy used by several authors of those times – magic going through ordinary lives, mixing up the reality and fiction.

Another feature of mysticism in the story is lack of division into past, present and future, at least lack of strict one. Some characters have even amnesia, when they can not see the past at all, some are able to see even the future clearly, as for example the end of the story is seen by Melquades from the very beginning. The past is united with the presence when the ghosts of Melquades and Jose Arcadio Buendia appear.

The novel is full of different languages: Guajiro for children, multilingual tattoos on Jose Arcadio’s body, Latin, Sanskrit for Melquades’s prophecies. This also contributes to the unrealistic presentation of the story.

From the title already the main theme of the novel can be determined – solitude, which applies to every character in a unique way. Here it is not compared with loneliness, more with the obsession by seclusion or even madness. The characters fail to build a communication with each other and pay attention to the problems of others. To underline this author “makes” Jose Arcadio Buendia talk a foreign language.

What is really surprising is the fact, that there’s no main hero in the novel and no central event. All events describing the rise, maturity and decline of the Buendia are told in a dispassionate tone. Many critics debate whether there is a political message in this novel. Political significance in the story is seen for example when Aureliano learns about two political parties: Conservatives and Liberals and when a war broke out in Macondo. The theme of Latin American political violence is rather important in the whole novel. Here Marques connects the fantastic - the vital part of the novel – and realistic. The author compares the reality of Latin American politics “the corruption, the dishonesty, the violence, the dictatorial behavior to the unreality of the world he spins in this book, and dares the reader to decide which one is harder to believe” (James, Regina. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Revolutions in Wonderland. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981, pp.12-14). For that the book was called the “first truly international best-seller in Latin American publishing history”. In Marquez’s opinion the political events and violence are fantastical enough, he expresses it by using hyperbolic language and overwrought emotions. This was one of the examples of unrealistic accidents.

Another example is the arrival of Rebeca, she came from blue, carrying a bag with the bones of her parents. She brought plague of insomnia. Melquiades was the one to save the village from this plague. Many events, usual and unusual are connected with gypsies, they go away and return and always bring something new to the village, like in the cases of mirrors and daguerreotype. The life of Rebeca is further connected with the life of Jose Arcadio, they get married and when after the war he is killed in a mysterious way, she decided to burry her in her own house. Overall, the style the author uses in his book – “magic realism”. The imaginary world of Macondo is full of other examples of combination of fantastic and factual, most stories of Bunedia men are mixtures of sadness, amusement, anger, fatality and delight, at first the reader feels himself in a fairy tale, but later finds out how deep all magic events are connected with reality, real and unreal are not presented as two separate elements of the novel. The heroes of the story are in a way opposed to real life as they do not see their life as a historical fact. Violence and despair are central elements of the solitude in the story, but certain place is occupied by irony and some comic elements.

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