The Magically Realistic World of Gabriel García Márquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude
The act of writing a blog post is sedulous! Being a new bee, it is pretty difficult for me to get my head around things that I have never done before. And so, I thought of writing my first post on one of my favourite books One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. I love this book so much that it was one of the core texts for my dissertation. Now, I cannot wait to share this amazing book with you all.
One Hundred Years of Solitude is the story of Buendía family over a span of one hundred years. In these one hundred years, different generations of Buendía family go through events that ultimately lead to an unusual end of the Buendias.
If reading this did not interest you, then allow me to add some more spice to your imagination. The various events I am talking about are inspired by some real-life happenings that the author has experienced or by the stories that have been passed down to generations. In other words, the story consists of events that are either real, mystical or legendary. It also contains biblical references and of course, sex.
Still not convinced that the story is exceptionally supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Alright then, let me get into details.
The story is set in an imaginary place called Macondo. This place is similar to that of early Latin America which was not yet discovered by the westerners. I say so because the isolation, remoteness and the aboriginal state of Macondo stands out at every stage in the story. And even García Márquez has mentioned the solitude of Latin America in his 1982 Nobel Lecture. The senior most Buendía, José Arcadio Buendía, dreams of Macondo; he then establishes this dream town at the riverside. It will be logical to assert that Macondo resembles the early civilizations of Latin America as there is a planned layout to the houses and everyone has their own share of land.
Soon, the prosperous town of Macondo gets visitors in the form of Gypsies. The head of the gypsies is called Melquiades. He is the one who introduces the town to innovations and magical things like flying carpets, ice and magnets. Wait, ice and magnets? Yes, you read that right! Melquiades goes around the town dragging his huge magnets, attracting all pots, pans and tongs; and people are surprised to see this unfamiliar stunt. When asked, Melquiades says that ‘things have their own life’ and it is ‘simply a matter of waking up their souls’. This particular event in the story tells us three things, one — the primitiveness, two — the influence of western explorers, and three — ordinary objects are given magical quality.
Another feature is the history of Latin America that runs in the background of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The character called Aureliano Buendía who is José Arcadio’s son, is a colonel and plays a major role in the war between Conservatives and Liberals. This war; without any doubt; is The War of Thousand Days (1899–1903). Also known as the Civil War of Colombia. The war was fought between the Conservatives and Liberals of Colombia that caused massive destruction and loss of life. Here García Márquez does not allude to a textual history to give knowledge to the masses but instead, he brings out the convoluted nature of war through this character.
In this book, García Márquez presents a wide range of complex characters and relationships. He blurs the line between the magical and the real so skilfully that it becomes difficult for the reader to distinguish between the two. Moreover, the use of religious and mythical stories like the ascending of virgin Mary, the apocalypse and the result of incest is a child with pig tail, fill the book with fantastical elements that are known to a common man. By keeping the narrative tone neutral, the author compels the reader to have his/her own take on the unveiling events. It is indeed the journey of Latin America over one hundred years through the life of the Buendias.
References:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (UK: Jonathan Cape, 1970)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Lecture, (8 December, 1982) https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1982/marquez/lecture/
TED-Ed, Why should you read “One Hundred Years of Solitude”? — Francisco Díez-Buzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2zhLYz4pYo
Art inspired by the novel:
Michael Young Fine Art, https://www.michaelyoungfineart.com/solitude.html
Originally published at http://enerishub.wordpress.com on February 1, 2020.
