The Charater of Remedios in One Hundred Years of Solitude

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The Charater of Remedios in One Hundred Years of Solitude

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the saga of the Buendia family is used as a thorough and contemplative representation of the nature of human detachment. The Buendias are plagued with a seemingly incurable solitude; a solitude that they turn to and rely on when they find themselves in times of trouble. When they are secluded, the Buendias lead meaningless and inescapable lives of habit and routine. One of the family members, Remedios the Beauty, is seemingly unlike any other Buendia. Her life consists of little other than sleeping, eating, and bathing. The simple and uncomplicated life she leads is deceiving for Remedios the Beauty is the most complex character in the entire novel. Furthermore, Remedios epitomizes everything the Buendias represent in terms of solitude and the nature of human existence, and is, essentially, the center of the novel.

First of all, although she may seem simple-minded, Remedios is not by any means a one-dimensional idiot. Colonel Aureliano Buendia continuously asserts that Remedios is "in no way mentally retarded" and is "the most lucid being" that he has ever known. Such words do not come unjustified. Remedios has embedded in her mind the way of thinking that it takes some artists years to develop, if ever; the most important example of this being abandonment of all conformity. "She was becalmed in a magnificent adolescence, more and more impenetrable to formality, more and more indifferent to malice and suspicion, happy in her own world of simple realities." If Remedios did not possess the mental capacities to think for herself, she would be more susceptible to the senseless traps of soc...

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...emedios' have no place on this planet.

Remedios is used not only to represent the Buendias, she is an earthly symbol of the baffling complicity of life. She is simultaneously heroic and disdainful for only living through her own ideals and represents the everyday struggles that everyone faces. Garcia Marquez ultimately comes to the conclusion that, although believing in one's ideal is important, removing one's self from all of humanity itself is a crime that is unamendable. Even though the Buendias brought destruction upon others, they never once even attempted to seek out those essential qualities of human existence and life. They could have found love had they wanted it from the beginning; but by the time they figured it all out, it was too late.

Works Cited:

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper

Perennial, 1991.

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