One Hundred Years of Solitude book review PDF

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García Márquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad). Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006 (rpt. 1967).

In his book, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” author Gabriel Garcia Márquez recounts the story of the Buendia family in the town of Macondo in which we see the town transform from simple to a more complex busy town but in turn of events we also see how the Buendia family keeps evolving and how incest befalls on the family. The argument of the book is set on how the author wants to reveal how incest was present in the Buendia family and how from the beginning Ursula Iguaran knew that one day incest would befall her family which in the end it did, Aureliano III’s lovemaking with Ursula Amaranta results in a child with a pigtail. The text of this book takes place from past, present, future and has 20 chapters in total, what makes this book unique is its use of magical realism. The author proves and supports his argument by relying on his childhood memories and the ending when Aureliano III’s child is born with a pigtail. For the purposes of this book review the reader will explore the concept of magical realism to suggest how fantasy and reality exists together to shape a worldview. The reader begins to view that author Gabriel Garcia Márquez uses magic realism to not only mix fantasy and reality but to represent his Columbian culture. As Columbian culture along with many Latin cultures are mixed with superstitions and are very traditional. The reader can see this representation with the theme of incest present in the Buendia family. It all happened when Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran got married being cousins. Ursula Iguaran fears sleeping with her husband/cousin Jose Arcadio Buendia as she feels that the same terrible fate can occur to her when her aunt and Jose Arcadio Buendia’s uncle had a baby born with a pigs tail. As the author states, “An aunt of Ursula’s, married to an uncle of Jose Arcadio Buendia, had a son who went through life wearing loose, baggy trousers and who bled to death after having lived fortytwo yrs in the purest state of virginity, for he had been born and had grown up with a cartilaginous tail in the shape of a corkscrew and with a small tuft of hair”(p.20). This is an example of how magical realism is used to represent columbian culture I feel but also latin culture. Living in a Latin household myself, it has been told that mating with a blood relative is a sin and will only bring consequences and curse to the family. Although, in reality being born with a pig's tail is not possible, Marquez uses this magical realism to bring to the point the curse that Ursula’s family can face since she married her cousin. In the end there were many circumstance where incest was present in the family and it finally hit when Aureliano III’s child was born with a pigs tail. The ending describes how Amaranta Ursula died giving birth to her child and how in the end the child born with a pigs tail died as well, its corpse being eaten by swarm of red ants. This magical realism symbolizes the end and curse of the Buendia family. The reader can see how magical realism plays a role in religion in this story. An example of magical realism occurs when Father Nicanor arrives to the town of Macondo determined to stay as priest and christianize the people. The people of Macondo however pay no attention to him

and Father Nicanor becomes frustrated at this. To grab the attention of the people author states that, “Father Nicanor rose six inches above the level of the ground. It was a convincing measure. He went among the houses for several days repeating the demonstration of levitation…” (p. 82). Another quote of Father Nicanor and magic realism is, “He merely stretched on his stool a little and shrugged his shoulders when Father Nicanor began to rise up from the ground along with the chair he was sitting on” (pg.82). This example of magical realism demonstrates how Father Nicanor’s levitation relates to religion. People who usually are religious or know not much about science would view Father Nicanor’s levitation as a proof of God or a miracle of God. At that time the town of Macondo was not as progressed, the people of the town couldn’t find any other logical explanation for Father Nicanor’s levitation so they start believing in the existence of God. While Jose Arcadio Buendia who is a man of science doesn’t believe that Father Nicanor’s levitation was proof of God existing. Father Nicanor rising six inches above ground to the reader is something magical or fantasy but it is also something symbolic that relates with religion and how people view religion. Another example of magical realism that demonstrates exaggeration but is also symbolic in a way is the rain that falls upon the town of Macondo. As the author states, “It rained for four years, eleven months, and two days” (p. 315). To give a better understanding, Jose Arcadio Segundo organized with workers to strike against the banana plantation as the working conditions there were poor. The government reacts to this by tricking the workers into meeting up and therefore massacring every one of them but Jose Arcadio Segundo is the only one who escapes alive. After the massacre of the workers a period of big rain starts to fall in Macondo. The rain symbolizes all traces of the massacre being wiped out. As the people of Macondo deny there ever being a massacre and the government also denies massacring all those innocent workers. As the government wants to erase all traces of the massacre and wants the people also to keep silent and pretend like nothing happened. This is exactly what the rain symbolizes the erasing of the massacre as the rain floods the town and destroys all evidence and the people also continue to remain unaware of disconnected to what happened. Instead of people investigating or questioning the rain or the workers they just adjust to their new living conditions. Jose Arcadio Segundo is the only one who remembers the tragedy that struck the workers and is frustrated but also sad that no one seems to remember what atrocity the government committed against these innocent workers. Gabriel Garcia Márquez has made an important contribution to the field of Latin American literature with his book, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” as he’s one of the authors who introduced magical realism into literature. The book is worth reading as what makes it interesting is Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s use of magical realism. I find that with every magical realism that is found in this book it does not only mix fantasy with reality but it can also be symbolic. As mentioned in my review I found some examples of magical realism to be symbolic in a way and also to represent Latin Culture. What is also interesting about the book is how the reader gets to see how the town of Macondo goes through changes, the reader watches the town grow with

each chapter she or he reads. Some of the strengths of this book is like I mentioned earlier how Gabriel Garcia Márquez is able to incorporate magical realism and make it symbolic as well it gives the book a fun twist in my opinion because it mixes fantasy and reality. Another strength of this book are the characters, the characters in this book have strong personalities we get to witness different personalities and their strengths and weaknesses. Although the book has a interesting story I found it to have a lot of weaknesses in the way it was structured and written in some parts. First the characters names can be confusing to the reader as the names keep repeating themselves. Because the names are repeated various times it made it a struggle and a hassle because one has to reread, pay attention a lot more than needed, and go back and forth. It is like watching a movie, one does not want to keep rewinding or going back and forth it will only make the movie less enjoyable, this is the same with the book. Another weakness is that the pages do not have the chapters inscribed which makes it difficult because sometimes the reader wants to go back to a chapter but it can be hard finding it because the chapters aren’t written. Another personal weakness to me as the reader is the chapters are very long which. The book can be enhanced by adding a family tree of the Buendia family although it already includes one I feel it is vague so a more detailed one would help the reader with the character names as they can be confusing. Other than that as difficult as it was to read this book, its use of magical realism and the story are very interesting.

Aimee Mora California State University, Dominguez Hills November 26, 2018...