Going into this book, I was most curious about the implications of ‘Solitude’ and what it means in the story. I know that personally, I see Solitude as a kind of calm, an allotment of peace away from the chaos. (More honestly, when I think of Solitude, the first thing that comes to mind is Billie Holiday.)<\/p>\n
And so I wondered, what role does Solitude play in this book?<\/p>\n
The very first mention of the word ‘Solitude’ in the book is when Jos\u00e9 Arcadio Buend\u00eda first ventured out of Macondo. His expedition in search of other, greater civilization led him only to declare his realization that Macondo is surrounded by water on all sides.<\/p>\n
\n“The whole structure seemed to occupy its own space, one of solitude<\/em> and oblivion, protected from the vices of time and the habits of the birds. Inside, where the expeditionaries explored with careful intent, there was nothing but a thick forest of flowers.”<\/strong><\/p>\n
(page 12)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I think this was an important first impression of the weight and meaning of Solitude. From here on out, Solitude gives off an atmosphere of impassibility, an intuition of quiet entrapment, a kind of individual, half-alive purgatory.<\/p>\n
In my own mind, I envisioned Solitude as a candle wick. Where obsession, desire, and ___ fuels the steady, burning flame; Solitude, however, is the moments between blowing out the flame, the flame slowly weaning, and the last few moments of orange ember on the pitch black burnt wick. Though, in this world of magical realism, the moments of bright orange ember on the wick can last lifetimes.<\/p>\n
Such is the case for many of the characters in the book, as I think this image can fit the mold of many of their storylines. For a few characters, I think there were multiple moments of re-igniting the flame, or re-discovering a spark that lit away the darkness of Solitude. For characters like Colonel Aureliano Buend\u00eda or \u00darsula Iguar\u00e1n – who were two of the longest-standing characters – their periods of spark and Solitude remained with me the most.<\/p>\n
In looking for the way the Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez uses the word ‘Solitude’, there were many associations with death, but ‘death’ not in the way as a permanent end, but rather as an escape from the wildness of living.<\/p>\n
Examples like:<\/p>\n
“…they took refuge in solitude<\/strong>.” (33),<\/p>\n
“[h]e really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude<\/strong>.” (54)<\/p>\n
“…not thinking that he would be a palliative for her solitude<\/strong>.” (156)<\/p>\n
Solitude indeed in this book seems to be a destiny of loneliness, of isolation, a curse of introspection and reflection within the Buend\u00eda family line.<\/p>\n
My question for you is: what did the role of Solitude play in your reading of the book? Were there more accounts of Solitude that are different? Whose Solitude was most remarkable to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
week7. 100 years of solitude – [part 1] Going into this book, I was most curious about the implications of ‘Solitude’ and what it means in the story. I know that personally, I see Solitude as a kind of calm, an allotment of peace away from the chaos. (More honestly, when I think of Solitude, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-years-of-solitude","category-gabriel-garcia-marquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/hopscotch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}