1. Introduction to the novel
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" is the representative work of Colombian writer García Márquez and a representative work of Latin American magical realism literature. It is known as "Representation" A masterpiece on the historical and social landscape of Latin America." The work describes the legendary story of seven generations of the Buendia family and the century-old rise and fall of Macondo, a small town on the Caribbean coast, reflecting the vicissitudes of Latin America over the past century. The work incorporates mysterious elements such as myths and legends, folk tales, and religious allusions, skillfully blends reality and illusion, and presents a magnificent imaginary world. It has become one of the most important classic literary masterpieces of the 20th century.
2. Content introduction
The first generation of the family
José Arcadio Buendia is a descendant of Spaniards and lives far away An Indian village on the seaside.
When he and úrsula were newly married, Ursula wore special tights every night because she was afraid of giving birth to a child with a long tail like her aunt and uncle when they married, and refused to have sex with her husband, so he He was ridiculed by the villagers. After winning a cockfight, José Arcadio Buendía killed Prudencio Aguilar for laughing at him. From then on, the ghosts of the dead often appeared in front of him. The ghost's painful and desolate eyes made him restless day and night. So Jose Arcadio Buendia and his family left the village with their friends and family to find a place to live. After more than two years of trekking, they came to a beach and decided to settle down due to inspiration from a dream. Come down and build a village, this is Macondo. This begins the history of the Buendía family in Macondo. José Arcadio Buendía was a very creative man. He saw magnets from the Gypsies and wanted to use them to mine gold; he saw that a magnifying glass could focus sunlight, so he tried to develop a Incomparably powerful weapons; he obtained navigational scopes and sextants from the Gypsies, and realized through experiments that "the earth is round, like an orange." He was dissatisfied with the backward life he led. He complained to his wife: "Incredible things are happening in the world. Next to us, on the other side of the river, there are many kinds of magical machines, but we are still living like stupid donkeys here." Because Macondo is hidden in a wide swamp, isolated from the world. He was determined to open a road to connect Macondo with the great inventions of the outside world. He led a group of people to work through obstacles for more than two weeks, but ended in failure. He said painfully: "We can't go anywhere anymore. We will rot here alive and not enjoy the benefits of science." Later, he became obsessed with alchemy and locked himself in the laboratory all day long. Because his spiritual world was incompatible with the narrow, backward and conservative reality of Macondo, he fell into loneliness and could not extricate himself, so much so that he became insane and was tied to a big tree by his family. He remained there decades later. die on. úrsula became the breadwinner of the family and was between 115 and 122 years old when she died.
The second generation of the family
The second generation of the Buendia family has two boys and one girl: the eldest, Jose Arcadio, was born on the way to Macondo Yes, he grew up on the road, as stubborn as his father, but not as imaginative; he had an affair with a woman named Pilar Ternera and had a child, but after a gypsy trip When he came to Macondo to perform, he fell in love with a gypsy girl, so he chose to run away; later he came back, but his temperament was uncertain. In the end, despite the opposition of his family, he married Rebecca, but was kicked out of the house and was shot dead at home.
The second oldest child, Aureliano, was born in Macondo. He could cry in his mother's womb and was born with his eyes open. He had the ability to foresee things since he was a child. When he was young, he was as taciturn as his father. Tian is immersed in his father's laboratory making little goldfish. When he grew up, he fell in love with Remedios, the young daughter of Macondoriz. Before that, he had a son with his brother's lover, named Aureliano Jose. His beautiful wife, who was pregnant with twins, was accidentally killed by Amaranta. Later he participated in the Civil War and became a colonel. He suffered 14 assassinations, 73 ambushes and one shooting in his life, but survived all of them. When he realized that the war was meaningless, he made it easy for the government to sign a peace treaty to stop the war, and then shot himself in the heart. But miraculously he survived. He lived with 17 foreign women and gave birth to 17 boys.
These boys later returned to Macondo to find their roots, but were hunted down. A week later, only the eldest boy survived. When Aureliano returned home in old age, he refined gold to make small goldfish every day. He made two fish every day. When he reached 25, he melted them in the crucible and made them again. Like his father, he lived a life of isolation and loneliness until his death.
The third daughter, Amaranta, fell in love with the Italian piano technician Pietro. After her love rival Rebecca gave up the Italian and married José Arcadio, she dated the Italian. But he refused to marry an Italian, and the Italian committed suicide because of this. Out of remorse, she deliberately burned one of her hands and wrapped it in a black bandage for the rest of her life, determined never to marry. But she felt extremely lonely and depressed inside, and even hung out with her nephew who had just grown up, hoping to use it as a "temporary medicine to treat the disease." However, she could never get rid of the loneliness in her heart. She locked herself in her room all day long, sewing and taking apart the burial clothes, until the last moment of her life.
The third generation of the family
The only members of the third generation are Arcadio, the son of Jose Arcadio, and Aureliano, the son of Aureliano. Jose. The former didn't know who his biological mother was, so he fell passionately in love with his biological mother, which almost led to a big mistake. However, due to the introduction of his biological mother, he fell in love with Santa Sofia de la Piedad, and later became the unprecedented tyrant of Macondo. He was corrupt and perverted the law, and was finally shot by the conservative army. The latter matured prematurely and fell passionately in love with his aunt Amaranta. Unable to be satisfied, he fell into loneliness and joined the army. After entering the army, he still couldn't let go of his love for his aunt, so he sought comfort from prostitutes to get rid of his loneliness, and eventually died in the rebellion.
The fourth generation of the family
The fourth generation is one girl and two boys born from Arcadio's affair. The beautiful daughter, Remedios, is beautiful and exudes an unsettling smell, which has killed several men. She was naked and wearing a cloth bag, but she didn't want to waste time getting dressed. This unique girl was knowledgeable and aloof. Finally, she miraculously grabbed a snow-white sheet and flew away in the wind, disappearing in the air forever.
Her two younger brothers, Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo, are twins. Arcadio Segundo worked as a supervisor in a banana company run by Americans, instigating workers to strike and becoming a labor leader. Later, he led more than 3,000 workers to go on strike, which was suppressed by the military and police. He was the only one of more than 3,000 workers who survived. He witnessed the government using trains to transport the workers' bodies to the sea and dump them into the sea, and announced on the radio that the workers would be temporarily transferred to work elsewhere. Arcadio went around telling everyone about the massacre he had witnessed to reveal the truth, but he was considered insane. He was so frightened and disappointed that he locked himself in the house and studied the parchment manuscripts left by the Gypsies. He stayed in this room until his death.
Aureliano Segundo had no legitimate career and indulged in drinking and debauchery all day long. He abandoned his wife Fernanda and hung out in the house of his mistress Petra. The strange thing is that whenever he lived with his mistress, his livestock multiplied rapidly and brought him wealth. Once he returned to his wife, the family business was ruined. He and his wife had two daughters and one son, and finally died of illness at the same time as Arcadio. From birth to death, people never knew who the two brothers were.
The fifth generation of the family
The fifth generation of the Buendia family is Aureliano Segundo’s two daughters and one son. The eldest son, José Arcadio, was a child. He was sent to study at a seminary in Rome. His mother hoped that he would become a bishop in the future, but he had no interest in this. He only lied to his mother that he was studying at a seminary for the sake of the imaginary inheritance. After his mother died, he returned home and made a living by selling his business. Later, Ursula discovered more than 7,000 gold coins hidden in the cellar. From then on, she lived a more dissolute life, and was soon killed by gangsters who robbed the gold coins.
The eldest daughter Renata Remedios (Meimei) fell in love with Mauricio Babylon, a mechanic at the Banana Company's garage. Her mother forbade them from interacting with each other, so they had to meet secretly in the bathroom. After the mother found out, she banned her daughter from going out and hired bodyguards to stay at home. Mauricio Babylon climbed onto the roof of Meme's house, but was hit in the back by a bodyguard. He was bedridden all day long, was regarded as a chicken thief, and died of old age in loneliness. Mei Mei lost all hope. Her mother believed that the family's scandal should not be publicized, so she was sent to a convent while she was pregnant, where she remained silent throughout her life.
The younger daughter Amaranta úrsula went to school in Brussels in her early years, where she dated the pilot Gaston. After dating, the two returned to Macondo, saw the desolation, and decided to rebuild. home.
She is full of energy and vitality, and in just three months she transformed her home into a new one. Her arrival brought about the most special person in Macondo. Her mood was better than that of the rest of the family, and she wanted to drive all stereotypes into the eighteenth level of hell. She decided to settle down and save this disaster-ridden village.
The sixth generation of the family
The sixth generation of the Buendia family is Aureliano Buendia, the illegitimate son sent back by Meme. He has been growing up in loneliness since his birth. His only hobby was to hide in the room of the gypsy Melquíades and study various mysterious books and manuscripts. He was able to talk to the old gypsy Melquíades, who had been dead for many years, and was instructed to learn Sanskrit. He has always been indifferent to the world around him, but he is well aware of medieval knowledge. He and José Arcadio refused to take in the only surviving eldest of Aureliano's 17 sons, causing him to be shot to death by his pursuers. He unknowingly fell in love with his aunt Amaranta úrsula and had an incestuous relationship. Although they were tortured by loneliness and love, they believed that they were the happiest people in the world after all. Later, Amaranta úrsula gave birth to a boy: "He was the only baby conceived due to love among the Buendias born in a hundred years." However, he actually had a pig's tail. Amaranta úrsula also died of postpartum hemorrhage.
The boy with the pig tail is the seventh generation heir of the Buendia family. He was eaten by a swarm of ants as soon as he was born. When Aureliano Buendía saw his son who had been eaten by ants with only a small piece of skin left, he finally deciphered the manuscript of Melquíades. The inscription at the beginning of the manuscript is: "The first person in the family will be tied to a tree, and the last person in the family is being eaten by ants." It turns out that this manuscript records the history of the Buendia family . The moment he finished translating the last chapter, a sudden hurricane blew the entire town of Macondo away from the earth. From then on, the village and town disappeared forever.
3. Creation background
In the 70 years from 1830 to the end of the 19th century, dozens of civil wars broke out in Colombia, killing hundreds of thousands of people. This book describes the historical facts in this aspect at great length, and shows them through the legendary career of the protagonist in the book. The hypocrisy of politicians, the cruelty of rulers, the blind obedience and ignorance of the people, etc. are all vividly written. The writer uses vivid brushwork to depict many characters with distinctive personalities and depicts the lonely spirit of this family. In this family, there is no emotional communication, trust and understanding between husband and wife, between father and son, between mother and daughter, and between brothers and sisters. Although many people have made various arduous explorations to break loneliness, they all ended in failure because they could not find an effective way to unify the scattered forces. This loneliness not only pervades the Buendia family and the town of Macondo, but also permeates narrow-mindedness and becomes a major burden that hinders national progress and national progress.
The writer writes this in the hope that Latin American people will unite and work together to get rid of loneliness. Therefore, the main connotation of the loneliness immersed in "One Hundred Years of Solitude" should be the resentment and protest against the entire suffering Latin America being excluded from the modern civilized world. It is the writer's reflection on the history and development of Latin America in the past century. And the stubborn self-confidence formed after unique research on the unique vitality, living conditions and imagination of the people on this continent. This ancient family also struggled to go out to find a new world under the impact of new civilization. Although they had fear and retreat, they still abandoned their traditional cloak and hoped to integrate into this world. However, foreign civilization engulfed this family with an aggressive attitude, so they continued their "hundred years of solitude" in such an open civilized world. The author expresses a kind of mental loneliness to criticize the spiritual invasion of Latin America by outsiders, as well as the discrimination and rejection of Latin America by Western civilization. "Everything recorded in the parchment manuscript will never be reproduced. The family that suffered a hundred years of loneliness is destined not to appear on the earth for the second time." The author expressed his deep resentment with a destructive ending.
4. About the author
Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) is a famous Colombian writer and a representative figure of magical realism literature. Marquez was born in 1927 in the seaside town of Aracataca, Magdalena, Colombia. He lived with his maternal grandparents during his childhood.
In 1936, he moved to Sucre with his parents. In 1947, he was admitted to the National University of Bogota. In 1948, he dropped out of school due to the civil war and entered the newspaper industry. Literary works began to be published in the 1950s. Moved to Mexico in the early 1960s. One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in 1967. Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. The main feature of García Márquez's works is the ingenious combination of fantasy and reality, in order to reflect the real life of society and examine life and the world. On April 17, 2014, García Márquez died of illness in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, at the age of 87.