100 Years of Solitude Reading Guide—Chapter 1

Let’s get through this brutal, beautiful read together

Pain and pleasure are each better when they’re shared. In other words, you need to read 100 Years of Solitude as a group. Yes, Gabriel García Márquez’s novel is confusing and overwhelming. But it can also be argued that it’s the world’s finest 20th-century book.

Our office is reading it together. We have a guide, and you should too. So here’s Chapter 1. Grab the book, grab a group, and get going.

Chapter 1 Cast (In order of appearance)

1. Colonel Aureliano Buendía. Forget about this guy for now. We’ll catch up with him later.
2. Melquíades. Gypsy with a big ol’ beard. Introduces all sorts of science and technology to the remote South American village of Macondo.
3. José Arcadio Buendía. The patriarch. Top of the family tree, founder and leader of Macondo. He’s fascinated by what Melquíades brings to his village and is more than happy to neglect his family and duties in favor of scientific pursuits. Side note: We can’t stop pronouncing Arcadio as “ar-KAY-dee-oh” instead of the correct “ar-KAH-dee-oh”. We do this because Arcadio looks like the word arcade, and arcades are the best.
4. Úrsula Iguarón. Wife of José Arcadio Buendía. Hard-working, active, all-business. Constantly frustrated by her mule of a husband.
5. José Arcadio. Oldest son of Úrsula and José Arcadio Buendía. Big, strong, and not too bright. And…uh…well-equipped. More on that later. His name is quite similar to his father’s, so watch out for that as you read.
6. Aureliano. Second son of Úrsula and José Arcadio Buendía. A quiet and intelligent boy who can possibly see the future. He will become Colonel Aureliano Buendía when he’s all grown up.

Chapter 1 Discussion Questions

1. What examples of solitude did you encounter?
2. Why is Melquíades given so much responsibility early in the chapter if he’s just going to get the Game of Thrones treatment a few pages later?
3. If you had to date this chapter, in what year is it taking place? What makes you think so?
4. This is an unhealthy way to view a marriage, but it seems that when Úrsula and José Arcadio Buendía butt heads, there’s often a clear winner and loser. Why does Úrsula stand firm in some cases and relent in others?
5. The end of Chapter 1 sees the Buendía males discovering ice. Can you remember a time in your life, perhaps as a child, when you experienced something you were sure was magic?

Some great passages in Chapter 1

Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

According to what he himself said as he spoke to José Arcadio Buendía while helping him set up his laboratory, death followed him everywhere, sniffing at the cuffs of his pants, but never deciding to give him the final clutch of its claws.

José Arcadio Buendía: “The world is round, like an orange.”

Ursula: “If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself! But don’t try to put your gypsy ideas into the heads of the children.”

Aureliano, the first human being to be born in Macondo, would be six years old in March. He was silent and withdrawn. He had wept in his mother’s womb and had been born with his eyes open. As they were cutting the umbilical cord, he moved his head from side to side, taking in the things in the room and examining the faces of the people with a fearless curiosity.

Inside there was only an enormous, transparent block with infinite internal needles in which the light of the sunset was broken up into colored stars. Disconcerted, knowing that the children were waiting for an immediate explanation, José Arcadio Buendía ventured a murmur: “It’s the largest diamond in the world.” “No,” the gypsy countered. “It’s ice.”

So there we go. Now nothing’s stopping you from limping your way (most likely while sobbing in frustration) through Chapter 1. Don’t let the endless paragraphs discourage you. You can do it.