Gabriel Garcia Márquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude" as critique on latin americans?

think of its history. The magnet and other inventions that come from outside Macondo is/are what occupies his mind from now on. For the founding of Macondo he had made sure that all houses were placed in a way that no one had more sun than the other, everyone had the same way to the water - all in all he wanted to start a socially equal life in their newly found town. Yet, his “spirit of social initiative disappeared in a short time pulled away by the fever of magnets […] and the urge to discover the wonders of the world. (Conniff, 172) Besides the magnet the gypsies bring more discoveries to Macondo for example a magnifying glass. This time Jose pays with colonial coins, another left-over of the Spanish Imperialists, not noticing that “his currency is being debased” (Conniff, 171) The reader sees here how much he can be exploited by his wish for progressive inventions.

Every time the gypsies bring new discoveries to Macondo, Jose and the others are mystified or amazed by what happens. Yet, those discoveries of science not only amaze but also exploit the inhabitants of Macondo, especially Jose Arcadio Buendia. He tells Ursula “right across the river there are all kinds of magical instruments while we keep on living like donkeys” (Marquez, 8). This shows his belief that science comes from elsewhere, not out of their society. The conviction that the outside world is better than Macondo can be found throughout the whole text: The gypsies’ inventions are excessively foreign, Italian music is superior and so are French sexual techniques. ( cp. Conniff, 174) And gypsies are not the only ones who bring news. “Government officials, priests, various military forces, the ubiquitous lawyers, the railway, the American capitalists, the European with the bicycle- everything is brought to Macondo by strangers. Those outsiders show up immediately and the town has no control and therefore no immediate sense of how to react. So we see here what Ian Johnstan had pointed out earlier as “the powerlessness of the people to take charge of the invasions which arrive from outside.” (Johnston, 4) There is no patriotism in their feelings, no pride in what they, the people of Macondo, have achieved after their independence from Riohachaso, no power to react toward outside invasions.

Further on, we learn about the whole town’s fear of insomnia, one which causes the loss of memory. Aureliano is the only one who finds a solution against the problem, “but the system demanded so much vigiliance and moral strength that many succumbed to the spell of an imaginary reality, one invented by themselves, which was less practical for them but more comforting” (Marquez, 49) This passage points out that it can be uncomfortable to remember, although it is only spoken about the names of certain basic commodities this can be referred to a people’s history. History sometimes is uncomfortable to remember, yet it is important to learn from history about the future. This idea is shown through Pinar Ternera, who due to

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insomnia now can read the past in cards as she had read the future in them before. She reacts towards her neighbours’ fears and gets profit out of it. Her idea stands in opposite to Jose Arcadio Buendias, who wants to build a memory machine. Nice idea- yet he wants to do it only to remember the “marvellous inventions of the gypsies.”(Marquez 49) He does not want to remember his roots, where he comes from, what his live was etc.- the only thing worth to remember for him are the inventions or discoveries of somebody else. This short passage again is very rich. If you read it with the premise that we not only hear about the people of Macondo but also about the people of Colombia, we can find critique as well as ideas about how one should see the relation between past and future. This passage alone gives three different ways to deal with memory. There is Jose Arcadio, who only wants to remember the inventions of the Gypsies. Then there is Pinar Ternera who could read the future in cards as well as the past, which gives us the idea that her card reading should be seen as a symbol for the fact that history repeats itself and that there is a connection between past and future. She and Aureliano are the only ones who think about ideas of how to keep the past. Further there are the people of Macondo, who feel a certain discomfort in memory and therefore prefer to live in an imaginary reality.

Combining those ideas with the ideas we got from the initial pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude, one can figure out several problems the people of Macondo have: They deny their roots, had no idea where to settle but away from past, inventions to them are mystifying, rather exploit them than benefit them and they have no control of them nor do they think of inventions of their own, because they think that everything that comes from outside is better than what they have. Furthermore they prefer to live in an imaginary world, because it is more comfortable not to remember.

After the description of the founding and development of Macondo we get to know about a war between Liberals and Conservatives, an event in the book that can again be related to the history of Colombia. After gaining independence from Spain in1824, Colombia was ruled by a Liberal Government from 1848- 1885. This Government passed laws against traditional interests of the Conservatives or the Catholic Church. Those years are shadowed by four nationwide civil wars and by local revolutions between Liberals and Conservatives.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez outlines the conflict between those political parties through a lesson Don Apolinar Moscote gives Aureliano, who at that time only had “confused notions about the difference between Conservatives and Liberals”. (Marquez, 98) This schematic lesson of course is shaped by Moscote’s personal opinion. To him Liberals are bad people who want to hang priests, while the Conservatives are those who had received their power

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directly from God and who propose the establishment of public order and family morality. (cf. Marquez 98).

Getting to know the thought of Aureliano about the lesson, the reader also notices a subliminal belief. Aureliano does not understand “how people arrived at the extreme of waging war over things that could not be touched with the hand”. (Garcia 99) Through Aureliano ’s thoughts Marquez shows the reader how senseless the reasons for the war has been, for there was no land or goods to fight for but different ideologies. Yet, one cannot notice what position he takes concerning whom to blame for the war.

Further, this passage mentions election fraud, prohibition of gathering and corruption. For the election Aureliano’s father-in-law has ordered six armed soldiers. This to Aureliano seems exaggerated since there are no political passions in the city (cf. Garcia 99). His point has a thought- provoking influence: the narrator only tells about Aureliano’s opinion towards the gathering of soldiers, yet it is done in a way in which the reader agrees with his opinion. And the narrator goes on using this technique: Although it is only described what is happening with the ballots the reader notices how wrong it is. Especially when Aureliano criticizes his father- in –law, telling him that this betrayal serves a reason for the Liberals to go to war. Compared to Aurelianos first thoughts about the war, which did not show a clear position, Garcia, with the conversation of Aureliano and Don Apolinar Moscote, points out a clear position now: Liberals had a reason to go to war. Yet, and this is the tricky fact of this technique, one does not know if this is supposed to be the political message Marquez wants to give, or not. We just know that it is the opinion of Aureliano. His opinions are due to the wrongs he sees, done by the Conservatives. This forces him to fight for the rights of the Liberals. And so do others. It is described that a “Liberal fever” had caught on (Garcia 103), yet the people of Macondo do not know that war has broken out and were earlier described as people with no political passions. By the time they first notice about the war, it is already going on for three months. The only one who knew it was Don Apolinar Moscote but he kept the news, knowing that there was an army platoon on its way to occupy the town. When they arrive they violently drag out the Liberal exaltation and so the reader gets to know about the brutality of the Conservative troups: They even killed Father Nicanor, who tried to impress them with the miracle of levitation (cp. Garcia 104). And the reader asks himself if those are the ones who were defined by Don Apolinar Moscote as having received their power directly from God. Since they do not act as Christians are supposed to act one notices the irony Marquez uses shown through this comparison. The fact that almost the whole town did not know about the war again shows how things arrive in Macondo. “Usually outsiders bring the

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