One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Roles of Past, Present, and Future

Since the beginning of time, and for long past the unimaginable, life has begun with the pretense that death is the fate for all persons. Many have tried to escape this destiny, many have tried to alter it or postpone it; however, from the first page of every story, every word used to describe the events held closest to one’s heart brings the final sentence closer and closer. The concept of time has been perceived to be linear in nature; while we attempt to analyze the past and better our future – the majority of concern is focused on the present. We are a world of now, often forgetting what has gotten us to the current and often forgetting what we must do for the later. Past, present and future: these terms represent stories and events across generations; although, as a species, our nature hasn’t changed much during these periods. Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude critiques this trait in man – while the characters and setting may change, the stories always seem to remain the same. One Hundred Years of Solitude’s timeline exhibits these facts by adopting a cyclical concept of time. The terms past, present, and future no longer represent a boundary between ages; instead, the past is the future, the future is the present, and the present is the past. The novel is told across six generations of the Buendía family – subsequently, the reader quickly can see that the blessings and curses of one generation are not excluded from the others. Márquez raises many questions concerning the nature of man and the dealing with the destiny of death. Furthermore, the author uses a cyclical timeline to criticize the unending nature of man; the lines between past, present, and future...

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...olitude of the world. For a world that refuses to learn from the generation before, will soon cease to exist.

Works Cited

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David, Shay. "Anamesa - Blur Boundaries, Re-imagine Links, Explore the between." Anamesa - Blur Boundaries, Re-imagine Links, Explore the between. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.

Estorino, Maria R. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez and His Approach to History in One." Gabriel Garcia Marquez and His Approach to History in One. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.

"Garcia Marquez - Papers: "One Hundred Years and Chronicle"" Garcia Marquez - Papers: "One Hundred Years and Chronicle" N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.

Márquez, Gabriel García. One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Print.