Introduction
In the novel one hundred years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez tells the history of the Buendia family, which is the founding family of Macondo town. For many years, the town had remained secluded from the rest of the world with the only visitors it received being the gypsies who were peddlers. Moreover, José Arcadio Buendía, who was the head of this family, had impulsive personality, inquisitive, and always alienated himself from most men. In correspondence, most of his descendants inherited his character traits. After some years, the previously innocent village began creating numerous ties with other towns. As a result, the town experienced many years of civil war which led to the loss of many lives. Consequently, the government of Macondo changed numerous times during and after the civil strife. In this novel the persona describes the magical nature exhibited by the many generations in Macondo village and the virtual reality portrayed by the events that took place, and this is what the study seeks to show based on the questions below.
1: How did Gabriel Garcia Marquez portray unmarried women in the novel?
Unmarried women in the novel are portrayed as immoral. In fact, women are represented to show a slot of sexual attention, and as such becomes the epicenter of sexual attraction. Their immorality is brought out in the way they recklessly engage in sexual activities with men, notwithstanding that their dressing mode is sexually explicit (García, and Gregory 45). For example, women display their obsession with men, and some go as far as engaging in sexual activities with their relatives. The sexual behavior of these women is also depicted in the type of clothes they put on. Clothes tell many things about the personality, behavior and morals of a person. The women’s sexuality is thus exhibited the short clothes that almost expose their nudity, and some wear small and tight shorts that expose their thighs to bring out their sexual image. Besides, Garcia portrays unmarried women’s sexual explicitly by describing their mode of dressing, like putting on small tops that do not completely cover their belly. Thus, Marquez portrays women as the center of sexual attraction and immorality.
Question 2: How did Gabriel Garcia Marquez portray Negromanta? What did this portrayed suggest about his approach to race and gender relations?
Negromanta is portrayed in the novel by the arrival and taking over of Maconda by the Americans. The foreigners invaded the town and took over the town’s leadership from the native people. After they had been established in the area, the town was transformed, and the banana plantations were replaced with roads and railway lines. However, the native community lost their prestige and culture to the Americans, and they were looked down upon by the Americans. Besides, the black people in the town were poor and endured a lot of racial discrimination because they could not afford to dress, speak and live like the Americans (García, and Gregory 67). The intrusion of Maconda made English be the dominant language. However, some natives could not speak English. Those who could not speak English such as Aureliano Segundo communicated using pictures which were shown to children whom he was telling stories. Thus, Garcia portrayed Negromanta as a sense of social cohesion among people of the same color but was significantly underpinned by the perceived superior races. The essence of Negromanta opened an easier avenue by which discrimination was propagated.
The American people considered themselves to be a more civilized race compared to the native people of Maconda. However, because of the evolution of the native people’s culture, the later generations acquired formal education to conform to the way of life of the Americans. Children in the eighth generation of Maconda spoke in English and emulated the American way of dressing.
Gender inequality is also a factor that is brought out in the novel, as there was inequality between men and women. Indeed, women were described as subjects to men, a phenomenon that deprives them of their status in the society. In many occasions, women were seen to be the cause of all problems affecting the community. However, men were considered to be more intelligent and right on most occasions. Therefore, men had an effective focal point of view compared to women who exhibited the lower periphery of the society.
Question 3: Who were Melquiades and what were his roles in the novel?
Melquiades in the novel is a leader of a group of nomadic gypsies who traveled through a remote town called Macondo. This town is home to a family of native Columbians referred to Buendia family. Melquiadesis were received well by the patriarch of the Buendia family known as Jose Arcadio Buendia. However, the town was cut from outside world until the arrival of Melquiades along with his caravan of gypsies.
Melquiades is portrayed as the legend that brings technology to this town and its inhabitants. Jose Arcadio Buendia is obsessed with his inventions, which includes actions such as flying carpet, ice, magnifying glasses, and magnets. Besides, Melquiades performed scientific experiments inside the laboratory at the backyard of the Buendia’s homestead (García, and Gregory 32). He also taught Aureliano the skills of a goldsmith and discouraged Jose Arcadio Buendia when he tried to mine gold using the magnets.
Melquiades character creates conflicting ideas on the real and the wild world, and it is demonstrated in several instances. For example, it is in this lab that he writes the mysterious manuscripts that he gives to Jose Arcadio Buendia and tells him that they can only be deciphered after a hundred years. The locals consider it magic when magnets on the roof, pulled the parchments the children were tampering. Again, when Aureliano (II) finally decodes the manuscripts, he discovers that they contain the whole history and destiny of the Buendia family including the instance of his reading them. In yet another irony, Melquiades dies and comes back to life several times in the novel. It is said that, when the whole town is plagued with insomnia and memory loss, it is Melquiades who used some magic potion to cure them and bring back their memories (García, and Gregory 45). All these events demonstrate the mysterious character of Melquiades and introduce the reader to the mythical culture of the Colombian people in the past and even in modern day Colombia.
Question 4: How is time portrayed in One Hundred Years of Solitude?
Events in most novels happen chronologically but not so in the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Time is depicted as mythical, sometimes moving linearly and circular on other occasions. It is linearly structured when Jose Arcadio Buendia marries his cousin Ursula when they elope to establish Macondo, and together raise a family, which is later swept off to extinction by a hurricane.
However, certain events in the novel occur in a circular time structure. The names of some characters such as Jose Arcadio and Aureliano are repeated across generations resulting in five Jose Arcadio’s and twenty-two Aureliano’s. Incest also occurs across several generations of the Buendia family. Ursula, the matriarch of the family, warned that children born out of incest might be born with the tail of a pig. The inferno happens later in the novel when a child is born with a pig’s tail.
The personalities of the male characters also have a cyclic nature as it is repeated in all generations. The Jose Arcadio’s are portrayed as rash and bold whereas the Aureliano’s as simple and with an inclination towards solitude. In the end, the extinction of Jose Arcadio and Ursula's clan, which was based and thrived on incestuous relationships, was inevitable. Finally, the linear nature of time in the novel overcomes its cyclic nature, and the Buendia family is wiped from existence.
Work Cited
García, Márquez G, and Gregory Rabassa. One Hundred Years of Solitude. London: Penguin, 2000. Print.
