Historical Themes of Garcia Marquezs One Hundred Years...

Historical Themes of Garcia Marquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude Garcia Marquez has said that One Hundred Years of Solitude is not a history of Latin America, it is a metaphor for Latin America (Dreifus 1983:1974). The historical themes include conquest and colonization, settlement and scientific discovery, civil wars, foreign economic intervention, technological change, and finally the decay and disappearance of a long-established way of life. The original Spanish conquest is alluded to when, in the first chapter, Jose Arcadio Buendia finds an old suit of armor and the remains of a galleon, mysteriously stranded several kilometers from the sea. The early Spanish colonization and the devastating pirate raids of the†¦show more content†¦Twenty was probably chosen in this instance because Garcia Marquez wanted a smooth, flowing rhythm in his opening lines, which would have been disrupted by an extra syllable: veintidos instead of veinte.) An important omission from Garcia Marquezs metaphorical history of Latin America is the savagely cruel wars for independence, which last from 1810 to (in Colombia) 1819. We can assume then that these wars are already over by the time Macondo is founded, so that this fictional act corresponds to developments in about 1820 - 1825 in the countrys real history. This primitive stage of Macondo is also a time of innocence, a psychological theme important in the book. The arrival of Melquiades and his gypsy band, with their navigational instruments, magnifying glass, and so forth, is a metaphor for the beginning of technical and scientific awareness, which would have reached towns like Macondo some time between 1830 and 1860. In real history, the bearers of this new knowledge would probably not have been gypsies but itinerant professors and self-proclaimed physicians (such a quack does show up in Macondo, a disguised terrorist madman who tries to spur the youth to violence). Banana company symbolic. Although closely based on a particular real event, the story of the banana company inShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Exposed in His Works910 Words   |  4 PagesThe Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Exposed in His Works   Ã‚  Ã‚   The majority of literary critics would not hesitate in praising the works   of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Garcia Marquez is often considered one of the   greatest writers to come out of Latin America. Born in Aracataca, a small   town in northern Columbia, he was primarily raised by his maternal   grandparents (Britannica). Biographies often indicate a presence of a large   community including an abundance of relativesRead MoreGabriel Garcia Marquezs Hundred Years of Solitude Essay1236 Words   |  5 PagesGabriel Garcia Marquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude originally in Spanish in 1967 but it has been translated into many different languages ever since becoming a literary must for some. 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