One Hundred Years of Solitude Part I

When I first started reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, I was a bit confused at first until I finally realized that Colonel Aureliano Buendia was having a flashback. As I was reading the previous blogs, I agreed with paul_in_a_nutshell when he says that the gypsies changed what seemed to be the perfect utopian village into corruption of some sort. It is true, Jose Arcadio Buendia was a man that everyone looked up to but then transformed into this lab monster.

Has anyone noticed that Jose Arcadio Buendia is a Christ figure? It could just be me...but to prove my point, I'll say this. Jose Arcadio Buendia is "a kind of a youthful patriarch...who collaborated with everyone, even in physical work, for the welfare of society" (8). He had people that looked up to him for advice and ideas (just like Jesus's disciples did). He was probably in his late 30s as the book began (just like Jesus was). At one point in the book, a group of men tie him to a chestnut tree and leave him there because the townspeople think that he has gone crazy, speaking in a foreign tongue, which happens to be Latin, while Ursula, still his wife, becomes like a mother to him as she feeds him and takes care of him (Jesus is crucified on the holy cross because the nonbelivers thought of him as a hoax, while Mary takes care of him). Is that enough to convince you all? I think I made my point.

I also agree with analu about the whole marriage affairs. There's incest going on all over the place, well, in the Buendia household that is. The mothers want their daughters to marry, to be able to live out on their own. I was surprised that Aureliano was attracted to a child who hasn't even gone through puberty yet...but then again...he has spent a majority of his time in the lab studying alchemy and closed away from society. Something akward and disorderly was bound to happen. The fact that the parents agreed with the marriage was beyond me...

I wondered what in the world the title could mean before I even started this book. But, as with most of you who mentioned it, the title is really what the book is sort of about. Solitude, at first I had to admit, I didn't know the meaning so I had to look it up. Then, I realized that it meant loneliness and many of the Buendias (those added to like Rebeca) spent their time in solitude at one point. Rebeca was a significant one because at times of despair, she would return to her native habits of eating dirt and the wall. Like Mary said, Jose Arcadio Buendia was so caught up in his scientific studies he stayed in the lab for quite some time, trying to discover things that he believed would improve conditions in Macondo.