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One Hundred Years of Solitude

by Gabriel García Márquez

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What is the significance of the title in "One Hundred Years of Solitude"?

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The title "One Hundred Years of Solitude" signifies the pervasive theme of isolation and independence experienced by the Buendía family and broader societal levels. Each Buendía family member finds solitude in different ways, reflecting personal obsessions and societal changes. The novel also mirrors the solitude of post-colonial Latin America, highlighting the abandonment and isolation faced by formerly colonized nations.

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The title of Gabriel García Márquez's novel corresponds to isolation and independence at multiple levels: from the personal, through the family, community, and nation, to Latin America and the formerly colonized world.

Doña Ursula, who lives 100 years but is alone because she outlives her contemporaries, best embodies this survival in isolation. She is also a matriarch in a patriarchal world. The many generations of the Buendía family also embody the family's continuity, emphasized by the repeated names.

Colombian independence, which had its centennial in the early 1900s as modernization made inroads into Macondo's formerly remote location, displays a paradox at the national and community level. Most Latin American nations achieved independence in the same period, so Macondo becomes a microcosm of the hemisphere.

The solitude of the formerly colonized world is similarly invoked as the former ruling powers abandon their recent subjects, leaving them to face the consequences alone, as the colonel faces the firing squad.

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The novel involves how various characters find solitude.  Each member of the Buendia family winds up in solitude.  Jose Arcadio Buendia finds solitude through his obsession with inventions and discoveries.  Arcadio finds solitude through his abusive use of power.  Colonel Aureliano seeks solitude with his isolating chalk circle and his fame.  Ursula finds solitude in old age.  These are just a few of the examples.  Some, such as Amaranta, enter solitude by choice.  Some, like Meme,  are forced into it.  Throughout the novel, Marquez explores the temptation that we all face to withdraw into ourselves, to retreat, to insulate, and isolate.  We can see ourselves in the Buendia family members as their world expands but then inevitably contracts into a smaller and smaller circle, filled with routine and obsession.

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