"100 Years of Solitude"

Paper Summary:

This paper summarizes the epic novel "100 Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a story that recounts 100 years in the village of Maconda which was founded by Jose Arcadio Buendia, his wife Ursula, and nineteen other families. The author explores Marquez's themes of solitude in the novel and the many incestuous relationships that lead to this solitude and isolation. The paper describes the Buendia family setting, which is not unlike that of any other Latin American families - close knitted and strong family ties. It also describes Marquez's use of gypsies as a recurring element in the novel as the main link that Macaonda has with the outside world in terms of technology and magic. The author discusses the incestuous relationships throughout generations in Maconda and explains how the destruction of the Buendia family has always been imminent as its existence was built on sin.

From the Paper:

"The novel chronicles the lives of six Buendia generations until technology and the world's great inventions are introduced to the town along with political and social turmoil, in other words history itself. Marquez's novel paints a vivid picture of not only the Buendia family, and the town of Macondo, but also of Columbian society. The novel is an intertwinement of reality and fantasy, tradition and progress, the tragic and the comic, as well as life and death. This complex tapestry of themes and motifs also incorporates the concept of the inescapability of fate, and of retribution as the destiny of the Buendia family is implacable, and eventually brings about their decline."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Garcia Maquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Perennial, 1998
• Dorfman, Ariel. "Someone Writes to the Future: Meditations on Hope and Violence in Garcia Marquez." In Some Write to the Future: Essays on Contemporary Latin American Fiction. Trans. George Shivers. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991: 201-248.
• Pelayo, Ruben. "One hundred years of solitude." In Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001: 89-110.
• Johnston, Ian. "On Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude". 1995. <http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/marquez.HTM>

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• Analytical Essay # 66100 : "Like Water for Chocolate" and "100 Years of Solitude"
• Book Review # 131378 : "One Hundred Years of Solitude" - An Analysis"

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