Topic > Universal solitude and its representation in One Hundred Years of Solitude

True to its title, One Hundred Years of Solitude masterfully analyzes that human superego that leads every individual into a tortuous state of perpetual solitary confusion. While not taking a position on the validity of social morality, Gabriel Garcia Márquez discovers the ways in which each character's pulsating conscience leaves him in the solitude of self-sacrifice and self-punishment. Ultimately, Márquez accentuates a reality where not even profound wisdom can save from the power of carnal desires. In the world Marquez has created, neither extraordinary self-awareness nor unparalleled knowledge serve to improve the characters' personal lives when they are undermined by a conscience shaped by society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn this epic tale of the Buendias, Marquez articulates a brilliant commentary on the path of the human race through the use of family and, in turn, , a group of undeniably physically and psychologically related individuals. He initially creates characters who are seemingly unique, but who reveal glaringly similar characteristics, beliefs, triumphs, and mistakes. Márquez particularly illuminates the solitary wisdom of the Aurelianos and, consequently, the personally meaningful but ultimately meaningless activities of human life. At the onset of his innate wisdom, Aureliano Buendia enters the world, impressing his family with his "open eyes" and acute sense of the inevitable. Although Colonel Aureliano Buendia remains a figure referenced several times in the novel, his actions only define him as more humble than the later character. Márquez deliberately makes an ironic comparison: the fact that Colonel Aureliano Buendia is a war hero should, by humanity's standards, place him on an even higher pedestal, but the endless occupation only serves to further convince the reader of his weakness and the fact that he deserves to be ridiculed. With the same scrutinizing eye as the reader, Colonel Gerineldo Márquez tells him: "Be careful of your heart, Aureliano. You are rotting alive (179)." Her originally recognizable depth and willpower remain invisible behind a war of self-punishment for loving and losing a child, and her inability to escape an anger-driven battle against the world. As long as the Aurelianos last, the reader can be sure of this. to find them equally omniscient and subsequently solitary. Later, Aureliano Jos's life will take a similar shape; tormented by incestuous love condemned by society, he goes to war, a metaphorical "revolution" against his carnal desires. However, the Aurelianos' attempt at denial of reality, of a profound wisdom amidst the surrounding corruption, is consistently in vain: for Aureliano Jos, "the more his image wallowed in the muck of war, the more war resembled Amaranta ( 163)." One soldier even admits, “We fight this war so that a person can marry his mother (163).” Through these descriptions of the Aurelianos' role in the war, Márquez could not be clearer in defining their struggle as a futile attempt to abandon social standards. Márquez places his characters in a realistically distorted world; some wild and opposing forces will continually interrupt the expected daily life of a Buendia. Thematically, Marquez uses unconventional sexual behavior to distance each character from accepted morality. Meme's obsession with Mauricio Babilonia inevitably plunges her into the deepest loneliness, because not only does his entry distort her life.