One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez G Garcia - Research Paper Example

One Hundred Years of Solitude The book One Hundred Years of Solitude depicts different critical interpretations brought about by the author’s artistic intentions that are partially obscured and the intention of the novel as a myth poetic vision yet to be established adequately. It also asserts that the world is divided into two historical periods which have unique features of repeating themselves. The Macondo is revealed as a biblical paradise. It is depicted as a town characterized merely the presence of the exterior world being the supernatural gypsies .On the other hand, the paradise is almost immediately attacked by its initial attack, that of the insomnia plague. It is actually marked by an increase in communication and getting in touch with with the rest of the world which in turn brings things such as movie theater running water, electricity and railroad. The characters survive on earth that is believed not to exist, while outside features of which they are not aware determine their future. The world in this novel is characterized by cyclical and repetitions. The important of the world in this novel is that it insightfully explores the role played by historical awareness on the part of the people living on the occasion. Additionally, it depicts the role that it may take in determining any history. During that time Macondo was a village of approximately twenty houses, built on the bank of a river of clean water. For that reason many things than were within this village were deficient in names and it was necessary to point when indicating anything. As illustrated in the book, the elements of structure, form and theme relate and correspond with each other cohesively. The novel’s subversive function is derived by the dialectic synthesis of imaginary and real phenomenon together with the actual and potential mythological vision of Macondo. The author Garcia Marquez attempts to reflect contradictions witnessed in the past century on historical development of the capitalist society as the central theme, solitude, illustrates the Marxist conception of alienation. This is defined as experiencing the world passively in form of a subject separated from the object (Garcia, 380). The characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude are in touch with themselves indirectly and are completely isolated from humanity. This implies that the Buendia family lack Mark’s view of species consciousness. The individuals are not only alienated from other men and women but also from humanity itself. Characters try to establish alien power over others in order to satisfy their egoistic need. In review of the Macondo village, Marxist criticism is demonstrated in the novel by explaining how the author symbolizes Macondo as a suitable serene place with natural settings similar to the Garden of Eden in the Bible (Garcia, 1). However, Macondo progressively loses its innocence as it continuously seeks more knowledge and creates more innovations technologically. In addition, reference of Macondo to a prehistoric egg depicts an entirely different account of origin; evolution. Garcia Marquez by using two different theories of origin tries to indicate that he will invent his own mythology to relate with the book. His aim is to not depend solely in either science or the Bible but to allow readers to accept different myths at the same time. Myths are differentiated not only by their subjects and themes but also by the attitudes they adopt in relation to reality. The first three chapters the author uses anachronism to compress the beginning of the novel. For example Jose Arcadio Buendia discovered that the earth is round which is similar to Columbus in the nineteenth century. The Macondo village had likewise commercialized by the third chapter. The next three hundred pages however are concerned with the rise of the city of ice that is comprised of railroads, mechanized agriculture, communication and industrialization. Further, the fight between liberals and conservatives is not detailed on basis of opinion and the only difference being the time they attend masses respectively (Garcia, 39). Inhabitants of Macondo developed the place more than how they found it in the sixteenth century by introducing the railroad, phonograph, telephones and the electric bulb. However the citizens of Macondo who are used to the natural ways of doing things are resistant and doubt the new technological advancements. This quote occurs immediately after arrival of the railway. The people of Macondo who once believed in the magical and mythical world as nature’s reality must now embrace and accept technology. In the process of changing their town, technology offers a crucial turning point in society development and enhancement (Garcia, 78). In the book Garcia Marquez elaborates how one person cannot believe the telephone voice is the ghost of Jose Buendia who is more unbelievable to modern eyes than the technological inventions. In addition readers of the book One Hundred Years of Solitude are put in a position that they will have to abandon those modern eyes in favor of the Macondo people’s perspective. Therefore, readers with no prior awareness of both points of view might misinterpret the context of the novel. Jose Arcadio Buendia tries to invent ways of using the gadgets the Gypsies bring based on prior discovered math. In this context it is expected that prior invented knowledge should be categorized on the personal level because it already exists and therefore ceases to be an innovation (Garcia 105). The society in the book is depicted as united; however, this applies to family members only. It is depicted that Ursula abruptly realizes that the dwelling had become full of inhabitants, that her offspring were in the position of marrying and getting children, and that they have the obligation to scatter for absence of space. She then took out the funds she had saved over long years of hard work, made arrangements with her clients and undertook the improvement of the house. This quote is found in the third chapter and illustrates how the society is reluctant in moving forward and allowing children to become individual adults. Ursula insists on keeping the family together regardless of the number of generations that she is housing. This unhealthy closeness to the family may have been as a result of interdependence among the communities. The Marxist critics stresses on the point that talks about experiencing one’s history as a fantasy in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. They insist that the rules that govern the humanity are those of the rulers and for that reason, those places which have no power over their own fate live without such balanced guidelines. Thus, they disagree by saying that Marquez’s novel is not clearly depicting that life is a dream rather it says that Latin American life is a dream. The unauthenticity and unreality forced by approximately five hundred years of lack of independence and that when a hallucination becomes a everlasting living terrible it is probably point in time to come around and attend to it. One of the Marxist critics by the name Merrified, disapproves of the novel. Particularly, one of the characters in the novel says that he does not comprehend the point of a political challenge in which both parties agree on the set of laws. According to him, surrender and control to the modern rules of the game signify defeat before the fight even gets a move on. The critic expresses fresh politics based on the above assertion by saying that magical Marxist is based on illogicality. He argues that magical Marxist entails creating another fantasy in the light of the ruling fantasy which is brought about by the ability to reinvest and interrupt, to motivate hope and generate longing. The vague impression of delusion and realism in the society of the spectacle sets a dissimilar outline for Marxists. They note that Marquez adds in the explicit, historical reality of a mass execution of banana business employees in Cienaga, Columbia in 1928. Moreover, the Marxist takes the presented world as the substance for misapprehension that he try to summon up. According to them, no one can claim to know accurately how many inhabitants were killed, and what the Marquez’s version of the novel of the banana employees mass execution reveal is the manner in which the realism of probable subjective illusions and realism of historical truth which turn out to be similar in all aspects. It becomes extremely difficult to distinguish them. For this reason, Marxists asks whether it is essential to play the function of unmasking delusions to get at the factual truth. In addition, they argue that all Marxists that seek out to dismiss illusions move about in the reverse direction to fundamental politics. Furthermore, it is argued that major politics must be carried out along a dissimilar continuum. This simply implies that the writer behaved like someone visualizes something in the present tense while under pressure to comprehend it in the future, eventually. The Marxists discusses communism which surrounds the publication of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. They tip out that direct-action anarchism is more than basically a fellow traveler, but rather that an agreement is essential for magical Marxists. The Marxist, James Higgins believes that the novel by Garcia Marque rejected hard-line ideology of stubbornness and his one flirtation with the certified Marxist party was tremendously concise. The novel One Hundred Years of solititude was in print at a point in time when there was the existence of Cuban Revolution. Garcia Marquez was a loyal socialist. Considering the novel’s anxiety with the region’s history the Marxist crtitics interpreted that the storm that destroys Macondo is a moment of radical change that deserves attention. Furthermore, the novel concentrates on the solitude which failed and was replaced by social solidarity. Throughout the novel time is considered cyclical and seeing in the future is compared to remembering something in the past. The ideology of predetermined fate is considered as natural and has been illustrated in several quotes in the text. For instance, Aureliano Jose had been fated to find with Carmelita Montiel the joy that Amaranta had deprived of him, to have 7 children, and to pass away in her arms of mature age, but the projectile that entered his back and devastated his chest had been heading for by a wrong explanation of the cards (Pg 73). This passage in chapter eight not only foretells the future but also affects its outcome. The historical occurrences also are repetitive in nature given and thereby the author uses reading and interpreting as a powerful status. In the final pages where Aureliano (II)’s reading prophecies destroys Macondo. Aureliano (II) had previously comprehended the fact that he would never go away from the room, for it was foretold that the city of mirrors would be exhausted by the wind and sent away from the recall of men at the particular instant when Aureliano Babilonia would come to an end making sense of the parchments and that all written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and eternally more. (Pg 43 Aureliano believes completely in the prophecies and that his family will also be destroyed as foretold. By coupling mirrors with mirage in the novel, Garcia Marquez illustrates the questionable status of the reality of Macondo and forces readers to be aware of their reading and imagining the story of the town (Garcia, 225). Emotions in the book are expressed as influencing rational decisions and behaviors. The thought of a peninsular Macondo existed for a long moment in time, stimulated by the random map that Jose Arcado Buendia sketched on his come back from the voyage. He drew it in fury evilly, making a mountain out of a molehill of the problems of communication, as if to discipline himself for the complete lack of wisdom with which he had selected to place. (pg 5) This is clearly found in the first chapter and illustrates how a drawing that was drawn sarcastically is later taken serious by everyone. Such occurrences of emotional expression overshadow the reality in the novel Work Cited García, Márquez G.One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Print Read More