Ignorance is Bliss in 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s seminal novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude is perhaps one of the most iconic works of fiction to ever emerge from Latin America. Given its international pedigree, I decided to kick off Books Beyond Borders in one of the continent’s most well-loved fictional towns, Macondo.

Marquez, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982, is generally considered to be one of the most prestigious writers of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was perfectly encapsulated by Juan Manuel Santos, the former President of Colombia, who called Marquez, “The greatest Colombian who ever lived”.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was one of Latin America' most iconic novelists. He wrote around 30 novels before he passed away in 2014.

Written in the late 1960s, One Hundred Years of Solitude documents the innumerable highs and lows of the Buendia family and the town in which they live, Macondo. Forever dealing in binaries, the novel is an undulating chronicle of prosperity and decline, ecstasy and misery, and community and solitude.

Often mirroring the periods of political turbulence and economic instability endured by Colombia and the country’s neighbouring states, the novel – and the town of Macondo – can be interpreted as a microcosm of Colombian history and culture.

Spanning across a host of different generations, Marquez’s novel traces the Buendia family from the original founding of Macondo to the town’s ultimate annihilation.

Through the use of intense and intimate family ties, Marquez explores an ever-growing array of themes from the loss of innocence to the eternal quest for knowledge.

The idea of an extended family-saga may appear wholly indistinguishable from the great American novels by writers such as John Steinbeck and William Faulker, however, there is one thing that truly sets One Hundred Years of Solitude apart – the use of Magic Realism.

Just one of a host of virtues to come from the late 1960s Latin American literary movement, The Boom, Marquez’s Magic Realism permeates much his work and is a hallmark of his overall writing style.

Candidly speaking, Magic Realism is the use of surreal imagery and language within a narrative that is intended to comment on reality. However, the style is generally thought to be hard to pin down because all writers tend to employ different elements of the style within their individual works.

In Marquez’s novel, Magic Realism is almost always used to emphasize and accentuate the human condition and the characters’ moments of intimacy, loss, sadness, anger and upheaval.

Whether it’s a daughter suddenly ascending to the heavens while she hangs the washing out or a cloud of yellow butterflies that follow a man wherever he goes, much of Marquez’s novel is blanketed by a cloak of absurdity.

The Loss of Innocence…

While not the governing focus of the narrative, Marquez often concerns himself with the idea of the corruptibility of innocence. From the lifelong adultery of Aureliano Segundo to the romance between the bastard-born Aureliano and his aunt Amaranta Ursula, many of the novel’s characters are beleaguered by lust and tortured by immoral desires.

Ursula, the aged matriarch of the Buendia family, often represents one of the few characters who is concerned with what is right and decent. In fact, Ursula is so concerned that she fears any inbreeding will result in a Buendia being born with the tail of a pig – a premonition that hangs over the tale till the bitter end.

With so many Buendia’s both living and dying over the course of the narrative, the scale and size of Pilar Ternera’s funeral did initially come as a surprise. Essentially a concubine who lives until the ripe old age of 140, Pilar Ternera is a character who lives purely on the fringes of the novel. Both an outsider and an outcast, Pilar Ternera plagues the narrative from start to finish.

Absurdly, I believe that, in many ways, Pilar Ternera is one of Marquez’s central characters – his true muse. Through her carnal corruption of both Jose Arcadio and Colonial Aureliano Buendia and the birth of Arcadio, Pilar Ternera makes her mark on both the Buendia family and the story itself – the outcast ultimately finds her way in.

Marquez uses the character of Pilar Ternera like a syringe in which he injects his story with strong doses of impiety and vice. During Macondo’s dying days, the ancient Pilar Ternera turns much of the town into her very own “paradise”, a sordid wonderland fitting only of her character.

This development, however, comes as no surprise. Considering the influence she has on the tale, it is only natural that Marquez awards the exploits of one of his favourite characters.

The Quest for Knowledge…

A thirst for knowledge is something that many of Marquez’s characters have in common. From the family patriarch’s search for contact with the world’s “great inventions” to Aureliano’s aim to decipher meaning from Melquiades’ strange parchments, different members of the Buendia family exhibit the same urge to propel Macondo into the modern world and discover more about their individual roles within that world.

However, on more than one occasion, Marquez indicates that the quest for knowledge, truth, innovation and discovery can often prove fruitless or even destructive.

For example, much fanfare is made of the first train that arrives at Macondo. Having no prior experience of locomotives, many of the locals are bemused by the arrival of the first train. Yet, before long, wonder and excitement are replaced by something far darker. After the military decides to massacre subordinate workers and innocent townsfolk alike, the train is used to carry the corpses of more than 3,000 people to the sea.

Another example of the destructive nature of knowledge comes when Aureliano finally discovers the truth behind Melquiades’ parchments. Upon his death, Melquiades, a knowledgeable gypsy who is a friend of the family, leaves a set of parchments at the house that are left untouched for generations. When the bastard-born Aureliano finally discovers the truth of these parchments – that they actually foretell every fortune and misfortune to befall the Buendia family – a hurricane abruptly destroys Macondo once and for all.

Aureliano spends his entire life trying to decipher a set of parchments that behold the character’s solemn fate. His attainment for knowledge eventually spells out the demise of all that he has ever known.

The Inevitability of Solitude…

However, while the novel explores a litany of different themes, it never fails to return to its central premise – both the perpetuity and inescapability of solitude.

When asked once about the meaning of solitude within his work, Marquez mercurially replied, "I think it's a problem everybody has. Everyone has his own way and means of expressing it. The feeling pervades the work of so many writers, although some of them may express it unconsciously."

Amid the various highs and lows of the novel, Marquez inevitably brings home the sense of isolation and solitude that is innate within life. There is no real crescendo or denouement because, much like the lives it depicts, the novel is purely cyclical. And while the family’s tales offer intense moments of intimacy and ecstasy, the lasting message speaks of internal solitude and poignant loneliness.