The Power Struggles In “One Hundred Years of Solitude“

The author of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude “is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is a novelist; renowned author, short story writer, screenwriter, and journalist (Márquez et al., 2019) . Marquez originally wrote this novel in Spanish and later on translated it into many other languages. Marquez is also a Colombian novelist and is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 (González Echevarría, 2019). Marquez left his school and studies to pursue a career in journalism. He is considered as one of the most remarkable authors. García Márquez had published four books in Spanish before “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (Bergdahl, 2019). Gravity’s Rainbow, Devil Lies In Couper, Love In The Time Of Cholera, Leaf storm are some of his published books. This was the authors first time writing in the genre of magical realism and now is considered as founding fathers in Latin magical realism. Marquez was once called the “the greatest Columbian who ever lived”.

“One Hundred Years Of Solitude” is a 1967 novel. The magical realism style of this book established it as an important novel in the literature. Issues of time and history are influential themes in nearly all the works by the author so there is huge social , economic, and political impact in this novel of his like the: banana massacre incident of 1928, increasing colonization, and modernization; nature of patriarchal society at that time, history of Columbia, dominating nature of conservative government prioritizing war can be clearly observed.

This novel is an epic family saga which follows the story of seven generations of buendia family, in town of Macondo which is a mythical place of isolation, which later on gets connected to the outer world. We follow over 100 years of this family through all their exploits involving love, violence, hatred, guilt, and death in the town they live. The main topic area is of this novel is Columbia. “Each Buendia in his or her own way eventually becomes isolated or alienated either from choice or from circumstances beyond his or her control” (Help and Solitude, 2019) . This book has made an impact of its own in compare to other books published in this area and it does complete justice in reflecting the cultural aspects of Latin America. The book quickly became a benchmark for magical realism and this book launched his literary career to an international stage.

The main argument in the book is about the repetition of history with some layers of magical realism and struggle between old and new ways of life which is tradition and modernity itself. This book deals with the fact of people being nostalgic, getting stuck in their life, unable to move on from things they have no control of . Reality becoming magic would be the perfect tagline for this book. The book is well written and the subjects are well argued providing readers with various proofs and facts to support the assumptions made by the author himself. As a reader I find the writing technique of this novel very considerate and appropriate. The real aspect and fictional aspect are blended perfectly in this book. This book takes you in a journey full of different: emotions and transitions so, the way you perceive thing changes as you turn the pages and get more involved in the book. As the story goes along there is more and more details so the book is well structured.

The element that makes this book special is magical realism and the rawness, yet the concreteness of the characters. Talking about the weak aspect this book: it is very dense with much information and there is very little room for dialogues. “One Hundred Years Of Solitude” has been among some of the greatest achievement to the literature of Latin America. The author Marquez was even awarded with noble prize in literature in 1982 for his creation.

This book perfectly portrays how basically nothing changes because we all seem to be trapped by history, a history that no one knows and therefore is criticized to repeat. Consequently, if I will have to choose a book for assessment in near future I will be choosing a book, which leaves different kind of impact on me after reading, which inspires me; moves me from inside, and where I feel some sort of connection to the characters. Retaining full information from the book; searching for the key words or sentences mentioned, and keeping that in mind; reading and going through the book very attentively, will definitely ensure me to answer different kind of questions about the next book I read .Interpreting skills, summarizing skills, observing skills, gets polished after practicing such book reviewing exercise; also the information you get with every assessment is very different. These above mentioned skills tend to be very useful and important, and will help to improve your perspective about different things, subjects, and will guide you intellectually.

References

1. González Echevarría, R. (2019). Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Biography, Books, Nobel Prize, & Facts. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez [Accessed 7 Jan. 2019].
2. Márquez, G., Solitude, O., Márquez, G., Rabassa, G., Cholera, L., Márquez, G., Grossman, E., Foretold, C., Márquez, G., Rabassa, G., Whores, M., Márquez, G., Grossman, E. and Demons, O. (2019). Gabriel García Márquez. [online] Goodreads.com.Availableat: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13450.Gabriel_Garc_a_M_rquez [Accessed 7 Jan. 2019]
3. Bergdahl, E. (2019). 9 Magical Facts About 100 Years of Solitude. [online] Mentalfloss.com. Available at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/74166/9-magical-facts-about-100-years-solitude [Accessed 25 Jan. 2016].
4. Help, H. and Solitude, O. (2019). What is the meaning of solitude in the novel 100 year of solitude? | eNotes. [online] eNotes. Available at: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-meaning-solitude-novel-100-year-solitude-161661 [Accessed 7 Jan. 2019].