This novel certainly lives up to its name, and was a great read for reading break, as it actually made me want to keep reading it. I certainly got lost in the text multiple times, which is often a difficult thing for me to do. The in-depth descriptions, intricate and passionate relationships between the characters, and compelling meaning behind all of it created a world that was pleasant to get lost in. Themes surrounding life and death, time, and the uniqueness of Macondo as a magical-realist place interested me the most, so I’ll be focusing on those in this post, but I also found many themes around revolution and other important topics we had gone over in our discussion classes.
One of the largest anxiety-inducing scenes in this book came from the first death in Macondo, as it signified a change in tone in the story. During the first part, Gabriel Marquez seemed to make a point that Macondo was without death, that the youthfulness of the town and separation from government, politics, and death created a magical place. The death of Melquiades was fitting as the first reality check for the town, as it did not take away from the magical realism, with his character being mentioned as transcending mortality. However, it did allude to the progression of time that was not very apparent before this moment, since the lack of death, new characters, and separation from the outside world made it difficult to place Macondo along the progression of time. Even in Jose Arcadio Buendias’ adventures to find the sea and connections to other towns were futile, until his wife found the path to a nearby town. The deaths following Malquiades, such as Jose Arcadio’s, Colonel Aureliano’s, and Jose Segundo’s, help to reveal the commentary on mortality that Gabriel Marquez creates. From celebrations to sorrow, funeral processions to hasty burials, and duration that the death is discussed, Marquez shines a light on the diversity to which death is dealt with. Its supernatural nature is only penetrated with the mass shooting scene, which a lack of reflection and emotion imply a connection to the real world without magical impacts. The final scene, where Macondo and its inhabitants are wiped off of the planet, brings the theme of death full circle, with a sad but cathartic ending to a town that seemed separated from the grounded, bland realism of the world that surrounds it.
While 100 Years of Solitude does not have the same severity of fragmentation of time as Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, I found that the novel used much smaller jumps through time to express the same concept, such as the mention of Colonel Aureliano’s ‘death’ from the firing squad. I also liked to think about the tie between non-linear time and death, as they were not only two of the most interesting topics that I thought about, but help support the supernatural and diverse nature of death that the novel comments on. Going back to Melquiades’ death, his premonition of his own death. “‘I have died of fever on the dunes of Singapore'”(72), fittingly create an air of mystery around his mortality (or immortality). His true death was actually in the town of Macondo, from drowning. I can’t say exactly why, but I found it interesting that Gabriel Marquez chose to write a premonition of death that broke space, where Melquiades in his fever state thinks he died across the entire world. Petra Ternera and Ursula also break the linearity of time, living longer than physically possible. While this can just be boiled down tomagical realism, I think the separation of Macondo from the linearity and realism of space and time from the rest of the world inspires a better and more in-depth thought on the significance of their life, death, and value to the book and Macondo itself.
Finally, the impact of magical realism, which is underlying in every other theme within this book, is perfectly integrated into this book. It ranges from subtle impressions to overarching effects, and adds so much depth and meaning to the story that a non-magic-realist novel could never have. Perhaps I’m saying this due to its perfect placement within this nobel prize winning book, but it just fits too well into the story that Gabriel Marquez writes. It adds to the power of emotions, relationships, events, violence, love, adventure, solitude, family, friends, life, death, and so much more. The significance of magical realism within this book is simply too diverse to write about and think about so quickly, and even though I was thinking about it throughout the entire week that I was reading this book, I still can’t exactly say to what extent this theme impacted the novel
So instead I’ll ask my question:
What was your favorite usage of magical realism within this book? Or, what theme that magical realism impacted benefitted the most from their coupling?
Indeed, the creation of Macondo as a place where time occurs in a different way is one of the features of this space (sounds familiar to you? For example, in relation to Pedro Páramo?). That temporal elasticity at the time of execution also has other antecedents in the stories we have read. What is interesting, I think, is that García Márquez creates a coherent space with himself despite the fact that he is not “realistic” in the conventional sense of the word.
Indeed, the creation of Macondo as a place where time occurs in a different way is one of the features of this space (sounds familiar to you? For example, in relation to Pedro Páramo?). That temporal elasticity at the time of execution also has other antecedents in the stories we have read. What is interesting, I think, is that García Márquez creates a coherent space with himself despite the fact that he is not “realistic” in the conventional sense of the word.
My favourite usage of magical realism in this book was everything surrounding Úrsula (the original one). Even though she wasn’t the founder or patriarch of Macondo, I considered her the matriarch, the mother of Macondo. Everything in her surrounding willpower, especially her developing her senses after she became blind, seemed the most appropriate use of magical realism. She was the longest standing character in the book and it seemed very fitting that when she was gone and her spirit had left the house, so did the ‘magical’ upkeep of the home. I think her death, namely her void, showed the kind of invisible, determinate power she had to keep the spirit of home and Macondo (somewhat) alive.