Bookmarked Musings: One Hundred Years of Solitude
1 min read
Dr. Ramlal Agarwal writes on the complex plot, characters, themes, and style of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude brought him overnight success. It is the story of a primitive family, the Buendias, in the wild swamps of Colombia.
The novel portrays the family’s inbreeding and its disastrous consequences, along with violent swings in fortune, blind faith, political conflicts, and the overall fate. Marques moulds all these elements into a single, effortless, and sweeping narrative that leaves the reader wondering whether they are reading a realistic novel, a fantasy, or an allegory, all the while suggesting something profound without providing a clear meaning.
However, the novel does convey that there is no getting away from ghosts, however one tries to avoid them; that human lives are “cribbed, cabined, and confined”; and that humans are preordained and repetitive. Early on, José Arcadio Buendía says, “Today is a repetition of Monday, and it is Monday too.”
