Full summary.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is the story of the rise and fall of the Buendía family, which is mirrored
by the development and destruction of their fictitious village, Macondo. Through a series of
flashbacks, scenes, and backstory, readers learn about the seven generations of the cursed
bloodline as they live, love, and die in their town.
The narrative begins with one of the most iconic lines in contemporary literature, which
features Colonel Aureliano Buendía, moments before his execution, remembering "that distant
afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

First Generation
The narrative returns to the beginning of the Buendía line with its patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía,
and matriarch, Úrsula, who meet and marry in their hometown.
Haunted by the ghost of a man José Arcadio Buendía murdered to defend his marriage, he, along
with a group of men and women, leave to find the sea and settle a new town. They search for almost
two years. While sleeping by a river, José Arcadio Buendía hears the name of the town in a dream.
He convinces the families to stay to found Macondo.

Second Generation
Every March the gypsies arrive, toting new inventions. Exposure to the outside world inspires
ambitious José Arcadio Buendía.

When José Arcadio, the eldest son of José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula, runs away with the
caravan, his mother forbids the gypsies from returning. José Arcadio Buendía insists Melquíades,
the head of the gypsy caravan and his friend and mentor, is always welcome, and Melquíades visits
across the generations.
When Rebeca, the Buendía's adopted daughter, and Amaranta, the Buendía's biological daughter,
reach adolescence, Úrsula expands the house to fit the next generations. During construction, the
appointed magistrate arrives, introducing government to the village. Following the marriage of
Colonel Aureliano Buendía (son of Úrsula and José Arcadio Buendía) and Remedios (daughter of
Don Apolinar Moscote), Father Nicanor decides to build a church in Macondo, introducing religion.

Third Generation
Infamous for her tarot card readings, Pilar Ternera bears two children: Arcadio with José Arcadio
and Aureliano José with Colonel Aureliano Buendía. Even though their fathers are absent, both
children are sent to live with the Buendías. Both sons are drawn to their mother with whom they
have no relationship.

While Colonel Aureliano Buendía leads the rebellion, he fathers 17 sons with 17 different women.
Individually, each mother brings her son to be baptized in Macondo with the name Aureliano. Each
son keeps his mother's surname.

Fourth Generation
When Arcadio, whom Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves in charge of Macondo to the inhabitants'
dismay, seeks a sexual relationship with Pilar, Pilar pays Santa Sofía de la Piedad to take her place,
and she gives birth to Remedios the Beauty. At the time of Arcadio's execution, their daughter is
eight months old, and Santa Sofía de la Piedad is pregnant with twin boys, Aureliano and José
Arcadio Segundo.
Fifth Generation
Following José Arcadio Segundo's introduction of the French matrons to Macondo, they organize a
carnival. Remedios the Beauty is named queen, and Fernanda del Carpio is scheduled to be
crowned queen of Madagascar. When someone voices Liberal sentiments, the occasion turns into a
bloody massacre. The twins save the two women. After the mourning period, Aureliano Segundo
finds Fernanda in her "gloomy" northern city, proposes, and brings her to Macondo, where she bears
three of his children, Meme, José Arcadio, and Amaranta Úrsula. The banana company arrives.

Sixth Generation
During the banana plague days, Meme is befriended by the Americans. While touring the plantation,
she meets Mauricio Babilonia and begins seeing him in secret. When her mother discovers their
relationship, she forbids Meme to leave. Every night the couple spends time showering together.
Unknowingly, she becomes pregnant with his child. After Fernanda sends Meme to a distant
convent, a nun delivers Aureliano to the Buendía's house, and Fernanda keeps his identity a secret.

When the banana workers strike, the government is called in to mediate the conflict. They massacre
3,000 people, then erase the event from the town's memory. They release a statement and claim to
grant the workers their wishes after the rain stops. It rains for almost five years. When it stops, the
banana company has vanished.

Seventh Generation
After Amaranta Úrsula returns to Macondo with her husband, Aureliano falls in love with her. While
Gaston busies himself with projects, biding his time, the two begin an affair. After Gaston leaves for
business, she becomes pregnant. Amaranta Úrsula suffers and dies from birth complications.
Aureliano, in shock, roams the town, leaving his pig-tailed infant, Aureliano, at home.

When he returns, ants are carrying his dead son, the last of the Buendías, away. He translates the
manuscript's epigraph. Realizing it's about his family, he reads to discover what went wrong.
Amaranta Úrsula is his aunt, and his family's fate is sealed as the storm winds destroy him and
Macondo.

==================================================

Summary 1
Every month of March the gypsies, a derogatory term that refers to traveling ethnic groups, visit the
city of Macondo and introduce modern inventions to its inhabitants, such as magnets, the magnifying
glass, and the telescope. Each visit, José Arcadio Buendía, the patriarch and founder of Macondo,
becomes infatuated with another idea. While he's distracted with his new obsession, his wife, Úrsula,
resists or foils it.

With navigational tools, José Arcadio Buendía discovers the earth is round. The gypsy
prophet Melquíades gives him alchemy materials, and the two become close friends. When Úrsula
turns the town against the gypsies, José Arcadio Buendía expresses his frustration with human
limitations.

Wanting to discover other "civilizations," José Arcadio Buendía leaves. After he and his group
stumble across a Spanish ship, they discover the sea and realize Macondo is a peninsula. When he
suggests moving Macondo to a better location, Úrsula refuses. When the gypsies return, José
Arcadio Buendía tries to find Melquíades but learns he's dead. Saddened, the three children drag
José Arcadio Buendía to the "novelty" tent, where they discover ice.

Analysis
The novel begins in the middle, "Many years later," with Colonel Aureliano Buendía remembering
the discovery of ice with José Arcadio Buendía. In the memory, he faces a firing squad, which
creates suspense. Quickly the narrator introduces the theme of past and present by immersing the
reader in the history of the gypsies in Macondo.

The first chapter grounds the reader by introducing the first and most of the second generation of the
Buendía family. Their "truly happy" town is also introduced. At the time, Macondo consists of 20
riverside houses. Through fantastical language and images, the reader learns that Macondo
contains magical elements:

 José Arcadio Buendía experiences a "hereditary memory," a relative passing on information to blood
family instantaneously.
 Aureliano, who was born with open eyes and "wept in his mother's womb," has psychic abilities.

===========================================
Summary 2
Despite their families' disapproval, cousins José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula marry. Because of the
"sinister predictions" of Úrsula's mother, Úrsula avoids consummating their marriage, fearing their
children will have pig tails.
A year later, José Arcadio Buendía wins a cockfight. His opponent, Prudencio Aguilar, mocks him
and his wife, so José Arcadio kills him. After the murder, the couple see the ghost of Prudencio;
José Arcadio is tortured by this apparition. They decide to leave.

After sacrificing roosters and burying the murder weapon, they cross the mountains, searching for
the sea. Because of a dream, José Arcadio Buendía convinces his family and friends who have
accompanied him to remain at the river. There they found Macondo.
Shortly after their daughter Amaranta is born, José Arcadio discovers he's going to be a father with
Pilar, sleeps with a young gypsy, and leaves with the gypsy caravan. Úrsula tries to track them. José
Arcadio Buendía follows her but returns to care for Amaranta. After several months, Úrsula returns
to Macondo with a group of people who live across the swamp.

Analysis 2
The juxtaposition of rebellion and fate creates tension. The legend of their pig-tailed uncle doesn't
detour José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula from getting married. This choice seems like youthful
rebellion, even though the narrator states "their marriage was predicted from the time they had come
into the world." This presence of fate supports the magic realism theme. When the patriarch hears a
"supernatural echo" in his dream, naming the town they're sleeping in, he entices everyone to stay. It
becomes clear this family's future is dictated by dreams, strengthening the presence of magic.
With such fantastical elements, the story is balanced with concrete and specific details. Amaranta is
born on a "January Thursday at two o'clock in the morning." This information grounds the reader and
contributes to the story's believability.
The ability to navigate between past and present creates a circularity. José Arcadio, named after his
father, rebels by sleeping with "provocative" Pilar. After his father strikes him for saying his
"recovered gold" resembles dog feces, he leaves with the gypsies, rebelling against his rebel
parents.

Summary 3

Shortly after Arcadio's birth, Pilar brings him to his grandparents' home. When the gypsies
arrive, Úrsula forbids them from staying, blaming them for José Arcadio's disappearance.
When José Arcadio Buendía invites Melquíades's tribe to return, he's informed of their extinction.
Aureliano predicts Rebeca's arrival.

After adopting Rebeca as their own, the Buendías discover she's infected with the insomnia plague.
The disease erases memories, and the entire town contracts it. Melquíades arrives, as if back from
the dead. When José Arcadio Buendía doesn't recognize him, he cures Macondo. A magistrate
named Don Apolinar Moscote comes to Macondo and orders all houses to be painted blue. José
Arcadio Buendía carries him to the border. When Don Moscote returns with his family and soldiers,
José Arcadio Buendía lets them stay but names him an enemy. Aureliano develops feelings for the
mayor's daughter, Remedios.

Analysis
Úrsula expands the Buendía house. The theme of love—in this case, familial—is shown in the
matriarch's action, who ensures there's enough room for the next generation in their home. This
shows her expectations for her family to remain close, also displayed when she follows her runaway
son.
Macondo (a symbol of Colombia, Gabriel García Márquez's native country) is developed in the first
and second chapters. With the introduction of government, the reader sees the town begin to
change, alluding to Colombia's conflicted history. After Don Apolinar Moscote arrives and begins
making demands, José Arcadio Buendía tells him he doesn't want to kill him and suffer the burden of
being haunted by it. This shows how Prudencio Aguilar's murder continues to cause him
psychological anguish. Learning from his mistake, he peacefully escorts Moscote out of the area by
the shirt.

One Hundred Years of Solitude | Chapter 3 | Summary

Summary
Shortly after Arcadio's birth, Pilar brings him to his grandparents' home. When the gypsies
arrive, Úrsula forbids them from staying, blaming them for José Arcadio's disappearance. When José Arcadio
Buendía invites Melquíades's tribe to return, he's informed of their extinction. Aureliano predicts Rebeca's
arrival.
After adopting Rebeca as their own, the Buendías discover she's infected with the insomnia plague. The
disease erases memories, and the entire town contracts it. Melquíades arrives, as if back from the dead. When
José Arcadio Buendía doesn't recognize him, he cures Macondo. A magistrate named Don Apolinar Moscote
comes to Macondo and orders all houses to be painted blue. José Arcadio Buendía carries him to the border.
When Don Moscote returns with his family and soldiers, José Arcadio Buendía lets them stay but names him
an enemy. Aureliano develops feelings for the mayor's daughter, Remedios.

Analysis
Úrsula expands the Buendía house. The theme of love—in this case, familial—is shown in the matriarch's
action, who ensures there's enough room for the next generation in their home. This shows her expectations for
her family to remain close, also displayed when she follows her runaway son.
Macondo (a symbol of Colombia, Gabriel García Márquez's native country) is developed in the first and
second chapters. With the introduction of government, the reader sees the town begin to change, alluding to
Colombia's conflicted history. After Don Apolinar Moscote arrives and begins making demands, José Arcadio
Buendía tells him he doesn't want to kill him and suffer the burden of being haunted by it. This shows how
Prudencio Aguilar's murder continues to cause him psychological anguish. Learning from his mistake, he
peacefully escorts Moscote out of the area by the shirt.

One Hundred Years of Solitude | Chapter 4 | Summary

Summary
Following the renovation of the Buendía house, Úrsula furnishes it with "costly necessities" and organizes a
dance. Pietro Crespi arrives to set up the pianola. He teaches them how to use it.
Aureliano sleeps with Pilar, who promises to help him win Remedios. When Aureliano confronts his parents
about his intention to marry her, his father, upon his wife's agreement that Rebeca marry Pietro, seeks
Remedios's hand. After a discussion, Aureliano promises to wait until she reaches "the age of conception."

Melquíades passes away. José Arcadio Buendía gives him an honorable and well-attended funeral.

After asking Pilar to read her cards, Rebeca discovers that she must bury her parents' bones to find happiness.
José Arcadio Buendía finds the bones in the wall and buries them next to Melquíades. Prudencio Aguilar
begins visiting José Arcadio Buendía again and begins to drive him mad. Aureliano, unable to stop his father's
madness, seeks help. José Arcadio Buendía is tied to the chestnut tree.

Analysis
A representation of Colombia, Macondo, previously without death, is complicated when it buries Melquíades,
then later, Rebeca's parents. Both are outsiders, yet the deaths have different effects on the Buendía family.
Melquíades's death seems to trigger José Arcadio Buendía's descent into madness, and burying the bones of
her parents enables Rebeca to move on from familial love to romantic love, a theme that drives the plot.
Romantic love disrupts the harmony in the house. Rebeca is in love with Pietro, who returns to fix the pianola
that the patriarch takes apart and assembles incorrectly. Lovesick, she returns to her bad habit of eating earth.
When Amparo delivers a letter to Rebeca from Pietro, the girls become friends, which stirs Aureliano's desire
for Remedios. When the mail is late, Rebeca acts out.

After Rebeca's love is revealed, Amaranta's romantic feelings for Pietro arise. During Melquíades's wake,
Amaranta confesses her love to Pietro, who doesn't take her seriously, and confides in Rebeca. Love and
jealousy become intertwined in this love triangle. Rebeca has buried her parents' bones to find happiness but
returns to her miserable habits of eating dirt on account of Pietro. Pietro cares for Rebeca but Amaranta may be
a more suitable mate for Pietro. However, Amaranta's behavior shows that she, much like Rebeca, is overcome
with desire for Pietro, and this affects her relationship with Rebeca in a negative way. Even though one love is
reciprocated and another isn't, both amorous feelings are discovered by Úrsula when she finds exchanged and
unsent letters in the girls' rooms. The letters are packaged the same: perfumed, tied with a pink bow. After
Amaranta threatens Rebeca's life, Úrsula arranges Amaranta's trip.

Summary: Chapter 4
Lonely and despairing, Aureliano sleeps with Pilar Ternera, the same woman whom his older
brother had impregnated, and she helps Aureliano in his campaign to marry Remedios. While
Aureliano is pining over the impossibly young Remedios, the Buendía family’s two girls—
Amaranta and the adoptee Rebeca—both fall in love with a stranger, Pietro Crespi, who has
come to Macondo to install a pianola in the Buendía house. They make themselves sick with
love: Rebeca goes back to eating earth and whitewash, and Crespi decides he wants to marry her.
The marriages—of Rebeca to Crespi and Aureliano to Remedios—are arranged, even though
Amaranta, wildly jealous of Rebeca, vows to stop her marriage.

When the gypsy Melquíades slowly passes away, he is the first person to die in Macondo. After
his mourning period is over, a semblance of happiness descends on the house: Pietro Crespi and
Rebeca are in love, courting, and Aureliano is becoming closer to his future bride, Remedios.
Even the news that Pilar Ternera is pregnant with his child does not bother Aureliano. But the
happiness does not last. Amaranta’s threat to destroy Rebeca’s wedding deeply troubles Rebeca.
José Arcadio Buendía, exhausted by his endless research into the unknown, slips into insanity.
He has visions of the man he killed early in his life and is wracked with sorrow over the solitude
of death. He becomes convinced that the same day is repeating itself over and over again. He
begins to rage, tearing up the house, and it takes twenty men to drag him out and tie him to a tree
in the backyard, where he remains until the end of his life, many years later.

Analysis: Chapters 3–4

It might be said that Macondo’s evolution is a parable, evocative of the typical arc of human
societal progress, and that the village is a microcosm for all of human civilization. In this section,
the technological and social changes that accompany modernization cause the society to become
more cosmopolitan, containing both greater wealth and greater social problems than Macondo
did in its earlier state. Increased traffic through the town brings prosperity, but it also brings
some of the horrors associated with capitalism. For example, Aureliano stumbles into a tent
where a girl is being forced to sleep with many men consecutively—it will take seventy a night,
for ten more years, to pay off her family’s debts. The town is also changed by governmental
interference that contact with the outside world allows. José Aureliano Buendía has his first
encounter in this section with the civil authorities that will increasingly seize control of the town.
Gradually, it is suggested, so-called progress brings loss of innocence and potential sources of
conflict.

But the changes happening to the city go beyond a simple allegory of political change in world
history. The conflict between José Arcadio Buendía’s style of government and the regulations
brought in by the magistrate reflects a political agenda that is very specific to García Márquez
and Latin America. García Márquez is well known as a friend of Fidel Castro, a Communist, and
revolutionary sympathizer. José Arcadio Buendía’s Macondo is a utopian portrait of what an
ideally communist society might be like. He has mapped out the city so that every house has
equal access to water and shade, and he tells the magistrate that “in this town we do not give
orders with pieces of paper.” Later on, we will see that this early utopia cannot last, and
Macondo will become embroiled in a revolution against a harshly regulatory government. If
García Márquez appears to support an idealistically communist vision of what society should be
like, his strong reaction against dictatorship and oppression indicates his disapproval of the
oppressive tendencies that have come to be associated with the reality of communism.

One Hundred Years of Solitude | Chapter 5 | Summary

Summary

A month after Remedios becomes a woman, she and

Aureliano marry. Father Nicanor introduces religion
to Macondo and starts building a church. Rebeca and
Amaranta's fighting continues as Rebeca and Pietro plan
the inaugural wedding.
To expedite the building of the church, Úrsula and Pietro
donate large sums. Amaranta intends to poison Rebeca.
Unexpectedly, Remedios, while pregnant with twins, dies
after Amaranta prays for something to delay her
murdering Rebeca. After the wedding is postponed,
Rebeca eats earth again. When estranged José Arcadio
returns, the family rejects him. Attracted to him, Rebeca
sneaks into his room, and they begin a romantic
relationship. Soon after, they marry, and Father Nicanor
reveals they aren't siblings.

As the Moscotes gain popularity from their association

with the Buendías, Don Apolinar implements more
government. After Aureliano discovers that his father-
in-law fixes the election and supports the town being
under martial law, he joins forces with the Liberal Party
and declares war on the Conservative Party with an
army of 21 men. He is henceforth known as Colonel
Aureliano Buendía.

Analysis
The introduction of religion to Macondo complicates the town dynamics even further. At an impromptu mass,
Father Nicanor levitates "six inches" above ground, then repeats the act door to door to gain donations for the
church. The use of magic realism in this monetary situation displays the church's manipulation. José Arcadio
Buendía, the only person who doubts Father Nicanor, demands proof of God. Because José Arcadio Buendía is
ostracized, Father Nicanor tries to help him out of a desire to save his soul, then simply because he feels sorry
for him when he realizes José Arcadio Buendía has no interest in converting. The church is unable to
manipulate José Arcadio Buendía into donating money. Father Nicanor abandons the project, fearing for the
security of his own faith as he cannot prove the existence of God. In this scenario, the two represent polarities:
religion and science, old and new, conservative and liberal.
During the celebration, Remedios delivers cake to her father-in-law, a symbol of their new bond of familial
love. Her "sense of responsibility" and "natural grace" allude to her positive role in the family. The presence of
Remedios within the Buendía family brings a refreshing peace that feels foreign to the family but is welcome.
This peace is short-lived as Remedios dies shortly thereafter. Úrsula demands a mourning period of one year
without talking and keeps Remedios's picture with a lit oil lamp next to it. Out of guilt, Amaranta adopts
Aureliano José, whom Remedios was raising as her own. After Rebeca leaves Pietro for José Arcadio, Pietro
maintains his routine visits and seeks out Amaranta for a romantic relationship. Typical of the Buendía family,
Rebeca and José Arcadio engage in a lustful relationship, even though they grew up together. Pietro, who was
once the object of desire of both Rebeca and Amaranta, now moves from one to the other. Amaranta now has
the upper hand, knowing that Pietro is very fond of her.