One Hundred Years of Solitude Summary
5 min read ⌚
We all have challenges that we must face.
Same as everyone else, one family in Columbia decided to start over and rebuild its future.
In this summary, you’ll be introduced to a fraction of the story about the Buendía Family.
Who Should Read “One Hundred Years of Solitude”? And Why?
Indeed, no one knows its end; we can all play this game to see firsthand what the world has in store for us. Sometimes our decisions cannot provide excellent cover for our actions.
One Hundred Years of Solitude is a fantastic historical allegory that unveils many facets of the ordinary life. It reveals the struggle for survival, the idea to ascertain the cause for any accident befalling, etc.
Gabriel García Márquez Biography
Gabriel García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer and a journalist born in 1927 in Aracataca. He died at the age of 87 in 2014, leaving a legacy of amazing masterpieces.
As a Nobel Prize winner in Literature, he strived for realism with an idea in mind, to accurately reflect the efforts of the people.
His best works are The Autumn of the Patriarch, Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, etc.
Plot
One Hundred Years of Solitude covers a story about a family settled in the town of Macondo.
Also known as, the Buendía Family, they seek a better tomorrow, a future that no longer co-exists with fear.
The patriarch of Macondo, alongside his wife and cousin, have little options but to abandon Riohacha and to put down roots in another region.
Embarking on this journey was just a step one because there are a lot of challenges ahead of them.
Arcadio Buendía one-night while camping has dreams about the town of Macondo. He is not quite sure yet what to think, but a vision helps him to clear up his misunderstandings.
José Arcadio Buendía makes up his mind that the new town of Macondo must be established near to the riverbed.
Days of wandering through the dense jungle, leave him even more firm in his idea to create it as soon as possible.
In the first place, the founding patriarch highlights the importance of water, and how it should encircle Macondo. In order to build a small world that fits his vision, he must take all matters into consideration.
The establishment of the settlement quickly lives up to its expectations, as Macondo develops into a town enriched with various stories and events that shape the course of the Buendía family.
Their contribution is out of the question, but either way, they are trapped and unable to escape the circle of unhappiness.
Years have passed, and the town is still cut off from the rest of the world.
Only a few visits a year by a group of gypsies fall into the category “connection with the outside world.”
At first, they enjoy their privacy, and their first meeting with technology occurs when these so-called visitors present to them magnets, ice, and telescopes.
The patriarch keeps close relations with the leader of the band, Melquiades. He is eager to learn more about the puzzle brought by them (hypothetically speaking), and how the universe is testing him in these regards.
Nonetheless, his drive and determination to solve this mystery make him insane, and the Buendía family ultimately rejects the patriarch. He spends the rest of his days, tied to a tree with no “free” will.
The newly-elected government in Columbia makes efforts to put Macondo on the map. The town is no longer isolated, and it becomes integrated with the rest of the world. The Liberals and Conservatives fight for power in this small provincial town.
The rigged-election provide a reasonable basis for Aureliano Buendía to enlist in the Liberal Army and fight against the conservatives.
During the conflict, he earns respect among the soldiers as one of the leaders of the revolution.
He manages to avoid capture and survives several attempts on his life. Although he holds a high position, at one-point Aureliano, gets dog-tired of all the battles and sabotage and signs a peace-treaty to end the conflict once and for all.
Slightly disappointed, he hits the road and returns to Macondo. For the rest of his life, he focuses on a single project in his workshop – with an intention to make a goldfish.
The nation begins to industrialize, and new technology enters Macondo through the railroad. Now, the Buendía Family no longer holds the monopoly, and many new people settle down permanently in the town.
An American company invests by constructing a banana plantation, helping the town to prosper. It all ends up in tragedy – an accident that is based on real-life events that describe the massacre of thousands of plantation workers in 1928 by the army.
The only survivor of the massacre, José Arcadio Segundo, cannot find real evidence that will verify his statement. No one in the village believes him, and the tragedy is buried deep under the layers of sanity.
The town of Macondo loses a significant portion of the settlers. The only ones remaining in this forgotten place are Amaranta Úrsula and her nephew, Aureliano. Unaware of their bloodline, they indulge in an incestuous sexual relationship.
Amaranta gives birth to a child who has a tail of a pig, and she dies during the process. The child is “absorbed” by the ants, leaving Aureliano the only resident in Macondo.
One Hundred Years of Solitude Epilogue
Aureliano somehow manages to decode a manuscript left by the gypsy band-leader Melquiades, years ago. The message gives a point that every member of the Buendía family must confront the streak of luck in the town.
While reading the script, the whole place is destroyed by a hurricane leaving no trace behind.
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“One Hundred Years of Solitude PDF Quotes”
Then he made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it. Click To Tweet They were so close to each other that they preferred death to separation. Click To Tweet He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude. Click To Tweet Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end. Click To Tweet Intrigued by that enigma, he dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of interest he found love because by trying to make her love him he ended up falling in love with her. Click To Tweet
Our Critical Review
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Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.
