Formal Commentary On One Hundred Years Of Solitude

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Formal Commentary

How does Garcia Márquez use imagery to create the dramatic situation of Prudencio’s Death?

The image of conflict which Garcia Márquez draws, is only a beginning to an endless struggle in the Buendía family. Garcia Márquez creates this passage, not only as a Genesis, but as a way to warn the reader of the fate of the Buendía name. After finishing this passage, I was left not with a feeling of closure, but with a feeling of lingering doubt and wonder. José Arcadio Buendía seeks closure himself because of rumors of being impotent. This rumor starts because of the Buendía curse, the pig’s tail. I realized this was only the first of many following conflicts, when José Arcadio Buendía attempts to resolve the situation by killing Prudencio Aguilar. But Prudencio doesn’t die. He lives on, and haunts José Arcadio Buendía until he is forced to leave for Macondo.
Garcia Márquez creates a Genesis in the novel by the murder of Prudencio Aguilar. This important passage in the beginning of the book brings about its point through excellent uses of diction and word choice. Words like “tormented” and “desolation” paint a vivid picture in my mind. The vast majority of adjectives and adverbs lack happiness and overflow with conflict. “Livid”, “sad”, “anxiety”, are only three of these descriptive words, which Garcia Marquez uses to paint this small image in my mind. Anxiety, to me is not only a pain but an endless pain. Suffering which lasts indefinitely. This new indefinite pain brought into the Buendía family by this passage, like anxiety, continues.
The dramatic situation in this passage brings about a continual plague of death and conflict.

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