One Hundred Years of Solitude Summary
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
Setting
The novel is set in the fictional town of Macondo, Columbia
Main Characters
José Arcadio BuendÃa – he is the patriarch of the BuendÃa family and the founder of the city of Macondo.
Úrsula Iguarán – she is the matriarch of the BuendÃa family: wife of José Arcadio BuendÃa and mother to Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa, José Arcadio (I), and Amaranta.
Pilar Ternera – she is an older fortune teller in town who is a constant source of lust to the BuendÃa men.
MelquÃades – he is A gypsy who comes through Macondo to introduce different scientific and magical objects.
Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa – he is the first person born in Macondo. He is silent and withdrawn even before he is born, as his fetus was said to weep inside Úrsula.
José Arcadio (I) – is the oldest child of the second generation.
Amaranta – she is the only biological daughter of José Arcadio BuendÃa and Úrsula.
Rebeca – she is the adopted daughter of José Arcadio BuendÃa and Úrsula.
Remedios Moscote – she is the youngest daughter of Don Apolinar Moscone, the mayor of Macondo.
Pietro Crespi – he is The Italian pianola expert. Handsome and polite, he is hired to teach Rebeca and Amaranta how to dance, causing both of them to fall in love with him.
Aureliano's – he fathers seventeen sons with seventeen different women while away fighting in the war.
Remedios the Beauty – he is the daughter of Santa Sophia de la Piedad and Arcadio goes unnamed for eight months of her life until her father’s execution.
Aureliano Segundo – he is the twin of José Arcadio Segundo and son of Santa Sofia de la Piedad and Arcadio.
Plot Summary
José Arcadio BuendÃa and his wife, Úrsula Iguarán, set out from Riohacha, Colombia to make a new home for themselves. While sleeping on a riverbank, José Arcadio BuendÃa dreams of the town of Macondo, a city made of mirrors, and he determines that the place where they sleep is where they should establish the town. José Arcadio BuendÃa oversees the building of the village as his family grows, his sons José Arcadio (I) and Aureliano are born on the way to or in Macondo. A band of gypsies visits periodically to show the residents inventions like magnifying glasses, magnets, and flying carpets. The gypsy MelquÃades leads this band, and he shares a prophecy written in code with José Arcadio BuendÃa, prompting him to become obsessed with technology, specifically alchemy.
The book flashes back to before José Arcadio BuendÃa and Úrsula Iguarán left Riohacha. They were warned that, because they are first cousins, their children could have genetic defects. Since they are reluctant to consummate their marriage, rumors swirl that José Arcadio BuendÃa is impotent, and he kills a man for mocking him. Back in the present, the gypsies come to show José Arcadio BuendÃa a block of ice, which fascinates him. His older son, José Arcadio, is seduced by Pilar Ternera, a fortune-teller whom he impregnates. However, he leaves town with the gypsies. Just after, Úrsula gives birth to her daughter, Amaranta, and leaves home to try to find her son, discovering a shortcut between Macondo and civilization in the process.
Pilar Ternera gives birth to José Arcadio’s son Arcadio and the BuendÃa family adopts an orphan named Rebeca who suffers from contagious insomnia that causes memory loss, a condition that grows to infect the whole town. MelquÃades arrives with a cure for amnesia: the photograph. José Arcadio BuendÃa tries to use the technology to take a photo of God, but he is unable to, and his son Aureliano tries to learn the silversmith trade from MelquÃades. A representative of the central government, Don Apolinar Moscote, appears in the formerly independent Macondo and José Arcadio BuendÃa challenges him, stripping him of much of his authority. Despite the Moscotes being enemies of the BuendÃa family, Aureliano falls in love with the youngest Moscote daughter, Remedios.
Waiting for his betrothed to come of age, Aureliano, too, sleeps with Pilar Ternera. Meanwhile, the BuendÃa daughters, Amaranta and Rebeca, fall in love with Pietro Crespi, the Italian Pianola expert hired to give them dancing lessons. Crespi chooses Rebeca, and Amaranta vows to prevent their marriage. After MelquÃades dies of old age, José Arcadio BuendÃa’s obsessions with the mysteries of the world drive him to madness. Convinced that each day is the same as the one before, he is tied to a tree in the yard.
Remedios and Aureliano marry, but Amaranta sabotages the wedding of Pietro Crespi and Rebeca, which was to happen on the same day. Remedios dies soon after the wedding, pregnant with twins. When the eldest son, José Arcadio returns, Rebeca cannot resist her attraction to her adopted brother and they marry. Úrsula banishes the couple from the house. Aureliano takes an interest in the Liberal side of the war with the Conservatives, leading a rebellion in town before leaving to fight elsewhere. From this point on, he is known as Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa.
Arcadio is in charge of the town after the victory of the Liberal party, but he quickly becomes a dictator himself. Attracted to Pilar Ternera, he tries to sleep with her, but she knows he is her son, and so she pays Santa SofÃa de la Piedad to go in her place. Arcadio marries her and she gives birth to their daughter Remedios the Beauty. When the Liberals lose the war, Arcadio is executed by firing squad. Pietro Crespi proposes to Amaranta but, despite her love for him, she declines. He commits suicide and she burns her hand to punish herself, wearing a black bandage over the burn for the rest of her life.
Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa and Colonel Gerineldo Márquez are sentenced to be executed by firing squad. José Arcadio prevents the execution at the last minute, and Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa returns to war. Eventually, he is deserted by the official Liberal party for his radical actions, and he realizes he is fighting not for his ideals, but out of pride, so he leaves the army. Santa SofÃa de la Piedad gives birth to the twin sons of her dead husband, naming them José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo. Perhaps because of his recent brave actions saving his brother, José Arcadio is murdered, and his widow Rebeca becomes a hermit. Colonel Gerineldo Márquez is left to govern the town and pursues romance with Amaranta, but she spurns him, too. Finally, José Arcadio BuendÃa, the patriarch tied to a tree, dies, and the sky rains yellow flowers.
Aureliano José, the son of José Arcadio and Pilar Ternera, grows up and finds himself attracted to his aunt Amaranta. They sleep naked together, but never consummate their feelings. When she insists they stop sleeping together, he joins the army just before a peace treaty is signed. Aureliano José deserts the army to tell Amaranta he wants to be with her, but he is killed by a Conservative soldier as he returns home. Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa’s seventeen sons arrive at Macondo to meet him just before he returns to fight in an attempt to convince the Liberals to end the useless war once and for all. He agrees to sign a treaty that he believes betrays both himself and his party and then attempts to kill himself.
Having survived his suicide attempt, Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa secludes himself in his workshop making fish out of gold. Both of the twin brothers sleep with the same woman, Petra Cotes, though Aureliano Segundo’s relationship with her proves to be long-lasting and has a magical effect on their livestock, making them incredibly fertile. José Arcadio succeeds in bringing a boat down the river to Macondo, celebrating with a carnival. Remedios the Beauty is named queen of the carnival but her position is challenged by another queen, Fernanda Del Carpio, and a riot breaks out, killing many in the crowd.
Amaranta Úrsula returns from Brussels with her husband Gaston on a leash. Aureliano pines after Amaranta Úrsula, but he tries to distract himself by befriending an old Catalonian bookseller and some young men who meet to talk about their studies at the shop. At a brothel, Aureliano meets the ancient Pilar Ternera who gives him advice. Aureliano admits his love to Amaranta Úrsula and they become lovers while Gaston is on a business trip, Amaranta Úrsula tells him never to return.
The Catalonian bookseller and Aureliano’s friends all leave Macondo. The BuendÃa house has been destroyed by a swarm of red ants. Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula bear a child who, in line with Úrsula’s fears all those years ago, is born with the tail of a pig. Amaranta Úrsula dies soon after giving birth. Aureliano, in his grief, forgets about the baby and finds it being devoured by ants. He finally deciphers MelquÃades’ prophecies, a history of the BuendÃa family. As he reads, a hurricane destroys Macondo.
Themes
- Solitude. Solitude is a characteristic that marks each character in its own way. The males of the BuendÃa family are repeatedly described as having a solitary nature. Though the Aurelianos are characterized as withdrawn, the José Arcadio characters also note their loneliness, especially when in the company of others.
- Propriety, Sexuality, and Incest. Love and lust are inextricably tangled in the novel. Familial love is confused with sexual love, husbands and wives have so little sexual chemistry that they must satisfy their urges with other partners, and the parentage of many characters is kept secret, heightening the risk of incest. These complicated circumstances are caused by the characters’ misplaced dedication to propriety and social norms.