Gabriel García Márquez

          One of the most important aspects of psychology is analyzing human relationships, as they are always multifaceted and constantly changing. Human relationships exhibit many interesting characteristics-one can never tell how a person (or fictional character) will react in a certain situation. The characters in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera are no exception. Most notably, One Hundred Years of Solitude offers much in the way of analysis, as it chronicles one hundred years of isolation for the Buendía family. Throughout the novel, its patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, symbolizes the hope that Macondo has for its future, but also how its downfall results from contact with new technology and the outside world.At the beginning of the novel, José Arcadio is said to be a benevolent founder of Macondo, and one who has helped it to flourish in the midst of the jungle. He is integral to its establishment, as he is said to be “a kind and youthful patriarch who would give instructions for planting and advice for the raising of animals, and who collaborated with everyone, even in the physical work, for the welfare of the community” (Márquez 8). He is completely rational, and is able to fully participate in group activities. This allows Macondo to thrive, despite the fact that it is completely surrounded by water or forest. It is very rare that outsiders (such as gypsies) arrive to trade or bring news of the distant, outside world.

 

          Later, however, José Arcadio’s mental state (and by extension, the welfare of the community) declines with the onslaught of new knowledge in the isolated village that is Macondo. It is said that “having completely abandoned his domestic obligations, he spent entire nights in the courtyard watching the course of the stars and he almost contracted sunstroke from trying to establish an exact method to ascertain noon” (Márquez 4). His quest for knowledge does not achieve satisfactory results, however, as his numerous quests for knowledge lead him to negative consequences such as in this situation. After many attempts like this, he goes steadily insane. Ursula eventually ties him to a tree in the center of town, so he can rant and rave about his discoveries about the world and will not hurt himself or other people. José Arcadio’s need to know puts both him and his family at risk, because he will do anything in order to acquire new knowledge.

 

            Because of José Arcadio’s insatiable need to acquire new knowledge, the Buendías must now continue to search for new knowledge, no matter the cost. This can also be seen as his descendants leave their own marks on the world and Buendías decline into a period of dissolution and despair. For example, “many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice” (Márquez 1). Because his father was so engrossed with new discoveries, his mother, Ursula, later observes that he has “an incapacity for love”. As a result, he organizes a Liberal revolution, through which he organizes thirty-two armed uprisings, and loses them all. He is doomed to fail, and leave the world without any sympathy. In addition, José Arcadio as a patriarchal figure can be seen to directly contribute to the downfall of the Buendias, as he accepts any information that he can, and so accepts a series of parchments from Melquiades, a gypsy who comes peddling miraculous objects like magnets and ice. These parchments, however, are a mystery to Jose Arcadio at the time. Later, when the final Aureliano, Aureliano Babilonia, can finally read them at the end of the one hundred years, he realizes that “It was the history of the family, written my Melquiades, down to the most trivial details, one hundred years ahead of time. He had written it in Sanskrit…Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish he parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth” (Márquez 415-417). By associating himself and his family with knowledge through Melquiades, José Arcadio has essentially condemned his family to destruction at the end of the one hundred years. As he tries to overcome Macondo’s isolation through acquiring information, he seals Macondo’s fate.

 

Throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez creates characters that have interesting relationships, especially José Arcadio Buendia. Unfortunately, however, his role as the patriarch of his family and his obsession with acquiring new knowledge lead to their downfall.