Magic realism, loneliness and fantasies of the Buendía family
Introduction
The history of Latin American literature has been elaborated after many years of writing and thought. It is through these ideas that magical realism arose, and Gabriel García Márquez wrote ‘one hundred years of solitude’ from a literary perspective. One hundred years of solitude is one of the most influential works in the world, not only in Latin America. Magic realism is a literary movement in the mid -twentieth century. It is defined as a style of attention and interest. The purpose is to show unreal or strange things as everyday things.
When we say loneliness, we generally think about lack, oblivion and emptiness, when the word fantasy is mentioned, we associate it with joy, magic, wonderful behaviors and charm. These two aspects are two totally opposite sides and thus García Márquez inspires readers’ enthusiasm.
When reading the full text, we have seen plots where different characters emphasize the feeling of ‘loneliness’ and so makes us feel from the first paragraph of the book.
Here is a brief summary of what the book is about to put us in context
‘One hundred years of solitude’ was published in 1967 and described the origin, evolution and destruction of Macondo. Macondo is a fictional town that has appeared in three stories previously published by the author. As a family legend, the history of Buendía’s lineage covers more than a hundred years, and until now six generations have passed. The chronicles of the Buendía have accumulated many fantastic, interesting and violent plots, while the chronicles of Macondo from beginning to end represent a complete cycle of culture and the entire world. The violent atmosphere in which his character develops symbolizes his feeling of loneliness, whose reason is more a life condition than a personal survival pain.Magic realism (also called wonderful real) combines the objectivity of material life with the subjectivity of fantasy. This unusual situation (similar to fairy tales, suspension, heart and now the supersensorial state) creates a magical atmosphere that relieves the suffering of society and humans. Therefore, this magical atmosphere highlights cruelty dislocation, the violence that dominates in everyday life.
Within the work, the different types of loneliness experienced by Buendía can be observed, especially due to their inability to love, so that a different type of loneliness is shown for each character. The children of the union of José Arcadio and Úrsula are the most affected by loneliness. It is said that antisocial behaviors can be identified as a clinical disorder, inherited from a family member who already suffered them. But also the person’s environment, especially that of direct relatives, is very important in their subsequent development. We have José Arcadio son as a firstborn, then Colonel Aureliano, and the child, Amaranta. Each with different characteristics that lead to raw loneliness.
Then I will name some of the characters in the work and describe them briefly to demonstrate the type of loneliness of each character in the first place we have José Arcadio Buendía, he experiences the loneliness that the discoveries, science and findings of the world in addition to theAttempt for the elaboration of inventions which lead to confinement in a total loneliness. Other important characters of the work is Úrsula Iguaran, wife of José Arcadio Buendía, he experiences the loneliness that brings to live so much and knowing that no one cares about her, but she of all of everyone. We continue with Aureliano Buendía, this character suffers from loneliness that brings him especially when he is a colonel and is in command of everything and also the loneliness that war brings to him. Finally, not to make this explanation so long, Pilar Ternera comes, she suffers from loneliness because of desire and after having so many men next to her end completely alone. And so all the characters experience some kind of loneliness throughout the work.
Quotes
"José Arcadio Buendía spent the long months of rain locked in a little room at the bottom of the house so that no one will disturb …" (Gabriel García Márquez Márquez. (1967). One hundred years of loneliness. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta.)
Loneliness is the lack of company. This lack can be voluntary (when the person decides to be alone) or involuntary (when the subject is only for different circumstances of life). In this phrase you can see how José Arcadio transmits that feeling of loneliness
"That the city of mirages would be razed by the wind and banished from the memory of men at the moment that …" (Gabriel García Márquez. (1967). One hundred years of loneliness. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta.)
Like the appointment above this phrase has a feeling of loneliness this can be seen when paying attention to the following words which were used in that sentence, the words are "razed" and "banished", these two confirm the loneliness ofMacondo people exterminated by the wind and that will even more will be banished from memory.
"We still don’t have a dead," he said. One is nowhere as long as he does not have a dead person under the earth." (Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (1967). One hundred years of loneliness. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta.)
José Arcadio tells this phrase to his wife Úrsula when he tries to convince her to leave Macondo, although he knows that this time no one will follow him with his idea. This phrase is false throughout the book, because although most of the descendants of this marriage, most of the goodies, die in Macondo, nobody remembers them at the end, even if they were all buried there, they are forgotten, by thesame reason, in my opinion, it makes no senseThat still does not mean that it belongs there.
"This was always, oblivious to the existence of her children, partly because she considered childhood as a period of mental failure" (Gabriel García Márquez. (1967). One hundred years of loneliness. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta.)
Here we see how the author Gabriel García Márquez, makes us know that José Arcadio was never very involved in raising his children, with his daily life, with the things they have been doing since then, even with his education, which they always saw howIf they were useless when passing through this phase of their life. This phrase can also emphasize the fact that José Arcadio’s way of thinking was very different from that of the rest of the people, or at least today, since it is always said that it contradicts its way of thinking that childhood is thebest phase in the life of a person. It is the richest phase in which we learn everything that is fundamental in life. In this case, it is a bit contradictory to think about ‘childhood as a moment of mental insufficiency’ if it is rather the phase in which we acquire most of the essential knowledge about the world to deal with the rest of our lives.
conclusion
- The novel is considered a reference of the so -called Latin American boom and magical realism, a trend that emerged in Latin America between 1940 and 1950 in which reality is mixed with fantastic or imaginary elements typical of American reality.
- The novel is representative of historical and social events that have affected Latin America, such as civil wars, and American economic colonization.
- Suicide, love, heartbreak, betrayal, longing freedom, desired modernity, intuition to tragedy are themes that the state of loneliness of each of the characters represents that is to say each one lives differently.
- The characters represent and exalt the most raw and the greatest characteristics of the human being as well as an internal struggle against their own destiny
- A marked scale of social classes is included in the social, economic and political sphere due to the introduction of outsider to the town of Macondo: Gypsies, Turks, Arabs, Africans, American (begin a neocolonialist society) and Italian.
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