作者: 加西亞·馬爾剋斯 Gabriel Garcia Marquez
 百年孤独
被譽為“再現拉丁美洲歷史社會圖景的鴻篇巨著”的《百年孤獨》，是加西亞·馬爾剋斯的代表作，也是拉丁美洲魔幻現實主義文學作品中的代表作。這部小說是作者根據拉丁美洲血淋淋的歷史事實,憑藉自己豐富的想像,描繪而成的。《百年孤獨》是哥倫比亞著名作傢、諾貝爾文學奬獲得者馬爾剋斯歷時18個月創作的一部小說，成書於1966年。被富恩特斯譽為“美洲《聖經》”，多年來年來好評如潮，影響波及了整個世界。
最初令世界震驚的是它獨特的敘述方式：“多年以後，奧雷良諾·布恩蒂亞上校面對行刑隊，準會想起父親帶他去見識冰塊的那個遙遠的下午……”這句為全書奠定“圓周模式”或圓形敘事結構的開篇語，仿佛一個永恆而孤寂的圓心，卻能把過去和將來牢牢地吸附在某個人們可以想見，甚至感同身受的現在。緊隨其後的是作者令人目瞪口呆的魔幻色彩，後現代主義者們對之進行了玄之又玄的解讀。
然而，在馬爾剋斯看來，《百年孤獨》衹不過是藉用了“外祖母的口吻”，“她老人傢講故事就是這種方式，好像人物就在眼前，事情正在發生……而且常常人鬼不分、古今輪回。”如今看來，《百年孤獨》的最大特點也許在於：用外祖母的表述方式，展現了美洲人的歷史及其撲朔迷離的集體無意識；通過對《聖經》的戲仿和拓展，並藉布恩蒂亞一傢幾代，描繪了人類的發展軌跡——從創始到原始社會、奴隸社會、封建社會，再到資本主義社會，乃至跨國資本主義時代。
《百年孤獨》-作者簡介
馬爾剋斯馬爾剋斯
馬爾剋斯（Gabriel Garcla Marquez，1928-）哥倫比亞作傢，全名：加夫列爾·加西亞·馬爾剋斯。生於馬格達萊納的阿拉卡塔卡鎮的一個醫生家庭。8歲前，一直生活在外祖父傢。外祖父是位受人尊敬的上校，參加過兩次內戰。外祖母是位勤勞的主婦，很會講神話故事。這段充滿幻想和神奇色彩的童年生活，為他後來的文學創作提供了豐富的素材。
在中小學學習期間，他閱讀了大量的經典作品。18歲入大學攻讀法律，因政局動蕩而中途輟學，進入報界，並開始文學創作。1955年，第一部長篇小說《枯枝敗葉》問世，引起拉美文學界重視，頗受好評。1962年他發表了《惡時辰》，小說獲得美國埃索石油公司在波哥大舉辦的埃索奬。1967年，他的《百年孤獨》轟動了西班牙語文學界並奠定了他在世界文壇上的地位。由於這部小說的成功，他先後榮獲哥倫比亞文學奬、法國最佳外國作品奬和拉美最高文學奬—一委內瑞拉“羅慕洛·加列戈斯”國際文學奬。並於1982年獲諾貝爾文學奬和哥倫比亞語言科學院名譽院士稱號。
主要作品有：《枯枝敗葉》、《惡時辰》、《百年孤獨》、《霍亂時期的愛情》、《迷宮裏的將軍》、《我的上校外祖父的故事》、《異國故事十二篇》、《米格爾·利了回國歷險記》等。
《百年孤獨》-著書背景
從1830年至上世紀末的70年間，哥倫比亞爆發過幾十次內戰，使數十萬人喪生。本書以很大的篇幅描述了這方面的史實，並且通過書中主人公帶有傳奇色彩的生涯集中表現出來。政客們的虛偽，統治者們的殘忍，民衆的盲從和愚昧等等都寫得淋漓盡致。
作傢以生動的筆觸，刻畫了性格鮮明的衆多人物，描繪了這個傢族的孤獨精神。在這個傢族中，夫妻之間、父子之間、母女之間、兄弟姐妹之間，沒有感情溝通，缺乏信任和瞭解。儘管很多人為打破孤獨進行過種種艱苦的探索，但由於無法找到一種有效的辦法把分散的力量統一起來，最後均以失敗告終。這種孤獨不僅彌漫在布恩地亞傢族和馬貢多鎮，而且滲入了狹隘思想，成為阻礙民族嚮上、國傢進步的一大包袱。作傢寫出這一點，是希望拉美民衆團结起來，共同努力擺脫孤獨。所以，《百年孤獨》中浸淫着的孤獨感，其主要內涵應該是對整個苦難的拉丁美洲被排斥現代文明世界的進程之外的憤懣和抗議，是作傢在對拉丁美洲近百年的歷史、以及這塊大陸上人民獨特的生命力、生存狀態、想象力進行獨特的研究之後形成的倔強的自信。
《百年孤獨》-內容梗概
《百年孤獨》描寫布恩地亞傢族7代人的命運，描繪了哥倫比亞農村小鎮馬孔多從荒蕪的沼澤中興起到最後被一陣旋風捲走而完全毀滅的100多年的圖景。馬孔多是哥倫比亞農村的縮影，也是整個拉丁美洲的縮影。
何塞·阿卡迪奧·布恩迪亞是西班牙人的後裔，他與烏蘇拉新婚時，由於害怕像姨母與叔父結婚那樣生出長尾巴的孩子來，於是烏蘇拉每夜都會穿上特製的緊身衣，拒絶與丈夫同房。後來丈夫因此而遭鄰居阿吉拉爾的恥笑，殺死了阿吉拉爾。從此，死者的鬼魂經常出現在他眼前，鬼魂那痛苦而凄涼的眼神，使他日夜不得安寧。於是他們衹好離開村子，外出謀安身之所。他們跋涉了兩年多，由此受到夢的啓示，他們來到一片灘地上，定居下來。後來又有許多人遷移至此，這地方被命名為馬孔多。布恩迪亞傢族在馬孔多的百年興廢史由此開始。
何塞·阿卡迪奧·布恩迪亞是個富於創造精神的人，他從吉卜賽人那裏看到磁鐵，便想用它來開採金子。看到放大鏡可以聚焦太陽光便試圖因此研製一種威力無比的武器。他通過卜吉賽人送給他的航海用的觀像儀和六分儀，便通過實驗認識到”地球是圓的，像橙子”。他不滿於自己所在的貧窮而落後的村落生活，因為馬孔多隱沒在寬廣的沼澤地中，與世隔絶。他决心要開闢一條道路，把馬孔多與外界的偉大發明連接起來。可他帶一幫人披荊斬棘幹了兩個多星期，卻以失敗告終。後來他又研究煉金術，整日沉迷不休。由於他的精神世界與馬孔多狹隘的現實格格不入，他陷入孤獨的天井中，以致於精神失常，被傢人綁在一棵大樹上，幾十年後纔在那棵樹上死去。烏蘇拉成為傢裏的頂梁柱，她活了115至120歲。
布恩迪亞傢族的第二代有兩男一女。老大何塞·阿卡迪奧是在來馬孔多的路上出生的。他在那裏長大，和一個叫皮拉·苔列娜的女人私通，有了孩子。他十分害怕，後來與傢裏的養女蕾蓓卡結婚。但他一直對人們懷着戒心，渴望浪跡天涯。後來，他果然隨吉卜賽人出走，回來後變得放蕩不羈，最後奇怪地被人暗殺了。老二奧雷良諾生於馬孔多，在娘肚裏就會哭，睜着眼睛出世，從小就賦有預見事物的本領，長大後愛上鎮長千金雷梅苔絲。在此之前；他與哥哥的情人生有一子名叫奧雷良諾·何塞。妻子暴病而亡後，他參加了內戰，當上上校。他一生遭遇過十四次暗殺，七十三次埋伏和一次槍决，均幸免於難。與17個外地女子姘居，生下17 個男孩。這些男孩以後不約而同回馬孔多尋根，卻在一星期內全被打死。奧雷良諾年老歸傢，和父親一樣對煉金術癡迷不已，每日煉金子作小金魚，一直到死。他們的妹妹阿馬蘭塔愛上了意大利技師，後又與侄子亂倫，愛情的不如意使她終日把自己關在房中縫製殮衣，孤獨萬狀。
第三代人衹有兩個堂兄弟，阿卡迪奧和奧雷良諾·何塞。前者不知生母為誰，竟狂熱地愛上生母，幾乎釀成大錯。後者成為馬孔多的軍隊長官，貪贓枉法，最後被保守派軍隊槍斃。生前他與一女人未婚便生一女兩男。其堂弟熱戀姑媽阿馬蘭塔，但無法與她成婚，故而參加軍隊，去找妓女尋求安慰，最終也死於亂軍之中。
第四代即是阿卡迪奧與人私通生下的一女兩男。女兒俏姑娘雷梅苦絲楚楚動人，她身上散發着引人不安的氣味，曾因此置幾個男人於死地。她總願意裸體，把時間耗費在反復洗澡上面，而她一樣在孤獨的沙漠上徘徊，後來在晾床單時，被一陣風颳上天不見了，永遠消失在空中。她的孿生子弟弟——阿卡迪奧第二，在美國人辦的香蕉公司裏當監工，鼓動工人罷工。後來，3 000多工人全被鎮壓遭難，衹他一人幸免。他目擊政府用火車把工人們的屍體運往海邊丟棄，四處訴說這場大屠殺，反被認為神智不清。他無比恐懼失望，最後把自己關在房子裏潛心研究吉卜賽人留下的羊皮手稿。另一個奧雷良諾第二終日縱情酒色，棄妻子於不顧，在情婦傢中廝混。奇怪的是，這使他傢中的牲畜迅速地繁殖，給他帶來了財富。他與妻子生有二女一男，後在病痛中死去。因此，人們一直沒認清他們兄弟倆兒誰是誰。
布恩迪亞傢族的第五代是奧雷良諾第二的一男二女，長子何塞·阿卡迪奧小時便被送往羅馬神學院去學習。母親希望他日後能當主教，但他對此毫無興趣，衹是為了那假想中的遺産，纔欺騙母親。母親死後，他回傢靠變賣傢業為生。後為保住烏蘇拉藏在地窖裏的 7 000多個金幣，被歹徒殺死。女兒梅·香梅苔絲與香蕉公司學徒相好，母親禁止他們見面，他們衹好暗中在浴室相會，母親發現後以偷雞賊為名打死了他。梅萬念俱灰，懷着身孕被送往修道院。小女兒阿馬蘭塔·烏蘇娜早年在布魯塞爾上學，在那裏成婚後歸來，見到馬孔多一片凋敝，决心重整傢園。她朝氣蓬勃，充滿活力，她的到來，使馬孔多出現了一個最特別的人。她的情緒比這傢族的人都好，也就是說，她想把一切陳規陋習打入十八層地獄。因此，她訂出長遠計劃，準備定居下來，拯救這個災難深重的村鎮。
布恩迪亞傢族的第六代是梅送回的私生子奧雷良諾·布恩迪亞。他出生後一直在孤獨中長大。他唯一的嗜好是躲在吉卜賽人梅爾加德斯的房間裏研究各種神秘的書籍和手稿。他甚至能與死去多年的老吉卜賽人對話，並受到指示學習梵文。他一直對周圍的世界既不關心也不過問，但對中世紀的學問卻了如指掌。自從姨母阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜回鄉之後，他不知不覺地對她産生了難以剋製的戀情，兩人發生了亂倫關係，但他們認為，儘管他們受到孤獨與愛情的折磨，但他們畢竟是人世間唯一最幸福的人。後來阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜生下了一個健壯的男孩，“他是百年裏誕生的布恩迪亞當中惟一由於愛情而受胎的嬰兒。”然而，他身上竟長着一條豬尾巴。 阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜産後大出血而亡。
那個長豬尾巴的男孩就是這延續百年的傢族的第七代繼承人。他被一群螞蟻圍攻並被吃掉。就在這時，奧雷良諾·布恩迪亞終於破譯出了梅爾加德斯的手稿。手稿捲首的題辭是：“傢族中的第一個人將被綁在樹上，傢族中的最後一個人將被螞蟻吃掉。”原來，這手稿記載的正是布恩迪亞傢族的歷史。在他譯完最後一章的瞬間，一場突如其來的颶風把整個兒馬孔多鎮從地球上颳走，從此這個鎮不復存在了。
《百年孤獨》-評論
加西亞馬爾剋斯遵循“變現實為幻想而又不失其真”的魔幻現實主義創作原則，經過巧妙的構思和想象，把觸目驚心的現實和源於神話、傳說的幻想結合起來，形成色彩斑斕、風格獨特的圖畫，使讀者在“似是而非，似非而是”的形象中，獲得一種似曾相識又覺陌生的感受，從而激起尋根溯源去追索作傢創作真諦的願望。魔幻現實主義必須以現實力基礎，但這並不妨礙它采取極端誇張的手法。如本書寫外部文明對馬貢多的侵入，是現實的，但又魔幻化了：吉卜賽人拖着兩塊磁鐵 “……挨傢串戶地走着……鐵鍋、鐵盆、鐵鉗、小鐵爐紛紛從原地落下，木板因鐵釘和蠃釘沒命地掙脫出來而嘎嘎作響……跟在那兩塊魔鐵的後面亂滾”；又如寫夜的寂靜，人們居然能聽到“螞蟻在月光下的哄鬧聲、蛀蟲啃食時的巨響以及野草生長時持續而清晰的尖叫聲”；再如寫政府把大批罷工者殺害後，將屍體裝上火車運到海裏扔掉，那輛火車竟有200節車廂，前、中、後共有 3個車頭牽引！作傢似乎在不斷地變換着哈哈鏡、望遠鏡、放大鏡甚至顯微鏡，讀讀者看到一幅幅真真假假、虛實交錯的畫面，從而豐富了想象力，收到強烈的藝術效果。
印第安傳說、東方神話以及《聖經》典故的運用，進一步加強了本書的神秘氣氛。如寫普羅登肖的鬼魂日夜糾纏布恩地亞一傢，便取材於印第安傳說中冤鬼自己不得安寧也不讓仇人安寧的說法；有關飛毯以及俏姑娘雷梅苔絲抓住床單升天的描寫是阿拉伯神話《天方夜譚》的引伸；而馬貢多一連下了四年十一個月零兩天的大雨則是《聖經創世紀》中有關洪水浩劫及挪亞方舟等故事的移植。拉丁美洲的民間傳說往往帶有迷信色彩，作傢在采用這些民間傳說時，有時把它們作為現實來描寫；如好漢弗朗西斯科“曾和魔鬼對歌，擊敗了對手”；阿瑪蘭塔在長廊裏綉花時與死神交談等等。有時則反其意而用之，如寫尼卡諾爾神父喝了一杯巧剋力後居然能離地12釐米，以證明“上帝有無限神力”等等，顯然是對宗教迷信的諷刺和嘲笑。
本書中象徵主義手法運用得比較成功且有意義的，應首推關於不眠癥的描寫。馬貢多全體居民在建村後不久都傳染上一種不眠癥。嚴重的是，得了這種病，人會失去記憶。為了生活，他們不得不在物品上貼上標簽。例如他們在牛身上貼標簽道：“這是牛，每天要擠它的奶；要把奶煮開加上咖啡才能做成牛奶咖啡。”這類例子書中比比皆是，作傢意在提醒公衆牢記容易被人遺忘的歷史。
另外，作傢還獨創了從未來的角度回憶過去的新穎倒敘手法。例如小說一開頭，作傢就這樣寫道：“許多年之後，面對行刑隊，奧雷良諾布恩地亞上校將會回想起，他父親帶他去見識冰塊的那個遙遠的下午。”短短的一句話，實際上容納了未來、過去和現在三個時間層面，而作傢顯然隱匿在“現在”的敘事角度。緊接着，作傢筆鋒一轉，把讀者引回到馬貢多的初創時期。這樣的時間結構，在小說中一再重複出現，一環接一環，環環相扣，不斷地給讀者造成新的懸念。
最後，值得註意的是，本書凝重的歷史內涵、犀利的批判眼光、深刻的民族文化反省、龐大的神話隱喻體係是由一種讓人耳目一新的神秘語言貫串始終的。有的評傢認為這部小說出自8歲兒童之口，加西亞馬爾剋斯對此說頗感欣慰。這是很深刻的評判目光。因為這種直觀的、簡約的語言確實有效地反映了一種新的視角，一種落後民族（人類兒童）的自我意識。當事人的苦笑取代了旁觀者的眼淚，“愚者”自我表達的切膚之痛取代了“智者”貌似公允的批判和分析，更能收到喚起被愚弄者群體深刻反省的客觀效果。
《百年孤獨》是一部極其豐富的、多層次的小說，它可以有多重解釋。它是一部關於霍塞·阿卡狄奧·布恩狄亞幾代子孫的家庭編年史；它描寫了一個象徵着馬爾剋斯故鄉阿拉卡塔卡的小鎮馬孔多的時代變遷；同時也是哥倫比亞、拉丁美洲和現代世界一個世紀以來風雲變幻的神話般的歷史。從更深遠的意義上說，它是西方文明的一個總結，從它的源頭古希臘神話、荷馬史詩、《創世紀》中的創世神話開始，帶着對蒙昧狀態的伊甸園和淨土世界那種質樸和純潔的深深的懷念。讀者從作品中讀到，這部編年史是一個吉卜賽智者用梵文寫的手稿衹有布恩狄亞傢族的最後的一個男人才能譯解，並且衹有在每一個讀者單獨讀它時，才能理解它的含義。這是一個充滿神奇與狂歡的故事，是這個世界和它的睏境、迷信的一面鏡子。但它也是一個充滿虛構的世界，吸引每一個讀者步入令人浮想聯翩的幻境。
《百年孤獨》-藝術成就
《百年孤獨》在藝術上也取得了舉世公認的巨大成就。
首先是藝術構思上的魔幻性。《百年孤獨》在小說結構上始終貫穿着一條明顯的綫索，這就是布恩迪亞傢族害怕近親結婚會生出長“豬尾巴”的孩子。這種深深的恐懼作為小說的內在精神彌漫全書，並且代代相傳，影響着他們的行為。
其次，故事情節的魔幻性。小說最引人入勝的就是故事情節的魔幻性。許多故事情節神奇怪誕、奇妙無比，看得人眼花繚亂，比如小說的重要情節，關於吉卜賽人梅爾加德斯的神奇故事。梅爾加德斯與布恩迪亞家庭有着密切的關係，梅爾加德斯給布恩迪亞傢帶來了啓蒙知識，後來他死於熱病，屍體被拋入大海。但他不堪寂寞，又重回人間，來到馬孔多，治好了全鎮人的健忘癥。不久他又一次死了，這回是淹死在河裏。布恩迪亞傢埋葬了他，但他的幽靈仍然一直在布恩迪亞傢各間房子裏遊蕩，給這個家庭留下了那本神秘的羊皮書手稿。這些充滿“魔幻”的故事情節，鮮明地帶有拉丁美洲本土傳統文化和觀念意識的特點。
再次，“魔幻”式的象徵和誇張手法。《百年孤獨》中廣泛地運用了象徵和誇張的藝術手法。但和其他文學流派不同的是，這種象徵和誇張的手法更多地帶有 “魔幻”的色彩。比如，作品中黃色是不幸和死亡的象徵，當阿·布恩迪亞死亡時，“窗外下起了細微的黃花雨。整整一夜，黃色的花朵像無聲的暴雨，在市鎮上空紛紛飄落……翌日早晨，整個馬孔多仿佛鋪上了一層密實的地毯，所以不得不用鏟子和耙子為送葬隊伍清理道路。”
最後，作者為了表現拉丁美洲的百年孤獨的現實，還特意創造了新的時間觀念和表現方法。他認為時間在拉丁美洲是停滯的，是在一個封閉的時間圈裏循環的。
《百年孤獨》中的第一句話是“多年以後，面對着行刑隊，奧雷連諾上校將會想起那久遠的一天下午，他父親帶他去認識了冰塊。”這就給全書定下了一個基調，即敘述的口吻是站在某一個時間不明確的“現在”去講述“多年以後”的一個“將來”，然後又從這個“將來”回顧到“那久遠的一天”的“過去”。一句話裏包含了現在、過去、將來，形成了一個時間性的圓圈。還有，作品中相似的活動、相似的命運，都訴說着時間的封閉性和停滯性。這正是拉丁美洲百年孤獨、停滯的社會歷史的藝術反映。
總而言之，《百年孤獨》的巨大成功，說明馬爾剋斯站在新的世界普遍性的高度上去認識拉美這塊土地、這個民族，從不同角度不同層面反映了民族性與世界性、傳統與創新的關係。正因為如此，馬爾剋斯才能夠把他的遠見卓識和非凡的藝術才華與拉丁美洲的社會現實完美地結合起來，把魔幻現實主義推上了世界文學的高峰。
《百年孤獨》-價值
《百年孤獨》的內容異常豐富、復雜而深廣，具有很高的思想認識價值。主要表現在兩方面：首先，《百年孤獨》中的小鎮馬孔多所經歷的興建、發展、鼎盛到消亡的百年滄桑，影射和濃縮了哥倫比亞自19世紀初到20世紀上半葉的歷史。小說開始時是19世紀初，但馬孔多卻像是史前社會，質樸而寧靜，這是個衹有20來戶人傢的小村莊，人們往在河邊用泥和蘆葦蓋的房子裏，取水非常方便。河水清澈、明亮、急速地流過，可以看見河床上光潔的鵝卵石，“世界，一切都是剛開始，很多東西還沒有名字，必須用手指指着說”。這裏，馬爾剋斯特意引用《聖經》中的話“必須用手指指着說。”，表示馬孔多最初就是這樣一個與世隔絶的世外桃源。這是16世紀以前哥倫比亞土著生活的寫照。隨後西班牙殖民者闖入，用箭與火和十字架徵服了拉丁美洲，繼而大批移民涌入這塊大陸，哥倫比亞從社會結構、思想信仰到習俗風尚都發生了深刻變化，形成了哥倫比亞歷史上第一次重大轉折。小說中有關吉卜賽人帶來吸鐵石、望遠鏡等東西像魔術和雜技一樣吸引全村人去圍觀、烏蘇拉發現與外界的通道以及引來第一批移民的描寫，就是這段史實的再現。
19世紀初哥倫比亞獨立後，國傢政權被土生白人的大地主、大商人所把持。他們中的自由黨、保守黨鬥爭不斷，進行長期內戰。政客們濫用職權，營私舞弊，操縱選舉，踐踏憲法，導致國傢政變不斷、內戰頻仍。從1830年到1899年，全國爆發了27次內戰，給人民帶來了無窮無盡的痛苦。小說以很大的篇幅描寫馬孔多也被捲進了這場鬥爭。通過奧雷連諾·布恩迪亞上校的傳奇生涯表現了這方面的史實。上校為反對腐敗的保守黨政府，一生發動過32次武裝起義，打了20年內戰。這些描寫生動地概括了哥倫比亞歷史上第二次重大轉折時期的社會生活。
20世紀初期，哥倫比亞內戰停止，經濟恢復，但近在咫尺的美國新殖民主義勢力又涌進了哥倫比亞。火車、電燈、電話、電影、留聲機等出現在馬孔多。小說描寫馬孔多人這樣迎接新事物：“馬孔多人對電影上活動的人物非常生氣，因為他們為電影上一個死了被埋了的人流下痛苦的眼淚，而他卻在下一個電影中變成了阿拉伯人出現了，馬孔多人受不了這樣對他們感情的嘲弄，把電影院的座椅都給砸了。最後鎮長解釋電影是幻覺的機器，不需要觀衆這樣動感情，馬孔多人終於明白了他們上了吉卜賽人新玩意兒的當了，决定再也不看電影。”他們就這樣被這些新玩意驚得目瞪口呆，看得眼花繚亂。緊着，美國人又建立了很多香蕉園，各種人像潮水一樣涌進馬孔多，他們喧賓奪主，控製了馬孔多歷史上最重大的變革。這種變革從表面上看，好像給馬孔多帶來了繁榮，但實質上卻是外國資本傢更加殘酷剝削和掠奪的開始，而且為了維護既得利益，帝國主義者用野蠻暴力鎮壓人民的反抗。在香蕉工人罷工運動中，政府和帝國主義“授命軍隊不惜用子彈打死他們”，“機槍從兩個方面掃射人群。何塞·阿卡迪奧第二倒在地上，滿臉是血。他蘇醒時纔發現自己躺在塞滿屍體的火車車廂上。他從一個車廂爬到另一個車廂，透過些微弱的亮光，便看出了死了的男人、女人和孩子：他們像報廢的香蕉給扔到大海裏……這是他見過的最長的列車—幾乎有200節運貨車廂。”小說就這樣憤怒地揭露了帝國主義、新殖民主義的入侵給哥倫比亞造成的巨大災難。這也正是造成拉丁美洲貧窮落後的重要原因之一。
其次，小說在對布恩迪亞傢族衆多人物的刻畫中，着力表現了這個家庭成員共同的性格特徵，這就是馬孔多人的孤獨感，從第一代何塞·阿卡迪奧·布恩迪亞到第六代奧雷連諾·布恩迪亞，每個人都生活在自己營造的孤獨之中，而且極力保持着這種孤獨。第一代布恩迪亞和表妹結婚以後就遭受到孤獨的折磨，他由於害怕生下長豬尾巴的孩子而不敢和妻子同房，殺死嘲笑者後又受到鬼魂睏擾，不得不遠走他鄉。晚年，他精神恍惚、瘋瘋癲癲，最後被綁在慄子樹上孤獨地死去。第二代奧雷連諾上校年輕時身經百戰，卻不知為誰賣命。退休後他把自己反鎖在屋子裏製作小金魚，做好化掉，化掉再做，“連內心也上了門閂”。第二代中的阿瑪蘭塔陰險地破壞別人的幸福，又冷酷地拒絶自己的求婚者。她整天為自己織着屍衣，孤獨地等待着死神召喚。第四代中俏姑娘雷梅苔絲根本就“不是這個世界的人”，她每天都在浴室是衝洗身子，幾小時幾小時地打發時間，最後她抓住一條床單飛上了天……這種孤獨的惡習在這個家庭代代相傳，周而復始，惡性循環，在新人之間築起一道無形的墻，使人與世隔絶、不思進取、自我封閉、離群索居。它製造了愚味落後、保守僵化的社會現狀。作者認為“孤獨”已經滲入了拉丁美洲的民族精神，成為阻礙民族上進、國傢發展的心理負擔。這種孤獨的本質是人民因為不能掌握自己的命運而産生的絶望、冷漠和疏離感。它是傢族衰敗、民族落後、國傢滅亡的根源。小說最後描寫布恩迪亞家庭連同馬孔多小鎮被颶風颳走，深刻揭示了由孤獨所産生的社會悲劇的必然性。
《百年孤獨》全面深刻地提示了拉丁美洲近百年來“孤獨”的社會現實和造成這種現狀的深刻的歷史、政治、經濟、文化等諸多方面的原因，是一部當代拉丁美洲的百科全書。
《百年孤獨》-書評
被譽為“再現拉丁美洲歷史社會圖景的鴻篇巨著”的《百年孤獨》，是加西亞馬爾剋斯的代表作，也是拉丁美洲魔幻現實主義文學作品的代表作。全書近30萬字，內容龐雜，人物衆多，情節麯折離奇，再加上神話故事、宗教典故、民間傳說以及作傢獨創的從未來的角度來回憶過去的新穎倒敘手法等等，令人眼花繚亂。但閱畢全書，讀者可以領悟，作傢是要通過布恩地亞傢族 7代人充滿神秘色彩的坎坷經歷來反映哥倫比亞乃至拉丁美洲的歷史演變和社會現實，要求讀者思考造成馬貢多百年孤獨的原因，從而去尋找擺脫命運括弄的正確途徑。
從1830年至上世紀末的70年間，哥倫比亞爆發過幾十次內戰，使數十萬人喪生。本書以很大的篇幅描述了這方面的史實，並且通過書中主人公帶有傳奇色彩的生涯集中表現出來。政客們的虛偽，統治者們的殘忍，民衆的盲從和愚昧等等都寫得淋漓盡致。作傢以生動的筆觸，刻畫了性格鮮明的衆多人物，描繪了這個傢族的孤獨精神。在這個傢族中，夫妻之間、父子之間、母女之間、兄弟姐妹之間，沒有感情溝通，缺乏信任和瞭解。儘管很多人為打破孤獨進行過種種艱苦的探索，但由於無法找到一種有效的辦法把分散的力量統一起來，最後均以失敗告終。這種孤獨不僅彌漫在布恩地亞傢族和馬貢多鎮，而且滲入了狹隘思想，成為阻礙民族嚮上、國傢進步的一大包袱。作傢寫出這一點，是希望拉美民衆團结起來，共同努力擺脫孤獨。所以，《百年孤獨》中浸淫着的孤獨感，其主要內涵應該是對整個苦難的拉丁美洲被排斥現代文明世界的進程之外的憤懣和抗議，是作傢在對拉丁美洲近百年的歷史、以及這塊大陸上人民獨特的生命力、生存狀態、想象力進行獨特的研究之後形成的倔強的自信。
加西亞馬爾剋斯遵循“變現實為幻想而又不失其真”的魔幻現實主義創作原則，經過巧妙的構思和想象，把觸目驚心的現實和源於神話、傳說的幻想結合起來，形成色彩斑斕、風格獨特的圖畫，使讀者在“似是而非，似非而是”的形象中，獲得一種似曾相識又覺陌生的感受，從而激起尋根溯源去追索作傢創作真諦的願望。魔幻現實主義必須以現實力基礎，但這並不妨礙它采取極端誇張的手法。如本書寫外部文明對馬貢多的侵入，是現實的，但又魔幻化了：吉卜賽人拖着兩塊磁鐵“……挨傢串戶地走着……鐵鍋、鐵盆、鐵鉗、小鐵爐紛紛從原地落下，木板因鐵釘和蠃釘沒命地掙脫出來而嘎嘎作響……跟在那兩塊魔鐵的後面亂滾”；又如寫夜的寂靜，人們居然能聽到“螞蟻在月光下的哄鬧聲、蛀蟲啃食時的巨響以及野草生長時持續而清晰的尖叫聲”；再如寫政府把大批罷工者殺害後，將屍體裝上火車運到海裏扔掉，那輛火車竟有200節車廂，前、中、後共有 3個車頭牽引！作傢似乎在不斷地變換着哈哈鏡、望遠鏡、放大鏡甚至顯微鏡，讀讀者看到一幅幅真真假假、虛實交錯的畫面，從而豐富了想象力，收到強烈的藝術效果。
印第安傳說、東方神話以及《聖經》典故的運用，進一步加強了本書的神秘氣氛。如寫普羅登肖的鬼魂日夜糾纏布恩地亞一傢，便取材於印第安傳說中冤鬼自己不得安寧也不讓仇人安寧的說法；有關飛毯以及俏姑娘雷梅苔絲抓住床單升天的描寫是阿拉伯神話《天方夜譚》的引伸；而馬貢多一連下了四年十一個月零兩天的大雨則是《聖經創世紀》中有關洪水浩劫及挪亞方舟等故事的移植。拉丁美洲的民間傳說往往帶有迷信色彩，作傢在采用這些民間傳說時，有時把它們作為現實來描寫；如好漢弗朗西斯科“曾和魔鬼對歌，擊敗了對手”；阿瑪蘭塔在長廊裏綉花時與死神交談等等。有時則反其意而用之，如寫尼卡諾爾神父喝了一杯巧剋力後居然能離地12釐米，以證明“上帝有無限神力”等等，顯然是對宗教迷信的諷刺和嘲笑。
本書中象徵主義手法運用得比較成功且有意義的，應首推關於不眠癥的描寫。馬貢多全體居民在建村後不久都傳染上一種不眠癥。嚴重的是，得了這種病，人會失去記憶。為了生活，他們不得不在物品上貼上標簽。例如他們在牛身上貼標簽道：“這是牛，每天要擠它的奶；要把奶煮開加上咖啡才能做成牛奶咖啡。”這類例子書中比比皆是，作傢意在提醒公衆牢記容易被人遺忘的歷史。
另外，作傢還獨創了從未來的角度回憶過去的新穎倒敘手法。例如小說一開頭，作傢就這樣寫道：“許多年之後，面對行刑隊，奧雷良諾布恩地亞上校將會回想起，他父親帶他去見識冰塊的那個遙遠的下午。”短短的一句話，實際上容納了未來、過去和現在三個時間層面，而作傢顯然隱匿在 “現在”的敘事角度。緊接着，作傢筆鋒一轉，把讀者引回到馬貢多的初創時期。這樣的時間結構，在小說中一再重複出現，一環接一環，環環相扣，不斷地給讀者造成新的懸念。
最後，值得註意的是，本書凝重的歷史內涵、犀利的批判眼光、深刻的民族文化反省、龐大的神話隱喻體係是由一種讓人耳目一新的神秘語言貫串始終的。有的評傢認為這部小說出自 8歲兒童之口，加西亞馬爾剋斯對此說頗感欣慰。這是很深刻的評判目光。因為這種直觀的、簡約的語言確實有效地反映了一種新的視角，一種落後民族（人類兒童）的自我意識。當事人的苦笑取代了旁觀者的眼淚，“愚者”自我表達的切膚之痛取代了“智者”貌似公允的批判和分析，更能收到喚起被愚弄者群體深刻反省的客觀效果。
《百年孤獨》-傢族人物表
霍·阿·布恩蒂亞 第一代
烏蘇娜 霍·阿·布恩蒂亞之妻 第一代
霍·阿卡蒂奧 霍·阿·布恩蒂亞之長子 第二代
雷貝卡 霍·阿卡蒂奧之妻 第二代
奧雷連諾上校 霍·阿·布恩蒂亞之次子 第二代
雷麥黛絲·摩斯柯特 奧雷連諾上校之妻 第二代
阿瑪蘭塔 霍·阿·布恩蒂亞之小女兒 第二代
皮拉·苔列娜 霍·阿卡蒂奧之情婦 第二代
阿卡蒂奧 霍·阿卡蒂奧之子 第三代
聖索菲婭·德拉佩德 阿卡蒂奧之妻 第三代
奧雷連諾·霍塞 奧雷連諾上校之子 第三代
十七個奧雷連諾 奧雷連諾上校之子 第三代
俏姑娘雷麥黛絲 阿卡蒂奧之長女 第四代
霍·阿卡蒂奧第二 阿卡蒂奧之次子 第四代
奧雷連諾第二 阿卡蒂奧之小兒子 第四代
菲蘭達·德卡皮奧 奧雷連諾第二之妻 第四代
佩特娜·柯特 奧雷連諾第二之情婦 第四代
霍·阿卡蒂奧（神學院學生） 奧雷連諾第二之長子 第五代
梅梅（雷納塔） 奧雷連諾第二之次女 第五代
巴比洛尼亞 梅梅之夫 第五代
阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜 奧雷連諾第二之小女兒 第五代
加斯東 阿瑪蘭塔·烏蘇娜之夫 第五代
奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞（破譯手稿者）梅梅之子 第六代
有尾巴的嬰兒 奧雷連諾·布恩蒂亞之後代 第七代
《百年孤獨》-寫作特點
我加西亞·馬爾剋斯遵循“變現實為幻想而又不失其真”的魔幻現實主義創作原則，經過巧妙的構思和想象，把觸目驚心的現實和源於神話、傳說的幻想結合起來，形成色彩斑斕、風格獨特的圖畫，使讀者在“似是而非，似非而是”的形象中，獲得一種似曾相識又覺陌生的感受，從而激起尋根溯源去追索作傢創作真諦的願望。魔幻現實主義必須以現實力基礎，但這並不妨礙它采取極端誇張的手法。如本書寫外部文明對馬貢多的侵入，是現實的，但又魔幻化了：吉卜賽人拖着兩塊磁鐵“……挨傢串戶地走着……鐵鍋、鐵盆、鐵鉗、小鐵爐紛紛從原地落下，木板因鐵釘和蠃釘沒命地掙脫出來而嘎嘎作響……跟在那兩塊魔鐵的後面亂滾”；又如寫夜的寂靜，人們居然能聽到“螞蟻在月光下的哄鬧聲、蛀蟲啃食時的巨響以及野草生長時持續而清晰的尖叫聲”；再如寫政府把大批罷工者殺害後，將屍體裝上火車運到海裏扔掉，那輛火車竟有200節車廂，前、中、後共有3個車頭牽引！作傢似乎在不斷地變換着哈哈鏡、望遠鏡、放大鏡甚至顯微鏡，讓讀者看到一幅幅真真假假、虛實交錯的畫面，從而豐富了想象力，收到強烈的藝術效果。
印第安傳說、東方神話以及《聖經》典故的運用，進一步加強了本書的神秘氣氛。如寫普羅登肖的鬼魂日夜糾纏布恩地亞一傢，便取材於印第安傳說中冤鬼自己不得安寧也不讓仇人安寧的說法；有關飛毯以及俏姑娘雷梅苔絲抓住床單升天的描寫是阿拉伯神話《天方夜譚》的引伸；而馬貢多一連下了四年十一個月零兩天的大雨則是《聖經·創世紀》中有關洪水浩劫及挪亞方舟等故事的移植。拉丁美洲的民間傳說往往帶有迷信色彩，作傢在采用這些民間傳說時，有時把它們作為現實來描寫；如好漢弗朗西斯科“曾和魔鬼對歌，擊敗了對手”；阿瑪蘭塔在長廊裏綉花時與死神交談等等。有時則反其意而用之，如寫尼卡諾爾神父喝了一杯巧剋力後居然能離地12釐米，以證明“上帝有無限神力”等等，顯然是對宗教迷信的諷刺和嘲笑。
本書中象徵主義手法運用得比較成功且有意義的，應首推關於不眠癥的描寫。馬貢多全體居民在建村後不久都傳染上一種不眠癥。嚴重的是，得了這種病，人會失去記憶。為了生活，他們不得不在物品上貼上標簽。例如他們在牛身上貼標簽道：“這是牛，每天要擠它的奶；要把奶煮開加上咖啡才能做成牛奶咖啡。”這類例子書中比比皆是，作傢意在提醒公衆牢記容易被人遺忘的歷史。
另外，作傢還獨創了從未來的角度回憶過去的新穎倒敘手法。例如小說一開頭，作傢就這樣寫道：“許多年之後，面對行刑隊，奧雷良諾·布恩地亞上校將會回想起，他父親帶他去見識冰塊的那個遙遠的下午。”短短的一句話，實際上容納了未來、過去和現在三個時間層面，而作傢顯然隱匿在“現在”的敘事角度。緊接着，作傢筆鋒一轉，把讀者引回到馬貢多的初創時期。這樣的時間結構，在小說中一再重複出現，一環接一環，環環相扣，不斷地給讀者造成新的懸念。
最後，值得註意的是，本書凝重的歷史內涵、犀利的批判眼光、深刻的民族文化反省、龐大的神話隱喻體係是由一種讓人耳目一新的神秘語言貫串始終的。有的評傢認為這部小說出自8歲兒童之口，加西亞·馬爾剋斯對此說頗感欣慰。這是很深刻的評判目光。因為這種直觀的、簡約的語言確實有效地反映了一種新的視角，一種落後民族（人類兒童）的自我意識。當事人的苦笑取代了旁觀者的眼淚， “愚者”自我表達的切膚之痛取代了“智者”貌似公允的批判和分析，更能收到喚起被愚弄者群體深刻反省的客觀效果。
《百年孤獨》被認為是拉丁美洲“文學爆炸”時代的代表作品。在世界文學史上占有重要的地位。在拉美世界衹有博爾赫斯等少數作傢可以媲美。而且在世界各地掀起了拉美文學風。魔幻現實主義也被認為是衹具有創意的寫作手法之一。
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad) is a novel written by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in Spanish in 1967. The book was an instant success worldwide and was translated into over 37 languages. Lauded critically, it is the major work of the Latin American "boom" in literature. It was also an immense commercial success, becoming the best-selling book in Spanish in modern history, after Don Quixote. It is widely considered García Márquez's magnum opus.
The novel chronicles the history of the Buendía family in the town founded by their patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía. It is built on multiple time frames, playing on ideas presented earlier by Jorge Luis Borges in stories such as The Garden of Forking Paths.
Biographical background and publication
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1927. García Márquez is a Colombian-born author and journalist, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature and a pioneer of the Latin American “Boom.” Affectionately known as “Gabo” to millions of readers, he first won international fame with his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, a defining classic of twentieth century literature . His Colombian roots influenced large parts of the novel, as evidenced by the different myths throughout the novel . These myths, along with events in the novel, recount a large portion of Colombian history. For instance, “the arguments over reform in the nineteenth century, the arrival of the railway, the War of the Thousand Days, the American fruit company, the cinema, the automobile, and the massacre of striking plantation workers” are all incorporated in the novel at one point or another".
Plot summary
The novel chronicles the seven generations of the Buendía family in the town of Macondo. The family patriarch and founder of Macondo, José Arcadio Buendía, and his wife (and first cousin), Úrsula, leave their home in Riohacha, Colombia in hopes of finding a new home. One night on their journey while camping on the banks of a river, José Arcadio Buendía dreams of a city of mirrors named Macondo. Upon awakening, José Arcadio Buendía decides to found this city on the site of their campground. After wandering aimlessly in the jungle for many days, the founding of Macondo can be seen as the founding of UtopiaJosé Arcadio Buendía believes it to be surrounded by water, and from this 'island' he invents the world according to him, naming things at will. After its establishment, Macondo soon becomes a town frequented by unusual and extraordinary events. All the events revolve around the many generations of the Buendía family, who are either unable or unwilling to escape periodic, mostly self-inflicted misfortunes. Ultimately, Macondo is destroyed by a terrible hurricane, which symbolizes the cyclical turmoil inherent in Macondo. At the end of the book one of the Buendía male decendants finally cracks a cipher that the males in his family had been trying to solve for generation. The cipher stated all the events that the Buendía family had gone through. Note that this information was available at the beginning of time, and in possession of the Buendia family, before Macondo was even thought of, just indecipherable.
Historical Context
Although One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered a work of fiction, Gabriel García Márquez, a Colombian native, drew upon his country’s history to create a world which parallels many of the major events in Colombia’s history, thus establishing the novel as a piece of critical interpretation.
Prior to European conquest, the region now called Colombia had no cultural developments akin to those of the Incas, the Mayas or the Aztecs The region consisted mainly of large families grouped into larger units that served to define local monarchies . The most well defined tribal groups of the area were the Tairona, the Cenu, the Chibcha . The first Spanish settlement was established in 1509 under the direction of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, as a precursor to the conquest of the territory . Marquez uses the founding of the town of Macondo by the Buendia family as a metaphor for the colonization of the region of Colombia.
After Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada’s conquest of the Chibchas in 1538, Bogotá became the center of Spanish rule . After the collapse of Spanish control in 1810, provincial juntas sprang up almost everywhere to challenge Bogotá’s authority. Eventually though, royalist armies led by Pablo Morillo restored Spanish rule in 1816. Three years later when Simon Bolivar began a second war for independence, he declared the creation of a supranational state-Gran Colombia. With its capital at Bogotá, Gran Colombia survived long enough to witness Spain's final defeat in 1825.
The achievement of Independence in 1819 revealed the further obstacles. Colombia’s geography was a formidable obstacle to modernization. High transportation costs made self-sufficient and disconnected enclaves viable much like the description of the town of Macondo). Colombia had been wrestling with modernity since the eighteenth century. The dynamism of the capitalist revolution gave Colombia’s ruling classes a stark choice: integration with the modern industrial world or perishing in a backwater of barbarism. To incorporate the country with the world, Colombia would have to look to the institutional, political, and economic models of Europe and the United States.
“As nineteenth century Colombians explored, described, and colonized their interior, they mapped racial hierarchy onto an emerging national geography composed of distinct localities and regions. This created a racialized discourse of regional differentiation that assigned greater morality and progress to certain regions that they marked as “white”. Meanwhile, those places defined as “black” and “Indian” were associated with disorder, backwardness, and danger” technology and modernization became associated with race.
In Macondo, with the introduction of technology, a rising population, and modernization came the insomnia plague, which was characterized by forgetfulness. The people of Macondo forgot the words for objects (such as tables and chairs) and eventually forgot the significance or usages of these objects. Not only does this serve as a criticism by Marquez of the modernization of Colombia, but also of the plagues characteristic of the Spanish conquest, which killed many indigenous people throughout the South American continent and the Caribbean. It is estimated that smallpox killed up to 95% of the indigenous population of the Americas during the conquest. The insomnia of the story represents the nostalgia for the better days of the past, which are now lost upon the residents of Macondo (as a metaphor for Colombia): days before the modernization of the town and before the spread of deadly disease.
The history of Colombia is one that has been marked by years of violence, from wars for independence to the modern-day rebel group commonly known as the FARC. The first major violence in Colombia was a product of the Bolivar Liberation from 1810 to 1821. The leader of the revolution, Simon Bolivar, led many battles against the Spanish in an attempt to free the country from Spanish rule. After independence, well-defined socioeconomic regions, divided in a roughly north-south direction by parallel spurs of the Andes mountains, came into being. During the nineteenth century, the existence of several powerful regional centers undoubtedly contributed to civil disorder . Politically, the relative dispersion of the population and its economic resources caused difficulties for the government’s modernizing programs.
In 1934 a reformist wave brought Dr. Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo to the presidency by unanimous Liberal choice. Lopez imposed La Revolución en Marcha, a revolution characterized by labor reform and social legislation, which angered many Conservatives. In August 1946, Mariano Ospina Pérez took office as the first Conservative president of Colombia. This marked the start of a political breakdown that drew the people under increasingly undemocratic rule . On April 9, 1948, influential and celebrated Liberal candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, was assassinated, sparking the period of Colombia’s history known as “la Violencia”.
By the mid-1960’s, Colombia had witnessed in excess of two hundred thousand politically motivated deaths. La Violencia, from 1946–66, can be broken into five stages: the revival of political violence before and after the presidential election of 1946, the popular urban upheavals generated by Gaitan’s assassination, open guerrilla warfare, first against Conservative government of Ospina Perez, incomplete attempts at pacification and negotiation resulting from the Rojas Pinilla (who had ousted Laureano Gómez), and, finally, disjointed fighting under the Liberal/Conservative coalition of the “National Front,” from 1958 to 1975.
The politically charged violence characteristic of Colombia’s history is paralleled in One Hundred Years of Solitude by the character of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who wages war against the Conservatives who are facilitating the rise to power of foreign imperialists. The wealthy banana plantation owners (perhaps based on the United Fruit Co.) set up their own dictatorial police force, which brutally attacks citizens for even the slightest offenses.
The use of real events and Colombian history by Garcia Marquez makes One Hundred Years of Solitude an excellent example of magical realism. Not only are the events of the story an interweaving of reality and fiction, but the novel as a whole tells the history of Colombia from a critical perspective using magical realism. In this way, the novel compresses several centuries of Latin American history into a manageable text.
Furthermore, the novel points out that the current state of Latin America is the result of the inability to obtain the confidence required to construct a meaningful sense of direction and progress. The tragedy of Latin America is that it lacks a meaningful and solid identity, causing a lack of self-preservation. This can be attributed to a past highlighted by five hundred years of colonization. Subsequently, there is a seemingly perpetual repetition of violence, repression, and exploitation resulting in a loss of authenticity. The reality of Latin America is presented as a reoccurring fantastical world in One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is a vacuum in which the characters have no chance of survival. The desire for change and forward movement exists in Macondo, just as it does in the countries of Latin America. However, the cyclical nature of time in the novel symbolizes the tendency toward repeating history in reality. Subsequently, meaningful progress is never achieved in Macondo or in Latin America. In this manner, Marquez provides insight into the feeling of solitude in present-day Latin America.
Symbolism and metaphors
A dominant theme in One Hundred Years of Solitude is the inevitable and inescapable repetition of history in Macondo. The protagonists are controlled by their pasts and the complexity of time. Throughout the novel the characters are visited by ghosts. "The ghosts are symbols of the past and the haunting nature it has over Macondo. The ghosts and the displaced repetition that they evoke are, in fact, firmly grounded in the particular development of Latin American history". "Ideological transfiguration ensured that Macondo and the Buendías always were ghosts to some extent, alienated and estranged from their own history, not only victims of the harsh reality of dependence and underdevelopment but also of the ideological illusions that haunt and reinforce such social conditions.
The fate of Macondo is both doomed and predetermined from its very existence. "Fatalism is a metaphor for the particular part that ideology has played in maintaining historical dependence, by locking the interpretation of Latin American history into certain patterns that deny alternative possibilities.The narrative seemingly confirms fatalism in order to illustrate the feeling of entrapment that ideology can performatively create.
The Ghosts that haunt the people of Macondo are symbols of an inescapable past."Ideological transfiguration ensured that Macondo and the Buendías always were ghosts to some extent, alienated and estranged from their own history, not only victims of the harsh reality of dependence and underdevelopment but also of the ideological illusions that haunt and reinforce such social conditions".
Márquez uses colours as symbols. Yellow and gold are the most frequently used colours and they are symbols of imperialism and the Spanish Siglo de Oro. Gold signifies a search for economic wealth, whereas yellow represents death, change, and destruction.
The glass city is an image that comes to José Arcadio Buendía in a dream. It is the reason for the location of the founding of Macondo, but it is also a symbol of the ill fate of Macondo. Higgins writes that, "By the final page, however, the city of mirrors has become a city of mirages. Macondo thus represents the dream of a brave new world that America seemed to promise and that was cruelly proved illusory by the subsequent course of history". Images such as the glass city and the ice factory represent how Latin America already has its history outlined and is, therefore, fated for destruction.
Overall, there is an underlying pattern of Latin American history in One Hundred Years of Solitude. It could be said that the novel is one of a number of texts that "Latin American culture has created to understand itself" . In this sense, the novel can be conceived as a linear archive. This archive narrates the story of a Latin America discovered by European explorers, which had its historical entity developed by the printing press. The Archive is a symbol of the literature that is the foundation of Latin American history and also a decoding instrument. Melquiades, the keeper of the historical archive in the novel, represents both the whimsical and the literary. Finally, “the world of One Hundred Years of Solitude is a place where beliefs and metaphors become forms of fact, and where more ordinary facts become uncertain”
Characters
Buendía Family Tree
First generation
José Arcadio Buendía
Jose Arcadio Buendía is the patriarch of the Buendía family and the founder of Macondo. Buendía leaves Riohacha, Colombia with his wife, Úrsula Iguarán, after murdering Prudencio Aguilar in a duel. One night camping at the side of a river, Buendía dreams of a city of mirrors named Macondo and decides to establish the town in this location. Jose Arcadio is an introspective, inquisitive man of massive strength and energy who spends more time on his scientific pursuits than with his family. He flirts with alchemy and astronomy and becomes increasingly withdrawn from his family and community. Marquez uses carefully chosen diction, imagery and biblical references to portray this wonderfully unique character to the reader .
Úrsula Iguarán
Úrsula Iguarán is one of the two matriarchs of the Buendía family and is wife to José Arcadio Buendía.
Second generation
José Arcadio
José Arcadio Buendía's firstborn son, José Arcadio seems to have inherited his father's headstrong, impulsive mannerisms. He eventually leaves the family to chase a Gypsy girl and unexpectedly returns many years later as an enormous man covered in tattoos, claiming that he's sailed the seas of the world. He marries his adopted sister Rebeca, causing his banishment from the mansion, and he dies from a mysterious gunshot wound, days after saving his brother from execution.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía
José Arcadio Buendía's second son and the first person to be born in Macondo. He was thought to have premonitions because everything he said came true.He represents not only a warrior figure but also an artist due to his ability to write poetry and create finely crafted golden fish. During the wars he fathered 17 children by unknown women.
Remedios Moscote
Remedios was the youngest daughter of the town's Conservative administrator, Don Apolinar Moscote. Her most striking physical features are her beautiful skin and her emerald-green eyes. The future Colonel Aureliano falls in love with her, despite her extreme youth. She dies shortly after the marriage from a blood poisoning illness during her pregnancy.
Amaranta
The third child of José Arcadio Buendía, Amaranta grows up as a companion of her adopted sister Rebeca. However, her feelings toward Rebeca turn sour over Pietro Crespi, whom both sisters intensely desire in their teenage years. Amaranta dies a lonely and virginal spinster, but comfortable in her existence after having finally accepted what she had become.
Rebeca
Rebeca is the orphaned daughter of Ursula Iguaran's second cousins. At first she is extremely timid, refuses to speak, and has the habits of eating earth and whitewash from the walls of the house, a condition known as pica. She arrives carrying a canvas bag containing her parents' bones and seems not to understand or speak Spanish. However, she responds to questions asked by Visitacion and Cataure in the Guajiro or Wayuu language. She falls in love with and marries her adoptive brother José Arcadio after his return from traveling the world. After his mysterious and untimely death, she lives in seclusion for the rest of her life.
Third generation
Arcadio
Arcadio is José Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera. He is a schoolteacher who assumes leadership of Macondo after Colonel Aureliano Buendía leaves. He becomes a tyrannical dictator and uses his schoolchildren as his personal army. Macondo soon becomes subject to his whims. When the Liberal forces in Macondo fall, Arcadio is shot by a Conservative firing squad.
Aureliano José
Aureliano José is the illegitimate son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía and Pilar Ternera. He joins his father in several wars before deserting to return to Macondo. He deserted because he is obsessed with his aunt, Amaranta, who raised him since his birth. He is eventually shot to death by a Conservative captain midway through the wars.
Santa Sofía de la Piedad
Santa Sofía is a beautiful virgin girl and the daughter of a shopkeeper. She is hired by Pilar Ternera to have sex with her son Arcadio, her eventual husband. She is taken in along with her children by the Buendías after Arcadio's execution. After Úrsula's death she leaves unexpectedly, not knowing her destination.
17 Aurelianos
During his 32 civil war campaigns, Colonel Aureliano Buendía has 17 sons by 17 different women, each named after their father.. Four of these Aurelianos (A. Triste, A. Serrador, A. Arcaya and A. Centeno) stay in Macondo and become a permanent part of the family. Eventually, as revenge against the Colonel, all are assassinated by the government, which identified them by the mysteriously permanent Ash Wednesday cross on their foreheads. The only survivor of the massacre is A. Amador, who escapes into the jungle only to be assassinated at the doorstep of his father's house many years later.
Fourth generation
Remedios the Beauty
Remedios the Beauty is Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child. It is said she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, and unintentionally causes the deaths of several men who love or lust over her. She appears to most of the town as naively innocent, and some come to think that she is mentally retarded. However, Colonel Aureliano Buendía believes she has inherited great lucidity: "It is as if she's come back from twenty years of war," he said. She rejects clothing and beauty. Too beautiful and, arguably, too wise for the world, Remedios ascends into the sky one morning, while folding laundry.
José Arcadio Segundo
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 the only survivor when the company massacres the striking workers. Afterward, he spends the rest of his days studying the parchments of Melquiades, and tutoring the young Aureliano. He dies at the exact instant that his twin does.
Aureliano Segundo
Of the two brothers, Aureliano Segundo is the more boisterous and impulsive, much like the José Arcadios of the family. He takes his first girlfriend Petra Cotes as his mistress during his marriage to the beautiful and bitter Fernanda del Carpio. 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, which nearly drives him to insanity. He dies of throat cancer 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 (highlighting Ursula's earlier comment that they had been switched at birth). Aureliano Segundo represents Colombia's economy: gaining and losing weight according to the situation at the time.
Fernanda del Carpio
Fernanda del Carpio is the only major character (except for Rebeca and the First generation) not from Macondo. She comes from a ruined, aristocratic family that kept her isolated from the world. She was chosen as the most beautiful of 5000 girls. Fernanda is brought to Macondo to compete with Remedios for the title of Queen of the carnival after her father promises her she will be the Queen of Madagascar. After the fiasco, she marries Aureliano Segundo and soon takes the leadership of the family away from the now-frail Úrsula. She manages the Buendía affairs with an iron fist. She has three children by Aureliano Segundo, José Arcadio, Renata Remedios, a.k.a. Meme, and Amaranta Úrsula. She remains in the house after he dies, taking care of the household until her death.
Fernanda is never accepted by anyone in the Buendía household who regard her as an outsider. Although, none of the Buendías rebel against her inflexible conservatism. Her mental and emotional instability is revealed through her paranoia, her correspondence with the 'invisible doctors', and her irrational behavior towards Aureliano, whom she tries to isolate from the whole world.
Fifth generation
Renata Remedios (a.k.a. Meme)
Renata Remedios, or Meme is the second child and first daughter of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo. While she doesn't inherit Fernanda's beauty, she does have Aureliano Segundo's love of life and natural charisma. After her mother declares that she is to do nothing but play the clavichord, she is sent to school where she receives her performance degree as well as academic recognition. 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.
Meme meets and falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, but when Fernanda discovers their affair, she arranges for Mauricio to be shot, claiming that he was a chicken thief. She then takes Meme to a convent. Meme remains mute for the rest of her life, partially because of the trauma, but also as a sign of rebellion. Several months later she gives birth to a son, Aureliano, at the convent. He is sent to live with the Buendías. She dies of old age in a hospital in Krakow.
José Arcadio (II)
José Arcadio II, named after his ancestors in the Buendía tradition, follows the trend of previous Arcadios. He is raised by Úrsula, who intends for him to become Pope. He returns from Rome without having become a priest. Eventually, he discovers buried treasure, which he wastes on lavish parties and escapades with adolescent boys. Later, he begins a tentative friendship with Aureliano Babilonia, his nephew. José Arcadio plans to set Aureliano up in a business and return to Rome, but is murdered in his bath by four of the adolescent boys who ransack his house and steal his gold.
Amaranta Úrsula
Amaranta Úrsula is the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano. She displays the same characteristics as her namesake 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. He becomes her best friend in childhood. She returns home from Europe with an elder husband, Gastón, who leaves her when she informs him of her passionate affair with her nephew, Aureliano. She dies of hemorragia, after she has given birth to the last of the Buendía line.
Sixth generation
Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II)
Aureliano Babilonia, or Aureliano II, is the illegitimate child of Meme. He is hidden from everyone by his grandmother, Fernanda. He is strikingly similar to his namesake, the Colonel, and has the same character patterns as well. He is taciturn, silent, and emotionally charged. 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 in the Buendía home. 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 his childhood partner and the love of his life, Amaranta Úrsula, not knowing that she is his aunt. When both her and her child die, he is able to decipher the parchments. "...Melquíades' 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'." It is assumed he dies in the great wind that destroys Macondo the moment he finishes reading Mequiades' parchments.
Seventh generation
Aureliano (III)
Aureliano III is the child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula. He is born with a pig's tail, as the eldest and long dead Úrsula had always feared would happen (the parents of the child had never heard of the omen). His mother dies after giving birth to him, and, due to his grief-stricken father's negligence, he is devoured by ants.
Others
Melquíades
Melquíades is one of a band of gypsies who visit Macondo every year in March, displaying amazing items from around the world. Melquíades sells José Arcadio Buendía several new inventions including a pair of magnets and an alchemist's lab. Later, the gypsies report that Melquíades died in Singapore, but he, nonetheless, returns to live with the Buendía family, stating he could not bear the solitude of death. He stays with the Buendías and begins to write the mysterious parchments that Aureliano Babilonia eventually translates, before dying a second time. This time he drowns in the river near Macondo. He is buried in a grand ceremony organized by the Buendías.
Pilar Ternera
Pilar is a local woman who sleeps with the brothers Aureliano and José Arcadio. She becomes mother of their sons, Aureliano and José Arcadio. Pilar reads the future with cards, and every so often makes an accurate, though vague, prediction. She has close ties with the Buendias throughout the whole novel, helping them with her card predictions. She dies some time after she turns 145 years old (she had eventually stopped counting), surviving until the very last days of Macondo.
The word "Ternera" in Spanish signifies veal or calf, which is fitting considering the way she is treated by Aureliano, Jose Arcadio, and Arcadio. Also, it could be a play on the word "Ternura", which in Spanish means "Tenderness". Pilar is always presented as a very loving figure, and the author often uses names in a similar fashion.
Pietro Crespi
Pietro is a very handsome and polite Italian musician who runs a music school. He installs the pianola in the Buendía house. He becomes engaged to Rebeca, but Amaranta, who also loves him, manages to delay the wedding for years. When José Arcadio and Rebeca agree to be married, Pietro begins to woo Amaranta, who is so embittered that she cruelly rejects him. Despondent over the loss of both sisters, he kills himself.
Petra Cotes
Petra is a dark-skinned woman with gold-brown eyes similar to those of a panther. She is Aureliano Segundo's mistress and the love of his life. She arrives in Macondo as a teenager with her first husband. She briefly dates both of them before her husband dies. After José Arcadio decides to leave her, Aureliano Segundo gets her forgiveness and remains by her side. He continues to see her, even after his marriage. He eventually lives with her, which greatly embitters his wife, Fernanda del Carpio. When Aureliano and Petra make love, their animals reproduce at an amazing rate, but their livestock is wiped out during the four years of rain. Petra makes money by keeping the lottery alive and provides food baskets for Fernanda and her family after the death of Aureliano Segundo.
Mr. Herbert and Mr. Brown
Mr. Herbert is a gringo who showed up at the Buendía house for lunch one day. After tasting the local bananas for the first time, he arranges for a banana company to set up a plantation in Macondo. The plantation is run by the dictatorial Mr. Brown. When José Arcadio Segundo helps arrange a workers' strike on the plantation, the company traps the more than three thousand strikers and machine guns them down in the town square. The banana company and the government completely cover up the event. José Arcadio is the only one who remembers the slaughter. The company arranges for the army to kill off any resistance, then leaves Macondo for good. That event is likely based on the Banana massacre, that took place in Santa Marta, Colombia in 1928.
Mauricio Babilonia
Mauricio is a brutally honest, generous and handsome mechanic for the banana company. He is said to be a descendant of the gypsies who visit Macondo in the early days. He has the unusual characteristic of being constantly swarmed by yellow butterflies, which follow even his lover for a time. Mauricio begins a romantic affair with Meme until Fernanda discovers them and tries to end it. When Mauricio continues to sneak into the house to see her, Fernanda has him shot, claiming he is a chicken thief. Paralyzed and bedridden, he spends the rest of his long life in solitude.
Gastón
Gastón is Amaranta Úrsula's wealthy, Belgian husband. She marries him in Europe and returns to Macondo leading him on a silk leash. Gastón is about fifteen years older than his wife. He is an aviator and an adventurer. When he moves with Amaranta Ursula to Macondo he thinks it is only a matter of time before she realizes that her European ways out of place, causing her to want to move back to Europe. However, when he realizes his wife intends to stay in Macondo, he arranges for his airplane to be shipped over so he can start an airmail service. The plane is shipped to Africa by mistake. When he travels there to claim it, Amaranta writes him of her love for Aureliano Babilonia Buendía. Gastón takes the news in stride, only asking that they ship him his velocipede.
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez is only a minor character in the novel but he has the distinction of bearing the same name as the author. He is the great-great-grandson of Colonel Gerineldo Márquez. He and Aureliano Babilonia are close friends because they know the history of the town, which no one else believes. He leaves for Paris after winning a contest and decides to stay there, selling old newspapers and empty bottles. He is one of the few who is able to leave Macondo before the town is wiped out entirely.
Major themes
The subjectivity of reality and Magical Realism
Critics often cite certain works by García Márquez, such as A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and One Hundred Years of Solitude, as exemplary of magical realism, a style of writing in which the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary. The term was coined by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925.
The novel presents a fictional story in a fictional setting. The extraordinary events and characteres are fabricated. However the message that Marquez intends to deliver explains a true history. Marquez utilizes his fantastic story as an expression of reality. "In One Hundred Years of Solitude myth and history overlap. The myth acts as a vehicle to transmit history to the reader. Marquez’s novel can furthermore be referred to as anthropology, where truth is found in language and myth. What is real and what is fiction are indistinguishable. There are three main mythical elements of the novel: classical stories alluding to foundations and origins, characters resembling mythical heroes, and supernatural elements" Magical realism is inherent in the novel-achieved by the constant intertwining of the ordinary with the extraordinary. This magical realism strikes at one's traditional sense of naturalistic fiction. There is something clearly magical about the world of Macondo. It is a state of mind as much as, or more than, a geographical place. For example, one learns very little about its actual physical layout. Furthermore, once in it, the reader must be prepared to meet whatever the imagination of the author presents to him or her.
García Márquez achieves a perfect blend of the real with the magical through the masterful use of tone and narration. By maintaining the same tone throughout the novel, Márquez makes the extraordinary blend with the ordinary. His condensation of and lackadaisical manner in describing events causes the extraordinary to seem less remarkable than it actually is, thereby perfectly blending the real with the magical. Reinforcing this effect is the unastonished tone in which the book is written. This tone restricts the ability of the reader to question the events of the novel, however, it also causes the reader to call into question the limits of reality. Furthermore, maintaining the same narrator throughout the novel familiarizes the reader with his voice and causes he or she to become accustomed to the extraordinary events in the novel .
The fluidity of time
One Hundred Years of Solitude contains several ideas concerning time. Although the story can be read as a linear progression of events, both when considering individual lives and Macondo's history, García Márquez allows room for several other interpretations of time:
* He reiterates the metaphor of history as a circular phenomenon through the repetition of names and characteristics belonging to the Buendía family. Over six generations, all the José Arcadios possess inquisitive and rational dispositions as well as enormous physical strength. The Aurelianos, meanwhile, lean 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 endogenous hubris in our nature.
* 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 Buendía family home. The laboratory was first designed by Melquíades near the start of the story and remains essentially unchanged throughout its course. It is a place where the male Buendía characters can indulge their will to solitude, whether through attempts to deconstruct the world with reason as in the case of José Arcadio Buendía, or by the endless creation and destruction of golden fish as in the case of his son Colonel Aureliano Buendía. Furthermore, a sense of inevitability prevails throughout the text. This is a feeling that regardless of what way one looks at time, its encompassing nature is the one truthful admission.
* On the other hand, it is important to keep in mind that One Hundred Years of Solitude, while basically chronological and "linear" enough in its broad outlines, also shows abundant zigzags in time, both flashbacks of matters past and long leaps towards future events. One example of this is the youthful amour between Meme and Mauricio Babilonia, which is already in full swing before we are informed about the origins of the affair .
Incest
A recurring theme in One Hundred Years of Solitude is the Buendía family's propensity toward incest. The patriarch of the family, Jose Arcadio Buendía, is the first of numerous Buendías to intermarry when he marries his first cousin, Úrsula. It is worth noting that this initial, incestuous act can be viewed as an "original sin", however it will not be the last one. Furthermore, the fact that "throughout the novel the family is haunted by the fear of punishment in the form of the birth of a monstrous child with a pig's tail" can be attributed to this initial, and the recurring acts of incest among the Buendías.
Solitude
Perhaps the most dominant theme in the book is that of solitude. Macondo was founded in the remote jungles of the Colombian rainforest. The solitude of the town is representative of the colonial period in Latin American history, where outposts and colonies were, for all intents and purposes, not interconnected. Isolated from the rest of the world, the Buendías grow to be increasingly solitary and selfish. With every member of the family living only for him or her self, the Buendías become representative of the aristocratic, land-owning elite who came to dominate Latin America in keeping with the sense of Latin American history symbolized in the novel. This egocentricity is embodied, especially, in the characters of Aureliano, who lives in a private world of his own, and Remedios, who destroys the lives of four men enamored by her beauty. Throughout the novel it seems as if no character can find true love or escape the destructiveness of their own egocentricity.
The selfishness of the Buendía family is eventually broken by the once superficial Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes, who discover a sense of mutual solidarity and the joy of helping others in need during Macondo's economic crisis. This pair even finds love, and their pattern is repeated by Aureliano Babilonia and Amaranta Úrsula. Eventually, Aureliano and Amaranta decide to have a child, and the latter is convinced that it will represent a fresh start for the once-conceited Buendía family. However, the child turns out to be the perpetually-feared monster with the pig's tail.
Nonetheless, the appearance of love represents a shift in Macondo, albeit one that leads to its destruction. "The emergence of love in the novel to displace the traditional egoism of the Buendías reflects the emergence of socialist values as a political force in Latin America, a force that will sweep away the Buendías and the order they represent". A well-known socialist, the ending to One Hundred Years of Solitude could be a wishful prediction by García Márquez regarding the future of Latin America.
Literary significance, reception and recognition
One Hundred Years of Solitude has received universal recognition. The novel has been awarded Italy’s Chianciano Award, France’s Prix de Meilleur Livre Etranger, Venezuela’s Romulo Gallegos Prize, and the Books Abroad/ Neustadt International Prize for Literature. García Márquez also received an honorary LL.D. from Columbia University in New York City. These awards set the stage for García Márquez’s 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.
García Márquez is said to have a gift for blending the everyday with the miraculous, the historical with the fabulous, and psychological realism with surreal flights of fancy. It is a revolutionary novel that provides a looking glass into the thoughts and beliefs of its author, who chose to give a literary voice to Latin America: "A Latin America which neither wants, nor has any reason, to be a pawn without a will of its own; nor is it merely wishful thinking that its quest for independence and originality should become a Western aspiration." Gabriel García Márquez
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech Márquez addressed the significance of his writing and proposed its role to be more than just literary expression: "I dare to think that it is this outsized reality, and not just its literary expression, that has deserved the attention of the Swedish Academy of Letters. A reality not of paper, but one that lives within us and determines each instant of our countless daily deaths, and that nourishes a source of insatiable creativity, full of sorrow and beauty, of which this roving and nostalgic Colombian is but one cipher more, singled out by fortune. Poets and beggars, musicians and prophets, warriors and scoundrels, all creatures of that unbridled reality, we have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable. This, my friends, is the crux of our solitude"
* In 1970, reviewing the book in the National Observer, William Kennedy hailed One Hundred Years of Solitude as "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race."
* The novel topped the list of books that have most shaped world literature over the last 25 years, according to a survey of international writers commissioned by the global literary journal Wasafiri as a part of its 25th anniversary.
According to Antonio Sacoto, professor at The City College of the City University of New York, One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered as one of the five key novels in Hispanic American literature. (Together with El señor Presidente, Pedro Páramo, La muerte de Artemio Cruz, y La ciudad los perros). These novels, representative of the boom allowed Hispanic American literature to reach the quality of North American and European literature in terms of technical quality, rich themes, and linguistic innovations, among other attributes.
Although we are faced with a very convoluted narrative, Garcia Marquez is able to define clear themes while maintaining individual character identities, and using different narrative techniques such as third person narrators, specific point of view narrators, and streams of consciousness. Cinematographic techniques are also employed in the novel, with the idea of the montage and the close-up, which effectively combine the comic and grotesque with the dramatic and tragic. Furthermore, political and historical realities are combined with the mythical and magical Latin American world. Lastly, through human comedy the problems of a family, a town, and a country are unveiled. This is all presented through Garcia Marquez’s unique form of narration, which causes the novel to never cease being at its most interesting point.
The characters in the novel are never defined; they are not created from a mold. Instead, they are developed and formed throughout the novel. All characters are individualized, with many characteristics that differentiate them from others.. Ultimately, the novel has a rich imagination achieved by its rhythmic tone, narrative technique, and fascinating character creation, making it a thematic quarry, where the trivial and anecdotal and the historic and political are combined. (260)
Criticisms
Style
Although One Hundred Years of Solitude has come to be considered one of, if not the, most influential Latin American texts of all time, the novel and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have both received many critical criticisms and reviews. Harold Bloom says “My primary impression, in the act of rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a kind of aesthetic battle fatigue, since every page is rammed full of life beyond the capacity of any single reader to absorb . . . There are no wasted sentences, no mere transitions, in this novel, and you must notice everything at the moment you read it.”
Inspirations
Garcia Marquez has been accused of using many texts as his inspirations for One Hundred Years of Solitude. Of these, the most well-known is Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha David T. Haberly alleges that “strong cases have been made for Faulkner, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography, and Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, and one which has not been mentioned is Chateaubriand’s Atala.” Hopkins backs his statement with evidence that Atala was available for Spanish-speaking audiences before the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude and makes comparisons between the plot of the two stories and some of the characters.
Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes
Critics have also speculated the potential of Marquez harboring ideals of marianismo, adhering to sexist stereotypes, and reinforcing these stereotypes and sexist attitudes in Cien Anos de Soledad through his portrayal of female characters as domestic housewives. This potentially sexist view also can be viewed as Marquez’s profound reflection on the social and cultural realities that exist in Latin America in terms of how women were viewed, and in particular, in Colombia. “What sort of values does Ursula symbolize? They are these: middle class stinginess, stupidity, superstition, insanity, reactionary activism, etc.” “There are numerous episodes and statements in the book which reinforce the patriarchical values of the story” . “One Hundred Years of Solitude reflects the traditional Latin American role of women as adjuncts to men and implies neither qualitative awareness nor literary criticism of the restrictive political and economic systems and notions (ie marianismo) that perpetuate such notions. As a whole, the women of Macondo are pictured as male-defined, biological reproducers or sexually pleasing objects who are treated thematically as accessories to the men who actually shape and control the world.”
McOndo Movement
The portrayal of Latin American culture and society in One Hundred Years of Solitude has been a point of criticism as well. It has been said that Gabriel Garcia Marquez has created a work in which Western audiences portray popular Latin American culture as a primitive society, lacking in technology, and as a region on the world which has been excluded from the effects of globalization. One group movement that speaks out against this portrayal of Latin America as a primitive society is the McOndo movement. McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks away from the long-dominant magical realist literary tradition by strongly associating itself with mass media culture . McOndo attempts to contextualize being Latin American in a world dominated by American pop culture . The movement challenges the natural or rural, magical world typically depicted by the Magical Realism genre .
The work McOndo, by editors Alberto Fuguet and Sergio Gomez, critiques the re-emphasis of the primitive stereotypes of Latin America in One Hundred Years of Solitude. They say “Nuestro McOndo es tan latinoamericano y magico (exotico) como el Macondo real (que, a todo esto no es real sin virtual). Nuestro pais McOndo es mas grande, sobrepoblado y lleno de contaminacion, con autopistas, metro, TV-cable y barriadas. En McOndo hay McDonald’s, computadores Mac y condominios, amen de hotels cinco estrellas construidos con dinero lavando y malls gigantescos” , roughly translated to say “Our McOndo is just as Latin American as the magic (exotic) as the real Macondo (which isn’t real so much as virtual). Our country McOndo is bigger, densely populated and full on contamination, with highways, public transit, cable TV and neighborhoods. In McOndo there are McDonald’s, Mac computers and condominiums, as well as five-star hotels built with clean money and gigantic malls” . He aims to denounce the primitive nature of Garcia Marquez’s Macondo and contrast it with the new McOndo, the metaphorical Latin America we now know after the effects of globalization and corporatization. “Now, thanks to Fuguet and his peers, there is a new voice south of the Rio Grande. It is savvy, street-smart, sometimes wiseass and un-ashamedly over the top. Fuguet calls this the voice of McOndo--a blend of McDonald's, Macintosh computers and condos. The label is a spoof, of course, not only on Garcia Marquez's fictitious village but also on all the poseurs who have turned these latitudes into a pastel tequila ad. ¡Hola! Fuguet is saying. Latin America is no paradise” .
Internal references
In the novel's final chapter, Márquez references the novel Hopscotch (Spanish: Rayuela) by Julio Cortázar in the following line: "...in the room that smelled of boiled cauliflower where Rocamadour was to die" (p. 412). Rocamadour is a fictional character in Hopscotch who indeed dies in the room described. He also references two other major works by Latin American writers in the novel: The Death of Artemio Cruz (Spanish: La Muerte de Artemio Cruz) by Carlos Fuentes and Explosion in a Cathedral (Spanish: El siglo de las luces) by Alejo Carpentier.
Adaptations
* Shuji Terayama's play One Hundred Years of Solitude (百年の孤独, originally performed by the Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe), as well as his film Farewell to the Ark (さらば箱舟) are loose (and not officially authorized) adaptations of the novel by García Marquez transplanted into the realm of Japanese culture and history.
Although One Hundred Years of Solitude has had such a big impact on the literature world, and although this novel is the author's best selling and most translated around the world, there have been no movies produced about it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has never agreed to sell the rights for producing such film, even though his novel has inspired many to write and has more than enough themes to work on in the film industry. |