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One Hundred Years of Solitude by Pariya Sripakdeevong
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Pariya Sripakdeevong
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Pariya Sripakdeevong
Gabriel García Márquez’s magical realism is a blend of reality and myth that reflects
upon the repetitive cycle of the changing world through the “100 Years of Solitude” of the
Buendías and Macondo town. The author suggests the repetitive nature of history,
through repetition of names, confusion of time (no definite order to distinguish the
difference between past, present, and future), and blurring of distinctions between
thoughts and actions (long, obscure sentences and paragraphing). Magical events in 100
Years of Solitude are representative of Gabriel’s García Márquez’s reality, which are
sometimes based on real facts. Each character in the Buendías family depicts similar
solitude ends, which will be examined individually, along with the rising (into
modernization) and falling (destructed back to nothing) of Macondo town in this essay.
The author shows no mercy to the protagonists, which results their tragic ends, along with
that of Macondo.
At the beginning of a hundred years of repeating history, José Arcadio Buendía, a huge
man with strength and curiosity, the founder of Macondo, a village of only twenty adobe
houses, is driven into disillusionment until the day he dies. José Arcadio Buendía sets off
from his old town with a few friends and Úrsula, his supportive hardheaded wife; they
find nothing except wilderness, until he discovers a plain piece of land where he
establishes Macondo from nothing. Macondo is initially a simple town where many
things have not been named. Gabriel García Márquez implies the innocence José Arcadio
Buendía and the first members of the town symbolizing that of Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden, through their lack of sense and information of the world. The only piece
of information available to Macondo is that outside of the town, there is “the whole vast
universe of the great swamp, which according to what the Gypsies said, has no limit”1
(p.11) The only connection Macondo has to the outside world is the Gypsies who
annually bring fascinating inventions such as ice symbolizing reality, and flying carpets,
symbolizing magic. Melquíades’ (the leader of the Gypsies) wisdom inspires José Arcadio
Buendía to strive for knowledge, which serves as a symbolic relationship of the loss of
innocence of José Arcadio Buendía and the town. José Arcadio Buendía, hungering for
knowledge, tries to modernize the town. This thirsty madness results in loss of innocence
for the town, and eventually forces him into solitude; lost in solitude as his descendants
Completely altered from an enterprising man, who would decide on the layouts of the
street and the location of new houses, José Arcadio Buendía abandons himself to his
inevitable solitude until he reaches a point of self recrimination and disillusionment. José
attempts to connect to God. Towards the end of his life, José Arcadio Buendía is tied to a
chestnut tree, a symbolic relationship to Jesus’ crucifixion, where he is left and forgotten
until he died.
Úrsula, the only protagonist that plays an important role almost throughout the novel,
serves as solicitous supporter to her husband (and later on to every Buendías lives until
she dies). Despite her important roles, Úrsula is forgotten as she reaches despair at much
more than 120 years of age, as she understands that lives are repeating in cycle. Úrsula
has always been the backbone of the family since the very beginning of Macondo, raising
Aureliano Babilonia), carrying all the burdens of the house and watching the changes of
Macondo. Witnessing the world and its changes over time, Úrsula as a wife, mother,
grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and great-great-great-
grandmother begins to abandon herself in her own world, letting go off all of the world’s
trouble yet still spirited, as little by little she is forgotten by the Buendías and Macondo. It
is not until when Úrsula, in the last years of her life, becomes blind, that she realizes “the
“She was almost as diligent as when she had the whole weight of the
decrepitude she had such clairvoyance…that for the first time she saw
clearly the truths that her busy life in former times had prevented her from
seeing.”1 (p.266)
She observes the repeating routine of what her family has always done, with the feeling
that time is passing much faster than before, after modernization has been brought in
Macondo along with technology and cultural diffusion. At the very end of her life, she
finally understands that the details of each Buendía are repeating over and over, with
slight alters according to the situation and time, and that every Buendía seems to have
similar solitary tragic ends; therefore life is a cycle of repeating history. This cycle of the
Buendías suggests a similar cycle of repeating mistakes that human have always been
rebellion into civil war against the Conservatives, similar to his father, spends his whole
life in solitude, and in his last years abandons himself into ‘the vicious circle of Colonel
Aureliano Buendías’ little gold fishes’1 (p.300), with lost memories and numb despair.
Inheriting his father’s (José Arcadio Buendía) curious and solitary nature, Colonel
Aureliano Buendía spends his early life with science literature, after the first time his
Buendía spends another part of his early life with poetry, after falling in love with
Aureliano Buendía has forgotten his wife at once. He, as predicted, abandons himself
even more into his literature world, just like his father. In favor of the accusation that
Colonel Aureliano Buendía does not know how to love, it also appears as if he has no
feeling for anything, after he is defeated in the war. During the civil war, however, it is
the only time that Colonel Aureliano Buendía is seen to be lively and energetic. (The civil
war plays an important role in 100 years of solitude, reflecting Latin American’s politics:
“torn by civil war and destroyed by imperialism” 2) He was being “more solitary than
ever”1 (p.136) after the failing attempt of starting another civil war. Consequently, he
isolates himself into making little gold fishes out of coin. He then spends his last years,
withdrawn from the world and any memories he has of it, making little gold fish from
coins (as he discovered how to during his early-life’s studies), and melting them down
into coins so that he can start making little gold fishes again. This making and melting
represents the repeating cycle of his solitary life, as well as that of the other Buendías
(and every other human). On the last day of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, Gabriel García
Márquez reveals that the reason for the colonel to appear as numb as he is is because “he
had learned to think coldly so that inescapable memories would not touch any
escape our true feelings, is reflected at this point. Colonel Aureliano Buendía dies
peacefully under the chestnut tree after trying to remember the past, but “could no longer
find the memory” (p.287), as a result of years of escaping from reality which causes his
forever abandonment.
As for the there is a tragic destiny for all the Buendías, Rebeca (Úrsula’s adopted
daughter) who dies after years self incarceration, and Amaranta (Colonel Aureliano
Buendía’s sister) who dies a virgin, prove more solitary ends in the family. However,
Rebeca and Amaranta deal with memories differently from Colonel Aureliano Buendía or
José Arcadio Buendía. Being responsible for the suicide of Pietro Crespi, the man who
both Rebeca and Amaranta love, the two peers abandon themselves out colorful world
Rebeca withdraws from her old lives and the Buendías by locking herself in her house for
decades and decades until she is forgotten by the town. Rebeca spends isolation, trapped
in the memories of Pietro Crespi and what she remembers about the world, with fear and
despair. For the at least half of her life, she has completely no connection to the world
outside of her house door. (Note that Gabriel García Márquez creates a maid character to
serve Rebeca to support her to live in the days of isolationism, to satisfy real needs of
human.) It is not known actually how and when Rebeca dies, but at least 50 years later
when the 17 Aurelianos (illegitimate sons of Colonel Aureliano Buendía) come to visit
Macondo that is undergoing modernization and plan to renovate Rebeca’s house, they
find her sitting on the same wooden chair she sat on the day she withdraws from her
relationship to the outside world. Rebeca rejects any acknowledgements of the changing
Amaranta burns her hand and wraps it with the black bandage (black suggests darkness,
which suggests a negative feeling), which she wears until the day she dies, in the
remorseful memories she has for Pietro Crespi and hatred she used to have for her orphan
sister, Rebeca. Tormenting several men by her indifference, Amaranta did not look upon
any man as a result of being trapped with her old memories. The bandage symbolizes
not with any hope of defeating solitude in that way, but, quite the contrary,
Hence, Amaranta detaches herself from all her burdens, and devotes herself into quietly
watching others while weaving the shrouds, “not out of hatred or out of love but because
Both Rebeca and Amaranta shut themselves up, either literally or figuratively, with the
inescapable memories of love, ignoring the changing world, until the very last day of
their lives.
The twin brothers, José Acadio Segundo, and Aureliano Srgundo introduce modernization
to Macondo with the railway, causing the town to be cultural diffused with people from
different places. However, after the rain, Macondo reaches downfall again, as both José
Arcadio and Aureliano Segundo faces their versions of tragic end and are buried in
the time when the twin grandsons of José Arcadio (Colonel Aureliano Buendías brother),
the son of Arcadio and Santa Sofia de la Piedad, build the railway connecting Macondo
with the outside world. (Note that repetition of names is used again and again, suggesting
Aureliano (In the Buendías family, all the Aurelianos in 100 Years of Solitude shares this
characteristic). Whereas, the one named Aureliano Segundo is a huge man with impulsive
and hedonistic air (similarly to his father, grandfather, or great-grandfather: the Arcadios),
as if his name is his twin brother’s. Gabriel García Márquez plays with the switching
roles and names, in order to emphasize the repetitive characteristics of two types of men
that exist in the Buendías. However, with either names (Aureliano or Arcadio), it is
As a young man, José Arcadio Buendía, after witnessing the execution, devotes himself
to studying old parchments in Melquíades’ room. With his goal being completely altered,
Macondo, similar to all the Aurelianos of the past. José Arcadio Buendía would, from
time to time, visit the numb Colonel Aureliano Buendía silently, as “they were armored
modernization of Macondo and how it treats its workers (pitilessly as if they were only
machines), reflects how the competing world changes people, robbing them of their
innocence and mercy, and forcing people to turn to greed in order to survive. But with the
tragic cycle that is set, the protest fails and results a devastating massacre of more than
3,000 workers, with José Arcadio Segundo being the only survivor. (The massacre in 100
years of solitude resembles the massacre in real life that the author’s home town in Latin
America witnessed). Denying the fact that no one in Macondo remembers that the
massacre ever happened, José Arcadio Segundo locks himself up in Melquíades’ room
until the day he dies, with his haunting memories of 3,000 lives thrown in the river like
dead fish. No one ever believes him about the existence of the massacre, except the little
Aureliano (II) or Aureliano Babilonia, the illegitimate nephew, who shares the same
There is a definite distinct of Aureliano Segundo from his twin brother. As if his name is
switched with that of José Arcadio Segundo, the huge and energetic Aureliano enjoys his
middle age life hosting parties after successes from his animal raffle business with his
concubine, Petra Cotes. Aureliano Segundo, being overwhelmed with wealth, celebrates
the perfect life he thought he had. However, he forgets about his daughter Renata
Remedios (Meme), who is spoiled and raised by receiving only money but not love nor
time, which dies after giving birth to her illegitimate child, Aureliano (II). It was not until
four years, eleven months and two days of rain after the massacre that destroys Aureliano
Segundo’s farm business and marked the beginning of Macondo’s downfall back to
simplicity, that he regrets his busy past and understands true happiness. Aureliano
Segundo truly understands how to love only when he understands that all the things
washed away with his wealth is only a barrier that sets him away from happiness. Gabriel
García Márquez again
ancestors used to have. The rain symbolizes the washing away of the corrupt busy world,
bringing Macondo, in a repetitive cycle, back to the way it used to be. Together with
Petra Cotes, the old Aureliano reset a little animal farm business, working day and night
for his determined goal to send his second daughter, Amaranta Úrsula to study abroad,
which he accomplishes before he dies. On the very last moment of his life Aureliano
Segundo still lives a simple life, isolated from others except from his concubine. The
solitary José Arcadio Segundo passed away in Melquíades room at the very same
moment. Indeed, in their funeral, José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo, who
introduce modernity to Macondo and also witness its declination within their lives time,
are buried in each other’s graves, as if they were destined to have been switched at birth.
Being ignored by the family, the illegitimate child, Aureliano (II), who does not know his
real name (Aureliano Babilonia) nor his origin until the his last minute, spends all his life
trying to figure out the meaning of the parchment in Melquíades’ room until the
Aureliano does not experience true companionship until Amaranta Úrsula (who once
again illustrates the repetition of name), an energetic and spirited woman just like her
great-great-grandmother Úrsula, who Aureliano did not know by then that she is his aunt,
comes back from Europe. Amaranta Úrsula, who represents a typical woman who is in to
Macondo with a dream to revitalize the town, returning it to how it was before the rain.
(Note that Gabriel García Márquez once again criticizes modernization, now for its
However, by the time Aureliano falls in love with Amaranta Úrsula, it became clear to
everyone that Macondo is irreparable. By the time when Amaranta Úrsula becomes
pregnant with her nephew, they are the only two left after any other habitants that could
prove their existence in the world, fled from the destructed Macondo. The lovers,
“secluded by solitude and love and by the solitude of love”1 (p.434) lived in an “empty
universe where the only everyday and eternal reality was love” 1 (p.437), alone in the
aging town that was “forgotten even by the birds”1 (p.434). Bonded by the same solitude
they share, “the uncertainty of the future made them turn their hearts toward the past” ๅ
(p.439), that “even the most recent and trivial happenings seemed worthy of nostalgia”ๅ
(p.432) As for the tragic end that is set for all the Buendías, Aureliano (II) severely
depressed by the death of his wife after giving birth to Aureliano (III), a child with a
Years of Solitude it self. There he finds the smallest details of every single Buendía and
their tragic end 100 years before his time, from that of the very first one who is tied to a
tree, of the great warrior who ends his life making and melting goldfishes, of the one who
understands the repeating history of her family, of the one who dies a virgin carrying a
cross ash of black bandage, or even of the one reading the parchment named Aureliano
Babilonia who is labeled an illegitimate child and the nephew of the one who dies giving
birth to the last one that is being eaten by the ants. And by the time when Aureliano will
finish the last page of the parchment where he find will find the prophecy marking his
end with the destruction of the town, he will be remembering for the last time of his life,
that “Macondo was already a fearful whirlwind of dust” 1 (p.447), as it is at the very
The world is a mixture of magic and reality, where we the characters takes the miracle of
our existence for granted, putting ourselves into the never-ending cycle of mundane lives,
where death is the only terminal. For this, the value of life depends on how each
interprets it.
Bibliography:
2 – Miller, Margaret and Perry, Josh. SparkNote on One Hundred Years of Solitude. 20