Analysis of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Analysis of One Hundred Years of Solitude 

by Gabriel García Márquez

Outline: Family Tree Position - Stages - narrator - Time and novel.

The history of Macondo and the Buendia family is the backbone of the novel, in which many episodes are inserted.

The narrative follows a seemingly chronological order, from the founding of Macondo by the initial -José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula couple Iguarán - until the disappearance of the village, about the birth prediction fulfilled , with pig tails , the last of the breed . But in reality , the time of the novel is not referred nor chronological , but " cyclical " repeats the past in the present and the future is predictable because somehow already occurred.

It can be summarized in four stages what happened to the nearly six generations of Buendia .

First stage: the mythical world and the time of the founding

It is for the journey they undertake the Buendia husbands in search of more favorable lands on which to settle , impelled by the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar , whom José Arcadio been killed . For such occurrences the narrator says :

Prudencio Aguilar did not leave, and José Arcadio Buendía dare throw the spear . Since then he could not sleep well.

Is a constant of the play: the living will communicate with the dead naturally, as if this fact did not escape the normal coordinates . And in this fantasy novel is interpolated in everyday reality , even the most bizarre or unusual takes on overtones of verisimilitude.

In the lineage of the founders , then, is a crime, Prudencio Aguilar result, in turn , the stigma attached to the offspring of the last Buendia - born pig - tailed , so Ursula insists no consummating marriage.

At this early stage or mythical time, Buendia discover the things that make the new world around them , and founded Macondo.

Also correspond to this stage called " plagues of insomnia and forgetfulness that attack people. Their inhabitants lose the habit of sleeping . But the worst sequence is memory loss . 's When Aureliano and his father José Arcadio will decide " mark " is a naming all things biblical way .

The return of Melquiades , holder of Macondo story written in Sanskrit can only decrypt the last of the Buendía , ends this stage , as the gypsy cure the villagers .

Second stage: The world and the historical time of the wars of Colonel Aureliano Buendia

Thirty-two armed uprisings promoted by the second son of the founders are narrated here . The hyperbolic tone and meaning of text parody manifest in this passage :

Colonel Aureliano Buendía promoted thirty-two armed uprisings and he lost them all . Sons had seventeen seventeen different women , who were exterminated one after another in a single night declined the offered annuity that war and lived until the age of gold fishes in his workshop that manufactured Macondo.

Stresses , thus the futility of civil wars and arrogance taciturn colonel , who , however , share with other characters in the play the " do to undo the " recurring - gold fishes Aureliano objects , figurines deazúcar in Ursula the shroud woven and unwoven - Amaranta , which act as " rescue garments " as postponing the time of death of characters. "

Third step : The time of insertion of Macondo in external reality

Invasion of Macondo by the outside world , personified by the banana company , causes a complete change in the life of the village and its inhabitants. The momentary happiness and final misery arrive with the train that brings the company cultures . Macondo reaches its best economic period , until the fever passes and exploitation banana leaves people in poverty and despair . Later, the narrator tells the " accomplishments" of the company:

... changed rainfall , rushed cycle crops, and took the river where it always was and put his white stones and icy currents on the other end of the town , behind the cemetery .

Fourth stage: The destruction of Macondo

The flood as punishment by God to men , by their greed and pride in the time of the banana company then appears .

It rained four years, eleven months and two days. There were periods of drizzle in everyone put on his pontifical robes and a face is composed convalescent Escampada to celebrate , but soon grew accustomed to interpret the pauses as resurgence ads . Desempedraba heaven in a whirlwind of mess , and the North sent a hurricane desportillaron ceilings and walls demolished , and roots dug up the last strains of the plantations.

The characters are dying one by one, buried by their own sins . At the end, IV Aureliano deciphers the history of his family, written in Sanskrit by Melquiades . It does when his wife , Amaranta Ursula, giving birth to the last of Aurelian , who comes into the world with pig tail predicted .

Macondo was already a fearful whirlwind of dust and debris by centrifugation anger the biblical hurricane when Aureliano [ ... ] And he understood that never go out of that room [ ... ] , And that everything written on them [ the scrolls ] was unique [ ... ] , Because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth .

The position of the narrator

The third person omniscient adopts a familiar tone , which shortens the distance with the reader and lets you give credence to the farthest facts of reality . Never expressed opinion, nor take sides . Limited to counting occurrences naturally and without ostentation narratives technicalities. It appears , therefore , as an outsider to the narrative , that does not stop justifications or explanations that would detract verismo quasi magical beings and situations. That familiar tone makes tolerable the lack of barriers between the real and the imaginary.

Weather and novel

The work is presented as a " spinning wheel " in which men and Other Events ¬ ments are repeated indefinitely determines the time an eternal return in its cyclical evolution and men relapse into attitudes and even the very names of their ancestors ' . Is Ursula Iguarán who first warns

Now that I know it by heart cried Ursula . It is as if time were turning around and had returned to the top .

And later again:

Before the drawing Aureliano Triste drew on the table, and that was a direct descendant of the schemes that José Arcadio Buendía project illustrated the solar war, Úrsula confirmed her impression that time was spinning around.

In the book there are no precise time stamps . However, the variety and multitude of episodes not undermine the idea of ​​a paradigmatic time, not regis ¬ trable on earth measures but point to emphasize its symbolic meaning , as the time the work is representative of the time humanity on Earth is the loneliness that surrounds all the characters. Soledad born loving solidarity deficiency . To Ursula Iguarán , " mother " devoted to others , whose domestic virtues serve as a hub to the central events of the play, ending his days blind , ie , alone in her decrepitude . '

But perhaps the best example is that of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, who orders chalk draw a circle around it. No one may approach him in that " solitude of power " . Even his mother Ursula, who, from that moment , considered lost forever.

characters

In the initial family are certain characters and the characters that des ¬ filarán throughout the life of Macondo. Thus, the primal -José Arcadio couples and kinship are given Ursula cousins ​​were also repeated in the last Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula IV .

Similarly, the two men in the first couple characters that children have distinguished successors reiterate their names.

While Aurelian were withdrawn, but lucid mind , the José Arcadio were impulsive and enterprising, but were marked by a tragic sign.

The same applies to the female characters . This resource emphasizes the charac ¬ tica cyclic time of the novel , because the lineage is repeated in a mirror game .

Special mention should Melquiades multiple mythical figure , as reviving the myth of Faust in his power of rejuvenation , the Lazarus being resurrected , the damus ¬ Nostra , to dazzle with his magic , and Prometheus , when released into man of the unbearable heat , bringing ice.

But his most important role is to guess. As such drafting history of the Buendia and predicts its destruction : " The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is what the ants are eating ." And so it is : José Arcadio dies tied to tree in his garden and his last descendant , born with the pigtail dies eaten by ants.

We have already noted some style notes Hundred Years of Solitude . It should be emphasized , however , a distinctive look : the excess that pervades the entire work and even transcends the everyday actions of his characters. Hyperbole is , then, the narrative device most used by the author, in an effort to create a critical world.

Source : A.A.V.V. Lyrics in Spanish America

Editorial Estrada, Buenos Aires