One Hundred Years Of Solitude Rhetorical Analysis

Introduction Hook. In his novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez creates a dual symbolism for the parchment containing Melquiades’s cryptic writings on it. The parchment is used as a symbol to represent Melquiades and his sense of knowledge and relation to supernatural. Marquez also utilizes the parchment to symbolize several figurative senses in the novel. The decryption of the parchments symbolizes the novel’s themes of an unending desire for knowledge, an eventual death and solitude, and the inevitability of the characters’ fates.

One aspect that is continuous throughout the Buendia family lineage is the aspiration for greater knowledge and understanding. The parchments symbolize this longing for truth and knowledge.

The parchments can be interpreted as an arbitrary representation of “knowledge” because they contain writings of the brilliant the scientist of the time, who was best known for his unlimited knowledge. From the beginning of the novel, Marquez presents Melquiades and the gypsies as supremely knowledgeable through their scientific breakthroughs and thrilling inventions, such as the magnifying glass, ice, and magnets. Later in the story, Marquez further suggests the gypsy’s incredible intelligence when the Buendia family adds a room specifically for Melquiades, where “his knowledge reaches unbearable extremes." (Marquez 49) This displays just how intense his knowledge is and using the phrase “unbearable extremes” hints at Melquiades having a mystic aspect to his capability. Marquez erases any doubts the readers might have concerning Melquiades’s supernatural knowledge. An example of proving Melquiades’s intelligence is the discovery that the writings on the parchments were encoded in a "Lacedaemonian military code" and in "the private cipher of the Emperor Augustus." (415) Melquiades’s writings in these languages which were from the striving and prosperous times of the ancient Spartan and Roman empires proves how gifted he was in understanding these dialects. Through Melquiades’s example of incredible wisdom and understanding, Jose Arcadio Buendia desires to discover new technology and obtain a similar intelligence to Melquiades. The patriarch’s desire, coupled with Melquiades as the representation of all knowledge, reveals Marquez’s theme of this craving for knowledge. As the novel progresses, Marquez then translates the symbol of knowledge from the character Melquiades to the tangible symbol of the parchment. With this parchment representing Melquiades and his knowledge, the readers can then construe that all the Buendias who are attempting to decipher the parchment are yearning for wisdom and knowledge. This longing for comprehension also comes with its consequences though.
The parchments that symbolize truth are also evident through the events that result from the character’s search for truth. A prominent theme that continuously is brought up by Marquez is solitude and death existing as byproducts of this yearning of knowledge. Marquez first introduces this when depicting Melquiades and his gypsies that accompany him. When introducing the man and his friends, Marquez adds that his friends are said to have been “wiped off the face of the earth because they had gone beyond the limits of human knowledge." (38) This is an example of how once a person finally reaches their goal of intelligence and truth, they are led to solitude and possibly death. When looking at this theme in relation to the Buendias, this is first shown by their placing of all the parchments of insights left in the secluded room bound with a padlock. A similar insight is brought by the actions of Jose Arcadio Segundo when studying the parchments in Melquiades’s old room. “He became accustomed to the sound of the train, which after two months had become another form of silence, and the only thing that disturbed him was the coming and going of Santa Sofia de la Piedad.” (313) Marquez again hints at the consequences of reaching for this knowledge. In this case, Jose Arcadio Segundo has given up all other goals, pushing away the outside world to confine himself in a room with the specific purpose of deciphering the parchments. It is also mentioned that he is disturbed by any infliction to his solitude. Furthermore, when Jose Arcadio is confined in this small room and the government officials search for, the officer says “It’s obvious that no one has been in that room for at least a hundred years.” (312) The readers learn that Jose Arcadio has secluded himself so much to the point that others assume the room is uninhibited because of the massive clutter and dust. Marquez goes on to describe the moment of Jose Arcadio’s death as “He fell back on the parchments with his eyes wide open.” (352) This reveals that Jose Arcadio was self-destructive in attempting to gain insight. Having his eyes wide open on the parchment also is taken that he was curious up to his death and his death was a result of his desire for greater knowledge. By the end of the novel, Marquez makes it clear to the readers that the craving for too much knowledge will lead to seclusion and death. In the final scene of Aureliano Babilonia reading and understanding the parchments, it says “At that point, impatient to know his own origin, Aureliano skipped ahead.” (416) Marquez paradoxically phrases that his impatience to read the rest of the parchments and his unsatisfied desire for knowledge results in a quicker death for him. This unattainable absolute knowledge on the parchment is depicted as one way that a family member met his fate.
Through the symbolism of the parchments, Marquez develops the idea of the inevitability of fate.

This can be seen by the suggestion that a role or event is someone’s fate to live out; it is seen by the all the fates of the Buendias being prophesied through Melquiades’s writings. This idea of fate as inevitable events or outcomes that are predetermined is first shown by Melquiades when selling Jose Arcadio Buendia the inventions. Marquez writes, “Melquiades, who was an honest man, warned him: 'It won't work for that.' But José Arcadio Buendia at that time did not believe in the honesty of gypsies, so he traded his mule and a pair of goats for the two magnetized ingots.” (2) Furthering this point, Marquez writes, “Again Melquiades tried to dissuade him, but he finally accepted the two magnetized ingots and three colonial coins in exchange for the magnifying glass.” (3) Both of the excerpts explain that Melquiades knew the fate of Jose Arcadio Buendia’s outcome of his schemes to use the inventions for other schemes and informed him of the fates, but Melquiades realized that no matter his argument, fate is inevitable. Marquez also integrates the idea of fate for a single person through several examples. Ursula introduces this idea of fate to the family when stating that only GET THE EXACT QUOTE> “the true owner of the gold will find it and will get it back.” This same idea of it being Jose Arcadio II’s fate to be the person to find the gold is translated when Marquez

illustrates that it is Aureliano Babilonia’s fate to be the one to interpret Melquiades’s manuscript. The idea of fate or destiny is a little farfetched but Marquez conveys this idea and ultimately it is this parchment that displays all the fates of the Buendia family member. This idea can be seen in Aureliano’s discovery when reading the prophesy about his grandfather and great-uncle. “[Aureliano Babilonia] found the origin of the posthumous twins who gave up deciphering the parchments, not simply through incapacity and lack of drive, but also because their attempts were premature” (416). The usage of the term “premature” can be interpreted as “too early” because that was not the time that was destined for the writings to be deciphered, nor was it their fate to discover the meaning behind the texts. Marquez depicts Aureliano’s acceptance of his fate through the language used in the final scene. “[Aureliano (II)] had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments” (417) This quotation not only describes Aureliano’s realization of his and Macondo’s inevitable fate but also his acceptance of this fate. When examining the fate of the parchment itself, the manuscript had the fate to lead others into one hundred years of solitude until the last in line of the Buendia family discover its meaning. The reader can interpret that this theme of fate through the symbolism of the parchments are brought up by Marquez to build upon an idea that knowing our fate takes from our freedom and leads to solitude and death.
The parchments illustrate Marquez’s incorporation of the characters’ desires of understanding and control, the death and solitude that results from this surge, and the belief that fates are inevitable.

Although these themes are revealed by Marquez in a sense of the supernatural, these can also be used as moral lessons for virtuous life. An ambition for knowledge is good but it does have its limits, otherwise it results in an obsession. Any obsession, including an obsession for knowledge, will lead to seclusion from society and a possibly self-destruction. This symbolism of the parchment as a tangible image for fate can be taken as a motivation to live with awareness in the moment instead of fearing for the inevitable

future.