One Hundred Years of Solitude

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One Hundred Years Of Solitude By Gabriel García Márquez Annotated Bibliography Table of Contents Introduction 3 Plot Summary 3 Marquez & Latin American Politics 4 Spanish Conquest 5 Struggle for Political Control 5 American Foreign Policy 6 conclusion 7 Bibliography 8 Introduction Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is a novel of repeating fated destiny based around the creation and destruction of the Buendia family and the town of Macondo. This story is one of reality and fantasy entangled and therefore is a model example of Latin American “magic realism.” Latin-American life is particularly rich with the experiences that create Magical Realism: the reality of political oppression and proud familial obligations easily complement the magic of strong beliefs in the divine and supernatural (Finstad, 2002). Marquez has won many awards around the world for his book and it became an instant classic in literature. In 1970, the book was published in English and was chosen as one of the best twelve books of the year by Time (Lee, 2002). Plot Summary The story begins when Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula found the mythical town of Macondo. The city is described as being pure and innocent like the biblical Garden of Eden. However, the town keeps its paradise-like qualities for only a short while. Outside intervention soon strips Macondo of its innocence. Being as their relationship started out of incest, Ursula, the maternal figure of the family, has an unsettling fear of incestual deformation throughout the novel, reflected in her story of the pig’s tail. None-the-less, Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula begin to start a family after settling. Second generation Buendias consist of Aureliano Buendia (later to be referred to as
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