The Fate of Death in Macondo, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Uploaded by tyson_626 on Feb 03, 2005
Death’s Fate in Macondo
Death is slow to visit Macondo in Gabriel García Márquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude, but once it does arrive, there is no stopping it. It moves into the community slowly at first, then gathers speed as it races across the one hundred years. When José Arcadio Buendía and Ursula establish Macondo, it is like a utopia. Life prospers there with seemingly no end to it.
Representative of this idea is that there have been no deaths, or a need for a cemetery. They come to this Utopia to get away from death and the fate of incest. They carry the seeds of both within themselves. Death seeks after them all in the form of solitude, which like death separates them physically, psychologically, and emotionally from those around them. The first child born in Macondo is Aureliano Buendía to Ursula, who in the novel represents life. In his adult years, Aureliano Buendía becomes the epitome of solitude and death, so in the very beginning of this Utopia, life gives birth to death. Since death cannot beget life, even the many sons that Aureliano fathers in his lifetime are all assassinated in the prime of their lives.
José Arcadio Buendía and his wife fled their native village to escape the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar and to hopefully prevent future generations of incest that would eventually end up producing a child with a pig's tail. What they did not realize was that by fleeing, they actually increased the chances of intermarrying in future generations, since the newly established village of Macondo was so small. So, much like the Greek tragedy of Oedipus the King, their actions to prevent a future horror are actually the means that bring the horror about.
While death can be avoided for a time, it cannot be held off forever and when death comes to their new home it eventually leads Prudencio’s ghost to them again. "José Arcadio Buendía converse(s) with Prudencio Aguilar until dawn" and by morning his journey into solitude is complete as madness overcomes him (80). "Ten men were needed to get him down, fourteen to tie him up, twenty to drag him to the chestnut tree in the courtyard, where they left him tied up, barking in the strange language and giving off a green froth at the mouth" (81). When he finally dies he is no more separated from humanity than...