Critical Analysis Of One Hundred Years Of Solitude

A Critical Analysis of One Hundred Years of Solitude in Context of History of Latin America and the Genealogy of Buendia Family Abstract: In this paper an attempt has been made to critically analyse one of the popular novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez by first taking into account the history of Latin America as a nation which is reflected in its miniature version of Macondo in the novel. Furthermore, the study of plot of the text and the facts in history are juxtaposed through the history of Buendia family which forms the timeless zone and faces decadence at the end. The colonial aspect will be discussed in relation to politics and technological advancement leading to the effacement of the town. Additionally, the technique of ‘magic realism’

The reason behind this attention which they drew prevailed due to the success of the Cuban revolution in 1959 which promised the dawn of new age. The novels written in this period were modernist in nature and they used time as a non-linear entity implying multiple perspectives. Moreover, it used the surrealistic technique called ‘magic realism’, which interfused the factual with the fantastic to reveal the “mysterious elements hidden in everyday reality” (Johnston). The novel Hundred Years, traces the development of Macondo from its utopian stage to complete destruction. In the opening chapter, it is revealed that Macondo was the happiest village where even things lacked names and were only pointed out and no one had died only to be followed by a series of deaths later. However, there is a shift in the events and Macondo goes through military struggle in the form of civil wars and Banana strike massacre, achieves economic prosperity through United Fruit Company yet declines in spiritual terms and is wiped out in the end. Therefore the American capitalist forces by establishing the company employ economic exploitation and the massacre of banana strike results from the military’s act of suppression. The cultural aspect can be exemplified symbolically through the English encyclopaedia, which is given by Patricia Brown that shows how the

She further relates that Garcia used “…solitude [as] a form and product of violence…exploration of a broken history and an inchoate identity” (1237-39). This can be analysed through the dictatorial figures of Arcadio and Colonel Aureliano Buendia wherein the former’s obsession with the order and his tyranny effect and dismantle him emotionally. On the other hand, the Colonel chooses to retreat into isolation only to engage in a futile and unending process of making and unmaking the gold fishes. The question being raised is whether this isolation led to positive results? And to exemplify this idea further, the issue of resistance and rebellion are to be first discussed theoretically and later through textual