"No man is an island." This famous quotation explains the nature of man as a social being. It is truly a fact that human beings cannot exist in isolation. They need to be interdependent with each other in order to survive. This interdependence is needed because a human being alone will not be able to fill his own social needs, and his material necessities came from other people as well. All acts of society such as sex, love, and dependence are essential for the survival of any species. Interaction and socialization is the only way to prevent people from isolation, from solitude.
The last words in One Hundred Years of Solitude are: races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth. These words are so powerful and striking that one cannot doubt its truth. The book also wants to show that men need to interact and socialize with others in order for their race to survive.
Solitude is a major theme in the book, as is evident from the title. Here, solitude doesn't necessarily mean loneliness; it is a fated seclusion by space or some neurotic obsession. It is the sense of being apart from others. Examples of solitude can be found in the one-hundred-year life of Macondo and the Buendia family. It is both emotional and physical solitude that is shown geographically, romantically, and individually. Each character has his or her own particular solitude. It seems that it is always the intent of the characters to be alone, and there are even those who deliberately cut themselves off from the society. These are the characters that are contrasted to others who combat solitude by doing strenuous effort to reach out to others. This is not the case, though, for the solitary characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude. They don't wish to remain in solitude; they just don't have the control over it. To be alone, forgotten, and to remain in solitude is their fate and destiny.
Geographical Solitude. One form of solitude is shown geographically. Jose Arcadio Buendia shouts, "God damn it! Macondo is surrounded by water in all sides." This shows that the even the setting of the novel is in isolation. This detail may seem to be unimportant, but this reflects the situation that the characters in Macondo are in. Being geographically isolated, the people in Macondo will never learn anything more than what are in their reach. Because of this consequence, their society will never be able to progress beyond their resources. When Jose Arcadio Buendia and his men found out that Macondo is surrounded by water in all sides, Jose Arcadio Buendia laments to his wife, "We'll never get anywhere. We're going to rot our lives away here without receiving the benefit of science." Interaction with other societies would have let them advance beyond their present condition. The very reason why Jose Arcadio Buendia and his other friends take the expedition is to find a place where they will be able to know more about the great things and inventions, and to open a way that would put Macondo in contact with these great inventions. This idea is inspired by the new inventions that the gypsies display in Macondo. The effort to find other places where Macondo will be able to be in contact with other towns is also an effort by the people to release themselves from solitude, and to put an end to their isolation. This geographical solitude, however, doesn't only come from the fact that Macondo is isolated from other societies. The very reason why the town is founded is for Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula to find solitude. Jose Arcadio Buendia murdered Prudencia Aguilar, and he and his wife is forced to retreat when Prudencia Aguilar's ghost would not stop haunting them. For a long time, the people of Macondo thought that they are cut-off from the rest of the world.
Individual Solitude. Each Buendia has his individual characteristics and qualities that separate him from others. The incest of the Buendia family contributed largely to the theme of solitude in the novel. Because of this fact, the fate of the Buendia family to remain in solitude runs through all the generations. Every member of the Buendia family has in his destiny the marks of solitude until his death.
Jose Arcadio Buendia is the founder of Macondo and is the first great solitary. The first form of solitude that he exhibited is caused by his obsession over the inventions that the gypsies brought to Macondo. He secludes himself from the rest of the world, even to his family, to perform experiments: "Jose Arcadio Buendia spent long months of the rainy season shut up in a small room that he had built in the rear of the house so no one would disturb his experiments." When he told his children that "the earth is round, like an orange," Ursula shouts at him, "If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself." From once being a youthful patriarch and a clean and active man, Jose Arcadio Buendia changes into a man lazy in appearance and careless in his dress under the influence of Melquiades. He comes back to reality when Ursula tells him about the situation of their children without his supervision, but he doesn't stop in doing his experiments. Years later, still obsessed with his inventions, Jose Arcadio Buendia is visited by Prudencia Aguilar and a sense of nostalgia comes to him. It is that time that he realized that each passing day is the same day as the day before then, he becomes mad, and starts to act violently. Afterwards, he is tied to a tree and spends the rest of his life tied under that chestnut tree, speaking a foreign language, and not recognizing anyone. His madness caused him to remain in solitude for the rest of his life until his death where tiny little yellow flowers fall from the sky all over the town.
Colonel Aureliano Buendia shows the ultimate expression of solitude, his achievement of absolute power: "an inner coldness that shattered his bones." His solitary expression starts when Remedios dies: "But his sedentary life, which accentuated his cheekbones and concentrated the sparkle of his eyes, did not increase his weight or alter the parsimony of his character, but, on the contrary, it hardened on his lips the straight line of solitary meditation and implacable decision." When he decides to join the war as a Liberal, he does not expect to live the rest of his life in solitude. He has seventeen male children by seventeen different women, but he never knows the names of these women. His achievement of absolute power results in his orders such as the circling of chalk around him so no one will be near him. After the war between the Liberals and the Conservatives, Colonel Aureliano Buendia retires. He declines the lifetime pension offered him after the war and until old age, he makes his living from the little gold fishes that he manufactures in his workshop in Macondo. "Taciturn, silent, insensible to the new breath of vitality that was shaking the house, Colonel Aureliano Buendia could understand only that the secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude." When he made a bonfire in the courtyard of the dolls of Remedios which decorated their bedroom since their wedding, Ursula tells him, "You have a heart of stone." He keeps to himself and shows no emotion. He dies under the chestnut tree without showing any sign of nostalgia or any kind of emotion.
Amaranta's solitude is an extreme kind of solitude. Her coldness is the result of power achieved by denial--her virginity. When Rebeca and Pietro Crespi were arranged to be married, Amaranta swears that she will only let them be married over her dead body. But when Rebeca married Jose Arcadio and Pietro Crespi asks for his hand, she refuses even though she likes him so much. She says to Crespi, "Don't be simple, Crespi. I wouldn't marry you even if I were dead." Her refusal causes him his life; he commits suicide. Amaranta regrets this so much that she burns her hand, and covers it with a bandage of black gauze that she will wear until her death. This symbolizes her denial, and this denial is the source of her solitude: "Amaranta seemed to carry the cross of ashes of virginity on her forehead. In reality she carried it on her hand in the black bandage, which she did not take off even to sleep and which she washed and ironed herself. Her life was spent in weaving her shroud. It might have been said that she wove during the day and unwove during the night, and not with any hope of defeating solitude in that way, but, quite the contrary, in order to nurture it."
The last Aureliano is the one with the saddest expression of solitude. He is not only secluded from the rest of the world, but he is literally alone, because Fernanda kept him in the house so as not to start any rumors. In his childhood, he is only happy when he plays with Amaranta Ursula, doing a lot of things to Ursula. When Amaranta Ursula went away to study, Aureliano has nothing to do because Fernanda will not let him go out. Because of this idleness, he decides to study in Melquiades room and for a long time, he has been inside this room - reading, studying, and trying to decipher the parchments of Melquiades. He is even more alone when Santa Sofia dela Piedad went away and, soon after, Fernanda died. It is a period where he didn't really feel alone because he is used with it, but he is happy when Amaranta Ursula came back. This happiness, though, will not last. His solitude ends with his deciphering of the parchments of Melquiades, because at the same time, he too will end.
The other characters showed lesser forms of solitude, but there are characters that are antisolitary. One of the antisolitary figures is Ursula. She may be the greatest antisolitary figure because of her incomparable effort to keep the family bonded, and to hold the family and house together. Another is Pilar Ternera who slept with the two Buendias, to comfort them and bear them their children.
Romantic Solitude. Sexual relations are prevalent in the novel, and most of these celebrate the size and the potency of the Buendia men's phalluses or the lubricity of the women. In addition to this, these sexual relations are also made for the purpose of supporting the theme of solitude. This is because of the fact that sex can be used to combat solitude for it has the power to connect one person to another. This is evident in the sexual relations of Pilar Ternera and Jose Arcadio, Pilar Ternera and Colonel Aureliano Buendia, and Colonel Aureliano Buendia and the seventeen women. Even the rape cases that happened resulted to a close bonding. Jose Arcadio Buendia raped his wife, Ursula, and started the family line. Aureliano raped Amaranta Ursula and their son ended the family line. The Buendia's solitude, however, has not been remedied by any sexual relations, because of the fact that for sex to really work against solitude, it has to be a joyful and loving sex. This is evident in the case of Colonel Aureliano Buendia and his seventeen women. Even though he had a son by each woman, his solitude never disappeared, because he really never cares for those seventeen women and even to his children.
It is also remarkable to note that not only the Buendia family suffered from the marks of solitude. It is proven that their fate is contagious because every person who interacts with them shares with their unfortunate fate and some even suffers a tragic death. One is Pilar Ternera. After she bore the children of the two Buendias, she spends the rest of her life basically alone and in solitude. Another is Petra Cotes, who, even if she had an abundant period with Aureliano Segundo, suffers the same consequence that Pilar Ternera also acquired. The wife of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, Remedios Moscote, dies a few months after their wedding a tragic and violent death due to Amaranta's mistake of putting poison in her coffee instead in Rebeca's. Pietro Crespi commits suicide when Amaranta refused him. Mauricio Babilonia falls from the roof and becomes paralyzed when he was caught one night to see Meme in the bathroom. Fernanda is like a widow during her marriage with Aureliano Segundo because her husband loves his mistres over her. And maybe those who have the most tragic fate are those who are captivated by Remedios the Beauty's beauty and loving her so much after, and die surprising deaths.
Solitude, whether it be any kind of solitude, the book One Hundred Years of Solitude reminds us that people needs interaction to survive. Even though the characters are unaware of the unfortunate fate that has befallen upon them, they displayed their solitude realistically and not as if by mere cause of fate. Because of this, Marquez is able to impart to the readers the consequences of secluding or isolating oneself from others without the idea that it is not possible. Here, Marquez is able to display even the most simple acts of solitude, and the unfortunate consequences of it.
The last words in One Hundred Years of Solitude are: races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth. These words are so powerful and striking that one cannot doubt its truth. The book also wants to show that men need to interact and socialize with others in order for their race to survive.
Solitude is a major theme in the book, as is evident from the title. Here, solitude doesn't necessarily mean loneliness; it is a fated seclusion by space or some neurotic obsession. It is the sense of being apart from others. Examples of solitude can be found in the one-hundred-year life of Macondo and the Buendia family. It is both emotional and physical solitude that is shown geographically, romantically, and individually. Each character has his or her own particular solitude. It seems that it is always the intent of the characters to be alone, and there are even those who deliberately cut themselves off from the society. These are the characters that are contrasted to others who combat solitude by doing strenuous effort to reach out to others. This is not the case, though, for the solitary characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude. They don't wish to remain in solitude; they just don't have the control over it. To be alone, forgotten, and to remain in solitude is their fate and destiny.
Geographical Solitude. One form of solitude is shown geographically. Jose Arcadio Buendia shouts, "God damn it! Macondo is surrounded by water in all sides." This shows that the even the setting of the novel is in isolation. This detail may seem to be unimportant, but this reflects the situation that the characters in Macondo are in. Being geographically isolated, the people in Macondo will never learn anything more than what are in their reach. Because of this consequence, their society will never be able to progress beyond their resources. When Jose Arcadio Buendia and his men found out that Macondo is surrounded by water in all sides, Jose Arcadio Buendia laments to his wife, "We'll never get anywhere. We're going to rot our lives away here without receiving the benefit of science." Interaction with other societies would have let them advance beyond their present condition. The very reason why Jose Arcadio Buendia and his other friends take the expedition is to find a place where they will be able to know more about the great things and inventions, and to open a way that would put Macondo in contact with these great inventions. This idea is inspired by the new inventions that the gypsies display in Macondo. The effort to find other places where Macondo will be able to be in contact with other towns is also an effort by the people to release themselves from solitude, and to put an end to their isolation. This geographical solitude, however, doesn't only come from the fact that Macondo is isolated from other societies. The very reason why the town is founded is for Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula to find solitude. Jose Arcadio Buendia murdered Prudencia Aguilar, and he and his wife is forced to retreat when Prudencia Aguilar's ghost would not stop haunting them. For a long time, the people of Macondo thought that they are cut-off from the rest of the world.
Individual Solitude. Each Buendia has his individual characteristics and qualities that separate him from others. The incest of the Buendia family contributed largely to the theme of solitude in the novel. Because of this fact, the fate of the Buendia family to remain in solitude runs through all the generations. Every member of the Buendia family has in his destiny the marks of solitude until his death.
Jose Arcadio Buendia is the founder of Macondo and is the first great solitary. The first form of solitude that he exhibited is caused by his obsession over the inventions that the gypsies brought to Macondo. He secludes himself from the rest of the world, even to his family, to perform experiments: "Jose Arcadio Buendia spent long months of the rainy season shut up in a small room that he had built in the rear of the house so no one would disturb his experiments." When he told his children that "the earth is round, like an orange," Ursula shouts at him, "If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself." From once being a youthful patriarch and a clean and active man, Jose Arcadio Buendia changes into a man lazy in appearance and careless in his dress under the influence of Melquiades. He comes back to reality when Ursula tells him about the situation of their children without his supervision, but he doesn't stop in doing his experiments. Years later, still obsessed with his inventions, Jose Arcadio Buendia is visited by Prudencia Aguilar and a sense of nostalgia comes to him. It is that time that he realized that each passing day is the same day as the day before then, he becomes mad, and starts to act violently. Afterwards, he is tied to a tree and spends the rest of his life tied under that chestnut tree, speaking a foreign language, and not recognizing anyone. His madness caused him to remain in solitude for the rest of his life until his death where tiny little yellow flowers fall from the sky all over the town.
Colonel Aureliano Buendia shows the ultimate expression of solitude, his achievement of absolute power: "an inner coldness that shattered his bones." His solitary expression starts when Remedios dies: "But his sedentary life, which accentuated his cheekbones and concentrated the sparkle of his eyes, did not increase his weight or alter the parsimony of his character, but, on the contrary, it hardened on his lips the straight line of solitary meditation and implacable decision." When he decides to join the war as a Liberal, he does not expect to live the rest of his life in solitude. He has seventeen male children by seventeen different women, but he never knows the names of these women. His achievement of absolute power results in his orders such as the circling of chalk around him so no one will be near him. After the war between the Liberals and the Conservatives, Colonel Aureliano Buendia retires. He declines the lifetime pension offered him after the war and until old age, he makes his living from the little gold fishes that he manufactures in his workshop in Macondo. "Taciturn, silent, insensible to the new breath of vitality that was shaking the house, Colonel Aureliano Buendia could understand only that the secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude." When he made a bonfire in the courtyard of the dolls of Remedios which decorated their bedroom since their wedding, Ursula tells him, "You have a heart of stone." He keeps to himself and shows no emotion. He dies under the chestnut tree without showing any sign of nostalgia or any kind of emotion.
Amaranta's solitude is an extreme kind of solitude. Her coldness is the result of power achieved by denial--her virginity. When Rebeca and Pietro Crespi were arranged to be married, Amaranta swears that she will only let them be married over her dead body. But when Rebeca married Jose Arcadio and Pietro Crespi asks for his hand, she refuses even though she likes him so much. She says to Crespi, "Don't be simple, Crespi. I wouldn't marry you even if I were dead." Her refusal causes him his life; he commits suicide. Amaranta regrets this so much that she burns her hand, and covers it with a bandage of black gauze that she will wear until her death. This symbolizes her denial, and this denial is the source of her solitude: "Amaranta seemed to carry the cross of ashes of virginity on her forehead. In reality she carried it on her hand in the black bandage, which she did not take off even to sleep and which she washed and ironed herself. Her life was spent in weaving her shroud. It might have been said that she wove during the day and unwove during the night, and not with any hope of defeating solitude in that way, but, quite the contrary, in order to nurture it."
The last Aureliano is the one with the saddest expression of solitude. He is not only secluded from the rest of the world, but he is literally alone, because Fernanda kept him in the house so as not to start any rumors. In his childhood, he is only happy when he plays with Amaranta Ursula, doing a lot of things to Ursula. When Amaranta Ursula went away to study, Aureliano has nothing to do because Fernanda will not let him go out. Because of this idleness, he decides to study in Melquiades room and for a long time, he has been inside this room - reading, studying, and trying to decipher the parchments of Melquiades. He is even more alone when Santa Sofia dela Piedad went away and, soon after, Fernanda died. It is a period where he didn't really feel alone because he is used with it, but he is happy when Amaranta Ursula came back. This happiness, though, will not last. His solitude ends with his deciphering of the parchments of Melquiades, because at the same time, he too will end.
The other characters showed lesser forms of solitude, but there are characters that are antisolitary. One of the antisolitary figures is Ursula. She may be the greatest antisolitary figure because of her incomparable effort to keep the family bonded, and to hold the family and house together. Another is Pilar Ternera who slept with the two Buendias, to comfort them and bear them their children.
Romantic Solitude. Sexual relations are prevalent in the novel, and most of these celebrate the size and the potency of the Buendia men's phalluses or the lubricity of the women. In addition to this, these sexual relations are also made for the purpose of supporting the theme of solitude. This is because of the fact that sex can be used to combat solitude for it has the power to connect one person to another. This is evident in the sexual relations of Pilar Ternera and Jose Arcadio, Pilar Ternera and Colonel Aureliano Buendia, and Colonel Aureliano Buendia and the seventeen women. Even the rape cases that happened resulted to a close bonding. Jose Arcadio Buendia raped his wife, Ursula, and started the family line. Aureliano raped Amaranta Ursula and their son ended the family line. The Buendia's solitude, however, has not been remedied by any sexual relations, because of the fact that for sex to really work against solitude, it has to be a joyful and loving sex. This is evident in the case of Colonel Aureliano Buendia and his seventeen women. Even though he had a son by each woman, his solitude never disappeared, because he really never cares for those seventeen women and even to his children.
It is also remarkable to note that not only the Buendia family suffered from the marks of solitude. It is proven that their fate is contagious because every person who interacts with them shares with their unfortunate fate and some even suffers a tragic death. One is Pilar Ternera. After she bore the children of the two Buendias, she spends the rest of her life basically alone and in solitude. Another is Petra Cotes, who, even if she had an abundant period with Aureliano Segundo, suffers the same consequence that Pilar Ternera also acquired. The wife of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, Remedios Moscote, dies a few months after their wedding a tragic and violent death due to Amaranta's mistake of putting poison in her coffee instead in Rebeca's. Pietro Crespi commits suicide when Amaranta refused him. Mauricio Babilonia falls from the roof and becomes paralyzed when he was caught one night to see Meme in the bathroom. Fernanda is like a widow during her marriage with Aureliano Segundo because her husband loves his mistres over her. And maybe those who have the most tragic fate are those who are captivated by Remedios the Beauty's beauty and loving her so much after, and die surprising deaths.
Solitude, whether it be any kind of solitude, the book One Hundred Years of Solitude reminds us that people needs interaction to survive. Even though the characters are unaware of the unfortunate fate that has befallen upon them, they displayed their solitude realistically and not as if by mere cause of fate. Because of this, Marquez is able to impart to the readers the consequences of secluding or isolating oneself from others without the idea that it is not possible. Here, Marquez is able to display even the most simple acts of solitude, and the unfortunate consequences of it.
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