1. Erin Wolgamuth and Samantha Edwards
Conclusions and Interpretations of
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Erin Wolgamuth and Samantha Edwards

2. Progression of Time
Throughout the book time appears to be cyclical as it loops back on itself through a repetition of names, personalities, and events. But in fact time is also progressing in a linear way. According to Bloom “the endless generational cycles of the Buendias and the recurring sequences of events are in fact finite and reach their end.” The Buendia family and Macondo ultimately destroyed when Aureliano Segundo uncovers the prophecies of Melquiades’ papers.

3. Time
The present, past, and future all weigh heavily on the characters.
“Memories and premonition burden the present and separate the
characters from one another.”
-Rebeca’s solitude after the death of Jose Arcadio
-Amaranta’s continuing obsession with the memories of her lovers
-Úrsula finds correlating traits between Buendias across the generations
-Aureliano’s premonitions throughout his life.
-Úrsula and Amaranta both predict their own deaths.
-Jose Arcadio Segundo’s memories of death and massacre haunt him throughout his life.
-His only childhood memory is of being taken to an execution
Aureliano Segundo/Meme/Arcadio(tyrant, dies in front of firing squad)
The characters’ most vivid memories are recounted as they are about to die.
The novel starts with Aureliano Buendia’s memory of ice as he faces death in front of the firing squad.
Until the moment of her death, Meme was obsessed with her memories of Mauricio Babilonia.

4. Historical Parallels Latin America
-The Spanish Conquest is represented by the shipwrecked galleon that Jose Arcadio Buendia finds during his search for civilization.
-contact with Native Indians similar to first explorer’s exposure
-The many civil wars are characteristic of post independence Latin America.
-The arrival of Americans is symbolic of American Imperialism.

5. Historical Parallels Western Civilization (Bloom)
Jose Arcadio Buendia represents the Ionian philosophers
Ionian Philosophers- a branch of Asiatic Greeks
b.c.
-attempted to present ideas as bare facts devoid of all subjectivity
-influenced by exotic ideas of the East
The gypsies represent the Arabs whose contributions to the West include:
compass,
telescope,
magnifying glass
“Jose Arcadio plays the role of innovator rather then creator; he once again searches for a practical use for these inventions”
Ionian philosophers- branch of Azeatec greeks, they presented ideas as bare facts devoid of all subjectivity. They were influenced by exotic ideas of the east. Attempts to find practical ideas for the inventions shown to him by the gypsies who represent the east
-arabic inventions, all brought to Macondo by the gypsies
With the return of Melquiades and the gypsies to Macondo we see a correlation to the 11th and 12th century revival of astronomy and alchemy in the Western World (primarily through contact with the East).
-Melquiades brings the 7 metals corresponding the 7 planets and formulas for alchemy

6. -When the new gypsies arrive without Melquiades, Jose Arcadio is less interested in them, showing the historical, philosophical, and ideological separation between the East and West.
-When Úrsula leaves Jose Arcadio Buendia in search of her son, we see a parallel with the 17th century separation between science and humanity.
-Additionally, Jose Arcadio Buendia no longer fears God in the traditional sense just as divine law was replaced by physical law and God replaced by human reason.
-Úrsula’s return to Macondo with the new immigrants corresponds to the Enlightenment- humanity is once again a part of science.
Plague of Insomnia
-Like the 18th and 19th century Western world, Macondo considers itself wide awake (enlightened) about the world, represented by the plague of insomnia.
-just as eastern science did not “develop” rapidly enough for the western world, so Jose Arcadio is no longer interested in the gypsies “useless toys”
-In their resulting loss of memory, the people of Macondo forget that their view of the world is only one hypothesis and not the ultimate truth.
-According to Marquez the insomnia plague has a political slant. It represents the ability of governments to control information and eliminate the memory of their wrong doings (Janes).

7. Women
-The women’s characters are mostly more stable then their impulsive and quirky male counterparts.
-There is less confusion between names and less repetition of personalities among the women then among the men.
-There are several different parallels to be drawn between the female characters, for example grouping sexual-asexual pairs (Janes).
Úrsula - Pilar Ternera
Amaranta - Rebeca
Remedios the Beauty - Remedios the Child Wife
Fernanda - Petra Cotes

8. Language and Translation
A number of different languages are seen throughout the book.
Secondary languages in the book are associated with insanity, passion, excitement, etc.
-During Melqiades’ last days “he would answer questions in a complex hodgepodge of languages”
-When Jose Arcadio comes back from his adventures his whole body is covered in tattoos of many different languages.
-Pietro Crespi translates his sonnets for Amaranta.
-When Jose Arcadio goes to bed with the gypsy girl before running away with her he “felt himself lifted up into the air toward a state of seraphic inspiration, where his heart burst forth with and outpouring of tender obscenities which entered the girl through her ears and came out of her mouth translated into her language” (pg 37)

9. Bibliography
Estorino, Maria R. “Gabriel García Márquez and His Approach to History in One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The Student Historical Journal Loyola University. 22 March < /Estorino.htm>
Janes, Regina. Gabriel García Márquez: Revolutions in Wonderland. Columbia:University of Missouri Press,1981.
McMurray, George R. Gabriel García Márquez. New York: Frederick Ungar PublishingCo., 1977.
Merrell, Floyd. “José Arcadio Buendía’s Scientific Paradigms: Man in Search of Himself.” Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Gabriel García Márquez. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers,
Penuel, Arnold M. Intertextuality in García Marquez. York: Spanish LiteraturePublications Company, 1994.
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. “The Myth of Apocalypse and Human Temporality in García Márquez’s Cien años de soledad and El otoño del patriarca.”Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Gabriel Gárcia Márquez. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.