One Hundred Years of Solitude: Encyclopedia - One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish title: Cien años de soledad) is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in Spanish in 1967 (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana), with an English translation by Gregory Rabassa released in 1970 (New York: Harper and Row).

The book is considered García Márquez's masterpiece, metaphorically encompassing the history of Colombia. The novel spans one hundred years of the life of a small Colombian town, said by many to be the native town of García Márquez, or at least a town nearby his own; the thoughts on the identity of the town are based on mountain ranges, lakes and other existing Colombian towns mentioned in the novel.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Synopsis

All of the events of One Hundred Years of Solitude take place in the fictional Colombian village of Macondo. The town is founded by José Arcadio Buendía, a strong-willed and impulsive leader who becomes deeply interested in the mysteries of the universe when a band of gypsies visits Macondo, led by the recurring Melquíades. As the town grows, the fledgling government of the country takes an interest in Macondo's affairs, but they are held back by José Arcadio.

Civil war breaks out in the land, and Macondo soon takes a role in the war, sending a militia led by Colonel Aureliano Buendía, José Arcadio's son, to fight against the conservative regime. While the colonel is gone, José Arcadio goes insane and must be tied to a tree. Arcadio, his illegitimate grandchild, takes leadership of the town but soon becomes a brutal dictator. The Conservatives capture the town, and Arcadio is shot by a firing squad.

The wars continue, with Colonel Aureliano narrowly avoiding death multiple times, until, weary of the meaningless fighting, he arranges a peace treaty that will last until the end of the novel. After the treaty is signed, Aureliano shoots himself in the chest, but survives. The town develops into a sprawling center of activity as foreigners arrive by the thousands. The foreigners begin a banana plantation near Macondo. The town prospers until a strike arises at the banana plantation. The national army is called in, and the protesting workers are gunned down and thrown into the ocean. At this time, Úrsula, the impossibly ancient widow of José Arcadio Buendía, remarks that "it was as if time was going in a circle".

After the banana worker massacre, the town is saturated by heavy rains that last for four years. Úrsula says that she is waiting for the rains to stop so that she can die at last. The last member of the Buendía line, named Aureliano Babilonia, is born at this time. When the rains stop, Úrsula dies at last, and Macondo is left desolated.

Aureliano Babilonia is finally left in solitude at the crumbling Buendía house, where he studies the parchments of Melquíades, who has appeared as a ghost to him. He gives up on this task to have a love affair with his aunt, though he is unsure whether they are related. When she dies in childbirth and his son (who is born with a pig's tail) is eaten by ants, Aureliano is finally able to decipher the parchments. The house, and the town, disintegrate into a whirlwind as he translates the parchments, on which is contained the entire history of the Buendía family, as predicted by Melquíades. As he finishes translating, the entire town is obliterated from the world.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Characters

One Hundred Years of Solitude - First Generation

The patriarch of the Buendía clan, José Arcadio Buendía is strong-willed, immovable by others, but has a deep interest in philosophical mysteries. Buendía is responsible for leading Macondo through its early stages, but disappears from the storyline when he goes insane searching for the Philosopher's stone and believes that time has stopped at a particular Monday. Eventually he loses the ability to communicate with his family in Spanish, speaking instead in Latin. He is tied to a chestnut tree, but is released by Úrsula a short time before his death.

José Arcadio Buendía's wife is the matriarch of the family, as well as the member who lives through the most generations. Úrsula runs the family with a strong will and firm hand through several portions of the book, and dies at the age of 130+, having slowly shrunken to the size of a fetus.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Second Generation

José Arcadio Buendía's firstborn son, José Arcadio seems to have inherited his father's headstrong, impulsive mannerisms. When the gypsies come to Macondo, a gypsy woman who sees José Arcadio's naked body exclaims that he has the biggest male genital she has ever seen. He has an affair with a woman named Pilar Ternera, but leaves her after getting her pregnant. He eventually leaves the family to chase a gypsy girl and surprisingly returns many years later as a grown man, claiming that he'd sailed the seas of the world. He marries Rebeca and lives away from the family, dying as a result of a mysterious gunshot days after saving his brother from execution.

José Arcadio Buendía's second son, Aureliano, appeared to have inherited his father's pensive, philosophical nature. He studies metallurgy, and joins the Liberal party when war breaks out. He fights the Colombian government in 32 civil wars, and avoids death multiple times. Having lost all interest in the war, he signs a peace treaty and returns home. In his old age, he loses all capacity for emotion or memory, spending each day making and unmaking tiny golden fish. He dies while urinating on the tree his father had been tied to for so many years.

The third child of José Arcadio Buendía, Amaranta grows up a companion of Rebeca; her feelings toward Rebeca, however, turn sour over Pietro Crespi, whom both sisters intensely desire in their teenage years. When Rebeca marries José Arcadio instead, Amaranta rejects any man who seeks her out, including Pietro Crespi, who courts her after Rebeca leaves him. She has a brief love interest towards her nephew, Aureliano José, and in a final attempt to ease her solitude, touches her great-great nephew José Arcadio (son of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo) in an inappropriate manner when he is three years old. Death in the form of an old woman comes to Amaranta and commands her to begin weaving a funeral shroud, and upon the shroud's completion, Amaranta dies that night, an embittered virgin.

Rebeca is an orphan. When she arrived in Macondo, she brought with her parents' bones and an insomnia plague. Rebeca becomes engaged to Pietro Crespi, Amaranta's former fiancé, but leaves him to marry the returned José Arcadio. Disenherited by Úrsula for marrying in a period of mourning for Aureliano's wife Remedios and for the "inconcievable lack of respect" their pseudo-incestuous marriage directed at Úrsula, the pair move to another home. When her husband dies, Rebeca bars the door and lives in solitude for the rest of her life.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Third Generation

Arcadio is José Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera. He is a schoolteacher, but assumes leadership of Macondo when Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves, upon Aureliano's request. He becomes a tyrannical dictator and uses his schoolchildren as his personal army, and Macondo becomes subject to his whims. He attempts to uproot the church, persecute Conservatives living in the town (like Don Moscote), and patrols the town with his troops, but when he tried to give Don Moscote a whipping for a snide remark, Ursula whips him, and takes control of the town. Upon receiving news that the Conservative forces had made a comeback, Arcadio resolves to fight the Conservatives that fall upon the town, with the resources they have, despite gross disadvantages. The Liberal forces in Macondo fall, and Arcadio is shot shortly after the defeat by the Conservative firing squad.

Aureliano José is the son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, also by Pilar Ternera. He joins his father in several wars, but returns to Macondo because he is in love with his aunt, Amaranta. The two engage in sexual activities, but Amaranta rejects him once she realizes the full extent of her actions. Aureliano José is shot by a Conservative captain of the guard midway through the wars, for running away from a squad of police.

Santa Sofía is the wife of Arcadio. Mother of Remedios the Beauty, José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo. She plays a minor role in the novel, staying in the background as a maid in the Buendía home. She leaves unexpectedly during the final years of Macondo's existence.

During his 32 civil wars, Colonel Aureliano Buendía has 17 sons by 17 different women, each of whom he stays with for only one night. It is explained that, traditionally, young women were sent to sleep with soldiers, and the Buendía household is visited by 17 different mothers wanting Úrsula to baptize their son. Úrsula baptizes them all with the name Aureliano and the same last name as the mother. Later on the sons return to the Buendía house, and eventually all 17 are assassinated by the government, identified by the mysteriously permanent Ash Wednesday cross on their foreheads.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Fourth Generation

Remedios is Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child, and she inherits her mother's beauty. She causes the deaths of several men who love her, but is naively innocent throughout her life. Remedios ascends into the sky one night as Fernanda looks on.

José Arcadio Segundo is the twin brother of Aureliano Segundo, the children of Arcadio and Santa Sofía. Úrsula believes that the two were switched in their childhood, as José Arcadio begins to show the characteristics of the family's Aurelianos, growing up to be pensive and quiet. He plays a major role in the banana worker strike, and is one of the two survivors of the massacre (the other was a child he carried on his shoulders during the proclamation of the Decree that started the massacre). Afterward, he spends the rest of his days studying the parchments, and tutoring the young Aureliano. He dies at the exact instant that his twin does.

Of the two brothers, Aureliano Segundo is the more boisterous and impulsive, much like the José Arcadios of the family. He takes Petra Cotes as his mistress, even during his marriage to Fernanda del Carpia. When living with Petra, his livestock propagate wildly, and he indulges in unrestrained revelry. After the long rains, his fortune dries up, and the Buendías are left almost penniless. He turns to search for a buried treasure, eventually almost going insane. He wastes away, and dies at the same moment as his twin. During the confusion at the funeral, the bodies are switched, and each is buried in the other's grave.

Fernanda is the only major character (except for perhaps Rebeca) that does not originate in Macondo. She is brought to Macondo to compete with Remedios for the title of Queen of the carnival, and marries Aureliano Segundo. Soon, Fernanda takes leadership of the family away from the frail Úrsula and manages Buendía affairs with an iron fist. She has three children by Aureliano, and remains in the house after he dies. Fernanda is never accepted by anyone in the Buendia household, and though the Buendias do nothing to rebel against her inflexible conservatism, she is generally regarded by the family as an outsider, and a "stuck up highlander". In the course of the novel, Fernanda's mental instability is revealed through her paranoia, her correspondence with the 'invisible doctors', and her irrational behavior towards Aureliano.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Fifth Generation

Meme is the first child of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo. After Don Fernando del Carpio declares that she play the clavichord and do nothing else, she is sent to school and receives her performance degree. While she pursues the clavichord with 'an inflexible discipline', to placate Fernanda, she also enjoys partying and exhibits the same tendency towards excess as her father. She meets and falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, a mechanic working for the banana plantation, but when Fernanda finds out that they were having sexual relations, she arranges for Mauricio Babilonia to be shot by claiming that he was a chicken thief, and takes Meme to a convent. Meme remains mute for the rest of her life, because of the trauma, but has a son, Aureliano, at the convent. She dies of old age in a convent.

José Arcadio, named after his ancestors in the Buendía tradition, follows the trend of the previous Arcadios. He is raised by Úrsula, who intends for him to become the Pope. Returning home from Rome (without having become a priest) after the death of his mother, he discovers a buried treasure and wastes it all on lavish parties. He is murdered in his pool by four schoolchildren who steal his gold.

Amaranta Úrsula is the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano. She displays the same characteristics as her namesake, Úrsula, who dies when she is only a child. She never knows that the child sent to the Buendía home is her nephew, the illegitimate son of Meme. She returns home from Europe with a husband, Gastón, who leaves her when she informs him of her affair with Aureliano, her nephew. She dies in childbirth, leaving Aureliano the last member of the family.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Sixth Generation

Aureliano is the illegitimate child of Meme. He is sent to the house and hidden from everyone by his grandmother, Fernanda. He is strikingly similar of his namesake, the Colonel, and has the same character patterns as well. He barely knows Úrsula, who dies during his childhood. He is a friend of José Arcadio Segundo, who explains to him the true story of the banana worker massacre. While other members of the family leave and return, Aureliano stays at the house. He only ventures into the empty town after the death of Fernanda. He works to decipher the parchments of Melquíades but stops to have an affair with Amaranta Úrsula. When both she, and her child, die, he is able to decipher the parchments, alone in the house. Melquiades' final keys were revealed to him and he saw the epigraph of the parchments perfectly placed in the order of man's time and space: The first in line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants . He is assumed to have died along with the rest of Macondo, now a nearly deserted town.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Seventh Generation

The illegitimate child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula. The child was born with a pig's tail, as the eldest Úrsula had always feared would happen. The mother died while giving birth to her son, and due to the negligence of his father, the son is devoured by ants.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Subjects

One Hundred Years of Solitude - The subjectivity of reality

García Márquez writes in the style of magical realism, a style of writing that is analogous to surrealism in pictorial and plastic work. In magical realism, events that seem impossible – such as levitation – are commonplace, and things are not as they first appear. The theme illustrated by this novel is that reality is subjective, and dependent on the individual. Magical realism is common among Latin American authors, though disparaged as self-indulgence by some critics.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - The Fluidity of time

One Hundred Years of Solitude contains several ideas of time. First, the story can be read simply as a linear progression of events, both when considering the individual lives or Macondo's history. All the characters eventually die within the course of the novel, after all, and the town is obliterated by the final page. But Garcia Marquez obviously intends for at least two other understandings of time. For one, he reifies the metaphor of history as a circular phenomeno, through the repetition of names and characteristics belonging to the Buendia family. Over six generations all the Jose Arcadios possess inquisitive and rational dispositions as well as physical strength; the Aurelianos, meanwhile, tend towards insularity and quietude. This repetition of traits reproduces the history of the individual characters and ultimately a history of the town as a succession of the same mistakes ad infinitum due to some hubris endogenous to our nature. Finally, the novel explores the issue of timelessness or eternity even within the framework of mortal existence. A major trope with which it accomplishes this task is the alchemist's laboratory in the Buendia family home, first designed by Melquiades near the start of the story and which remains essentially unchanged throughout its course as a place where the male Buendia characters can indulge their will to solitude, whether through attempts to deconstruct the world with reason as in the case of Jose Arcadio Buendia, or by the endless creation and destruction of golden fish like his son Colonel Aureliano Buendia, among a number of other means. A sense of inevitability prevades throughout the text, a feeling that regardless of what way one looks at time, its encompassing nature is the one truthful admission.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Notes

The song Roderigo by Seven Mary Three was inspired by One Hundred Years of Solitude.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Awards

In addition to García Márquez's Nobel Prize for Literature for his oeuvre as a whole, One Hundred Years of Solitude was awarded Venezuela's prestigious Rómulo Gallegos Prize for literature in 1972.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Editions in print

• ISBN 843760494X Spanish original; paperback
• ISBN 0060740450 English translation; North American paperback
• ISBN 0140278761 English translation; European paperback

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "One Hundred Years of Solitude", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki