Literature Analysis #4

Jose Sagrero

1-31-14

Period 3

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

Summary

      This is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family in Macodo. Jose Arcadio Buendia, along with his wife, travels form his native land, Riohacha, to provide a better life for his family. He dreams of a golden place, Macondo, where he believes that he and hos family would be able to have a wonderful life there. He wakes form a dream and decides to found his dream city by at a riverside, in turn this enables him to mold the place in his image. Macodo becomes a town of unusual and extraordinary events, which involves the Buendia family unable to overcome misfortunes, eventually a hurricane destroys the  dream world of Jose Arcadio Buendia. Then one day a Buendia man discovers an inscription that past generations have failed to decipher. This message informs a recipient of every fortune and misfortune lived by previous generations.

Theme

      A noteworthy theme for this novel is to go for your dreams, even if a problem arises always have hope that it will turn out for the better. Have much faith in what you would yearn to accomplish.

Tone

      The tone of this novel is hopeful and adventurous at first. Then it becomes more depressing when the Buendia families try to overcome many hardships. Then the adventurous feeling arises once again after this newest Buendia man finds this message that had all the misfortunes of the past.

Literary Elements

  Allusion- The town of Macodo is an allusion to the Garden of Eden. At first it is a place wonders,    then it becomes a place of disaster.

 

Assumption- Jose Arcadio Buendia assumes that his fantasy place, Macodo, will be a place of magic and tranquility.

  

Conflict-This conflict is about the ancient beliefs between old traditions and new ways of thinking.

 

Foil- Two sisters fall for the same guy: Rebeca- always takes matters into her own hands going as far as shooting Jose Arcadio when he becomes a monster. Armanta- starts out lively and energetic, but the becomes repressed and withdrawn, she never takes action.

 

Foreshadowing- The final reading of the prophecies was foreshadowed through the entire novel. When the author tells about these prophecies, he tries to portray how puzzled each family is.

 

Hyperbole- "What no member of the family ever knew was that the strangers did not take long to realize that Remedios the Beauty gave off a breath of perturbation,  a tormenting breeze that was still perceptible several hours after she passed by... On the porch with the begonias, in the parlor, in any place in the house, it was possible to point out the exact place where she had been and the time that had passed since she had left it." Although she was not completely in the right mind, Remedios was the most beautiful women to ever walk on Macodo. This Hyperbole states the beauty that she possessed.

 

Irony- In the banana strike, the court uses very vague examples to show that banana workers did not exist and were not "employees" of any firm. This government evasion has some consequences to be dealt with.

 

Motif- The bible- many characters can be allegorical of some biblical characters. The novel reflects the early days of Macado, innocent and free all the way to the apocalyptic events that transpired.

 

Repetition- Marquez shows a lot of repetition to the extent of possibly trying to get the reader to see this repetition. "...she had the lively eyes that Ursula had had at her age and the way in which she said goodbye...revealed the same strength of character (380)."

 

Symbolism- The thousands of gold fish that Colonel Aureliano Buendía makes shifts over time. At first they represent the artistic side of the Aurelianos. It would then go on to represent how Aureliano left his mark on the world.  

Characterization

1. Direct characterization is used when describing Remedios. Her physical attributes were described very detailed. It was better for direct characterization because we would not have such a great understanding of her outer beauty through indirect characterization. Colonel Aureliano Buendía would be direct characterization because he is an artist and was able to be communicated because we were told what his passion in life is and how great of an artist he was. Indirect characterization was used with Jose Arcadio Buendia because Marquez depicts him as a hopeful adventurer who wants his family to have a better life than they have now. He then becomes mad and delusional, but we learn it through his speech and actions. His wife Ursula on the other hand, had strong will power as shown when she lived the longest of he immediate family and even tool in another child as well.
2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's syntax does not change through the novel because it was within the same family and they learn to speak from one another. This is somewhat surprising because we read through many generations of family, but the again they are in solitude.
3. Jose Arcadio Buendia is a dynamic character because we see him go from a hopeful family man to a mad senile old man whose brain is filled with much delusion.
4. I don't feel a personal connection with this story mainly because I am living in a time where it is difficult to be apart form the world, mostly because of technology. I did however understand what many generations of a family had to go through with all these hard ships.