Literary Devices in One Hundred Years of Solitude
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
War, and a Lot of ItGarcía Márquez isn't writing a literal history of Colombia, but the events of the book mirror actual history fairly closely. So it helps to know the basics about what was goin...
Narrator Point of View
Objectivity at Its BestLet's take a cold, hard look at exactly what kinds of things the novel's narrator is describing. There's a woman who keeps her grandson completely imprisoned in her house. Th...
Genre
Magical RealismBefore we plunge into defining magical realism, let's unpack those two terms. What comes to mind when you think "magical" as a genre of fiction? We immediately flash to The Lord of t...
Tone
In Good HandsYou know how no matter how crazy-sounding the events in this book get, we readers are never really carried along on the insanity train? That's largely due to García Márquez's tone. W...
Writing Style
Translating a LullabyReading this book is sometimes a little bit like being sung to sleep by a soft lullaby, or lying on a raft and softly rocking on small waves. García Márquez has a lilting sty...
What's Up With the Title?
On the surface, the title – One Hundred Years of Solitude – seems pretty clear. The novel is set in the fictional town of Macondo, a place that's totally isolated from the rest of Colombia by s...
What's Up With the Ending?
The ending of this novel kind of feels like one of those snake-eating-its-own-tail symbols. (Fun fact: that symbol is called an ouroboros). Think about it: what's the most annoying thing about comi...
Tough-o-Meter
This isn't such a tough read, truth be told. The language and setting are modern, so you don't have to shift your perspective to get into a historical mindset. The main difficulty is the fact that...
Plot Analysis
Come on, guys, let's found a new town!Hey, hey, the gang's all here and we're going to start a new city where everyone will always be happy forever! We'll call it Macondo and it'll be fresh and cle...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Anticipation StagePartly in response to their family's objections to cousins getting married, and partly to flee a pesky ghost, José Arcadio Buendía, his wife Úrsula, and a bunch of friends set...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
There is hope and optimism as the new town of Macondo is founded on principles of equality and fairness.Macondo is caught in the middle of two national incidents of extreme violence. First, the cor...
Trivia
Macondo and its residents were loosely based on Aracataca, the Colombian town where Gabriel García Márquez grew up. He claimed that a lot of the supernatural elements came from his grandmother's...
Steaminess Rating
Yowza! This book has some hot and steamy action practically on every page. There's prostitution, incest, pedophilia, even a little bestiality. Definitely not for the young or the prudish. But the d...
Allusions
SenecaOvidHoraceRabelaisHermann the Lame (11th century monk in Reichenau, Germany), the earliest treatise on the astrolabe, quadrant and chilindrumJosé Zorrilla y Moral, The Goth's DaggerCarlos Fu...