100 Years of Solitude Analysis

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an author well known for his use of magical realism. Magic realism is incorporating magical elements in realistic settings or scenarios in a text. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, I believe magic realism serves to drive the themes and messages towards the intended audience. Given the context of the magic realism, and how it is used is effective in Latin countries and essentially changes how the reader perceives or interprets the story. Gabriel Garcia Marquez by using magic realism creates a story where the reader can essentially easily perceive the reality he has made, to figure out the social commentary he has on the role of imperialism and war on a country in correlation to fate.

The setting of the story is essentially a small town, most likely near Columbia. The country of Macondo is established early on in the beginning, by Jose Arcadia Buendia. The concept of an exploration for the unknown is enough to alienate readers from relating to the story. Imperialism much less exploration are concepts that have ceased being relevant in modern society. Most of the land on Earth that is feasible for exploration has already been, and the only unknown would be pertaining to the ocean. Considering this dilemma, Gabriel Garcia Marquez use magic realism to break down the barrier between the reader and the text. He allows the reader to become invested in the novel, as the novel ceases to be set and static as in non-fiction. Early on, gypsies are introduced to break the idea that the text pertains to rational or true events. The gypsies at first perform feats based on science. On the first page, it is described that “every year during the month of March a family of ragged gypsies would set up their tents near the vil...

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...ents not typically seen in reality that draw the reader in the world he has created, to be more invested in the novel. Whether or not the novel is A Very Old Man with Enormous wings or 100 years of Solitude, I believe Gabriel Garcia Marquez intended the use of magical realism to encourage the reader to make sense of what happens in the story, to interpret them at a deeper level. I believe it is often as simple as an analogy, but often more complex as a telling of the perspectives the author had on a period in time. I believe 100 years of Solitude can serve as how Gabriel Garcia views the history of Columbia, his birth country. I also believe the reader can make his own interpretations on the upbringing of the country, and whether in the end it proved a justi

Works Cited

Márquez, Gabriel. One hundred years of solitude. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Print.