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100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez follows the Buendía family through their many generations. It all starts when José Arcadio Buendía stumbles across an essentially uninhabited piece of land where he establishes the city of Macondo (Márquez 23-24). At the beginning of the book Macondo is known by mainly only the Buendía family as well as gypsies that travel through the town to display their mysterious and magical inventions (Márquez 1). Throughout the book, the town becomes more populated with the births of seven generations of the Buendía family and other outsiders that happen to stumble upon Macondo. After the founding of Macondo, the want for exploration grows shortly after Úrsula Iguarán, José Arcadio Buendía’s wife, discovers a route that connects Macondo with the outside world; it becomes populated (Márquez 36). As Macondo grows so do the conflicts that occur. War and terror break out and disrupt the peace and solitude that once consumed Macondo (Márquez 100). The whole city is on edge because of the terror of war and the frightening changes in the city. As time goes on so do the generations which means more and more childern, but it also means that death lingers on those of the earlier generations. The city builds a railway, allowing easier accessibility to and from the city attracting more and more people (Márquez 223-224). Because of this increase in transportation, foreigners set up a banana plantation in Macondo, they bring new technology and big corporations into the small city (Márquez 228). But mainly, the plantation took advantage of the citizens, and could use them because of the lack of money and power (Márquez 237). The large business takes control of the small town by attacking the villagers and workers with force (Márquez 237-238). Their aggression causes the workers to go on strike which ends terribly with many deaths (Márquez 304-307). These deaths take a toll on the village, causing a decline in spirits and overall well-being. The town is declining and will never be the same again throughout the book. Through the passing of time, the memories fade and no one seems to remember the correct history of the town (Márquez 309). They only remember what the government wants them to remember which is now found in the school textbooks (Márquez 348). The death of Úrsula initiates the decline of the Buendía family as well as what little is left of the village (Márquez 341-342). The 7th generation is the last of the Buendía family and the city itself. The prophesy of their family that is read by Aureliano (II) is a detailed description of his family’s fate, and the very last thing he read was the end after 100 years (Márquez 416-417). The author, Gabriel García Márquez, uses magical realism to communicate the physical reaction of events by ways of the natural world. Magical realism is a literary device that in the book is displayed as a natural occurrence that the characters accept but us the reader interprets it as a phenomenon and is baffled as to why it seems normal. In 100 Years of Solitude magical realism is used in many different instances, and the majority of those instances have to do with the balance of nature. After the deaths of the workers on the banana plantation, it rains continuously for five years and the civilians think normally of it (Márquez 315). The rain symbolizes the washing away of the memories of the people and their troubled pasts. Márquez emphasizes this by using realism to convey an obvious difference that the reader notices to inflict an over exaggeration that helps convey the importance of that particular event. An unnatural occurrence in the human life is reciprocated by a representation of this as an unnatural occurrence in nature. Another literary device used in this novel is symbolism. There is an instance where after José Arcadio Buendía’s death they are measuring his coffin and yellow flowers begin to fall out of nowhere from the sky. José had just died and the city is preparing for his funeral. At first I assumed that they were talking about a few petals that blew past a window, but the flows are later described as a blanket and covering the streets (Márquez 140). The flowers aren’t just any that are falling from the sky, but they are yellow, a symbol of light. Flowers are also used to honor the dead so having huge masses fall from the sky represents the heavens sending a message to his family and friends of his return to heaven. These grand gestures are both approved by the citizens of Macondo, thus both are examples of magical realism, but one could argue that both of these scenes could represent symbolism. When magical realism is implemented, it means that the author is trying to convey a significant importance about that scene in a symbolic way. The rain is a symbol of mourning and because it rained for five years it represents a huge loss to the city. The flowers are a symbol of recognition and pride so having hundreds of thousands of flowers fall from the heavens is magical in it’s self but also represents the peaceful passing into heaven. This was a fascinating book that got me thinking but also confused me which is what I assume Márquez wanted from this novel. The book often switches between different points in time, fast forwards though time, uses magical realism, makes me as a reader question the intent of his writing, and frustrates me through the motif of not learning from past mistakes. This crazy book is challenging, interesting, and funny. I recommend this book to any 16 year old that wants to challenge themselves with a complicated read and definitely to 18-19 year olds to help them prepare for reading challenging material in college. This is a great read for anyone that chooses to challenge themselves, but that being said I am never able to read anything very challenging with other big stresses, to-dos, and due dates in my life, so being a student and having to understand the book and study for finals was a bit challenging to do at the same time, because I couldn’t focus on the book as much as I would have liked during that time period. I appreciate the challenge and confusion that Márquez has written but there were some points of the book that was a bit too confusing, for example the names. I believe that the confusion between the names is what Márquez had intended because of the meaning and message that each of the names add to the character’s life and personality, but eventually I gave up trying to remember who was who. This gives me an excuse to re-read the book with maybe a different perspective and focus next time. Overall this is a challenging read for people that love to read. This book requires the reader to have the time to dig deep into the book and try to analyze any literary devices that seem important to the overall theme(s) of the novel.Márquez, Gabriel G. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.In the world of this story, solitude can be shared as well as cherished. It can be something that offers consolation, but it can also be an insufferable burden.In the world of this story, part real and part fantasy, with the distinction between the two oscillating periodically with random amplitude, ice is a rare jewel, wars are imagined to be fought using magnifying glasses, and the immune system can be almost infinitely resistant to pathogens. Obstinacy and dogmatism become tools for survival and provoke warfare, and keep the imagination at abeyance. Fear is ranked less than curiosity but curiosity can trounce social coherence and shared purpose. Curiosity dominates, beginning at birth, with no concern at all with any wax of Icarus.In the world of this story, the proliferation and diversity of avian fauna can operate as a directional beacon as well as an acoustic source of madness. Inventions can be in the imagination and as is canonical, can interfere with family life with its predilection to supervise and make rigid its younger members. Fortune telling and other flights of fancy can coexist with scientific and technical innovation with wandering gypsies being the innovators. There is also a slice of post-modernistic nihilism where words have filed for a divorce from their referents.In the world of this story, loss of memory is a collective infection as is insomnia. There is regularity but also an out-of-equilibrium ethos viz a viz the dance, a consequence of the precision of the metronome and the pianola. Social graces and the rigidity of manners are here also, as well as prudence and other forms of linguistic tools of social manipulation. But fantasies, and the tools used to prove them out, can be destroyed with as much zeal as when they were invented.In the world of this story, the soil of the land can be tread, even consumed, without taking into account any deity and not even reaching out for its assistance. War is brought about by the usual divisions, the usual ideological spirits, coupled with both religious and anti-religious fever. Fakery and quackery, and charlatans diffuse into the territory with ersatz concepts and inert pills. The cruelty and brutality of leaders meshes well with their political dogmatism.In the world of this story, the inability to sleep is not because of worry or biting conscience, but rather because of a plague. Passion and sex are not violent but loud, enough to wake the dead, and accomplished in inopportune places. As is typical, those who fight these wars did not know why they were doing so. Genetic purity results in challenges to the status quo, and with characteristic lack of spine exercises violence against the wild beasts who possess it.In the world of this story, the exhilaration of power (however fictitious is the latter) is countered by other enraptured and exaggerated emotions, leaving power wallowing like a hog in the dung heap of temporary glory. Isolation causes power to decrease exponentially, leaving its victim disoriented and more solitary than ever. Hell then becomes an anti-Sartrian lack of other people.In the world of this story, family backgrounds, affiliations, names, and characteristics are the result of random perturbations and combinations collecting charge when rubbing together, with consequent repelling when collecting the same sign, and coming together if not. Volatility in outlooks occurs without the stultifying latency of inaction.In the world of this story, beauty, incredible beauty, unbelievable beauty makes its appearance and instills both typical and atypical reactions, mesmerizing both the weak and strong, but inducing solitude in its bearer. But this beauty is natural, to be distinguished from the ersatz beauty of the those in authority, wrapped as it is typically is in bangles and crepe paper.In the world of this story, towns and villages can be transformed by inventions as well as doubt, by decadent saboteurs who open their triangles to any willing and paying cylinder. Tolerance as well as xenophobia is clearly manifest with respect to the skin rash of foreign elements who diffuse across boundaries and ergodically mix with the inhabitants, transforming its architecture and forcing them to take on false manners and an excess of tact, prudence, and ethnic tolerance.In the world of this story, intuition can win over perception, and cognition can sometimes win over intuition, but ice can be made in a hot jungle. Gluttony is celebrated as hospitality. Stomachs can at times have unbounded volume. Frivolous thoughts are sometimes quickly suppressed... ....but descriptions use sentences that run on as effectively and magnificently as the human generations that span this story; this incredible display of literary machinations.