Solitude Allusions

The appearance of biblical allusions in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been noted by numerous critics. These allusions are not merely additional literary devices, but rather form much of the structure of the novel. Renowned critic Harold Bloom has even called the book “the Bible of Macondo” (Bloom 1), an apt characterization considering that the novel, throughout its course, contains sections that closely parallel the Book of Genesis. - going to add more to this

When Macondo was first settled, Marquez described the world as being “so recent that many things lacked names” (Marquez 1). Likewise, when the Lord created living creatures in Genesis, he brought them to Adam to be named, “and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof” (Genesis 2:19 KJV). As the world had truly just been created in Genesis, it is logical to think that almost all things did in fact lack names. However, it is hard to believe the same in the case of Macondo, as it was founded in the 1800s, by which point there were few, if any things that lacked names. Thus this passage from One Hundred Years of Solitude can be seen as a pointed attempt by Marquez to link Macondo with the Garden of Eden.

Macondo is described as a happy community where no one dies, just as man in the Garden of Eden was made to be without death until Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge and God said unto them “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19 KJV). Similarly, the first death of a character connected to Macondo comes only after Melquiades and his tribe went “beyond the limits of human knowledge” (Marquez 38) and his death is reported by new gypsies who visit Macondo.

Remedios the Beauty, lik...

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...varo, heeded the advice and “bought an eternal ticket on a train that never stopped traveling” (Marquez 403), meaning he never stopped, like the angels in Genesis advised Lot to do.

Following this logic leads to the conclusion that Aureliano Babilonia parallels Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt after looking back towards Sodom and Gomorrah. Aureliano Babilonia remained in Macondo thanks to the pull of Amaranta Ursula and memories of the Buendia family, which was by this point known by others as nothing more than the name of a few streets. Aureliano Babilonia is also the only member of the Catalonian booksellers chosen group of friends – Alvaro, Alfonso, Gabriel, German, and Aureliano himself – to die in the hurricane that enveloped Macondo, just as Lot's wife was the only person warned to flee who died due to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.