100 Years of Solitude (Chapters 1-5)

1) Choose a character from the first 5 chapters and do a study of him/her. How does the novel present this character? Why? What do you think he or she represents in the novel? (Think about archetypes and myths. Garcia Marquez is drawing from a lot of myth and literature here in his creation of this novel.) Refer to specific scenes in this novel to support your answer.

As I read the novel, I thought of Don Quixote immediately because the main character Jose Arcadio Buendia is very similar. Marquez writes that Buendia has an unbridled imagination and that made me think of Don Quixote and his imagination and obsession with knighthood. Since this is told as a flashback, Marquez says that "at this time Buendia did not believe in the honesty of gypsies" (2). This tells us already that something is going to happen with gypsies and something will alter Buendia's view of reality. It is clear that he is a leader but he reminds me of Perceval in Chapter one also. When his wife is crying about the money, he does not console her because "he was completely absorbed in his tactical experiments with the abnegation of a scientist and even at the risk of his own life" (3) This foreshadows that he is willing to risk everything, including himself and people he loves, because he is obsessed with the magic. This also shows that he has the characteristics of becoming a "madman." Marquez writes, "Suddenly, without warning, his feverish activity was interrupted and was replaced by a kind of fascination. He spent several days as if he were bewitched, softly repeating to himself a string of fearful conjectures without giving credit to his own understanding" (4). Shortly after this, Ursula gets tired of her husband never helping her and she says, "If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself" (5)! He did not even flinch at the fact that his wife threw the astrolabe at the floor and then the whole village was convinced that he had lost his reason. Buendia represents the whole myth vs reality and sanity vs. insanity in the novel. From the first chapter alone, there are so many citations indicating that he is going to become insane and he will abandon everyone and everyone will abandon him when he does so.



2) Choose a theme/symbol you find important in these initial chapters. How does this comment on what we have read so far? Why do you feel this to be the case? Refer to specific scenes in this novel to support your answer.


A theme that is obviously important in this novel is the theme of insanity. In Chapter 4, Marquez marks the beginning of Buendia slipping into insanity. After Buendia get the mechanism of the clock to a mechanical ballerina, Marquez writes "that discovery excited him much more than any of his other harebrained undertakings. He stopped eating. He stopped sleeping. Only the vigilance and care of rebeca kept him fron being dragged off by his imagination into a state of perpetual delirium from which he could not recover. The fever of insomnia fatigued him..." (76-77). This reminds me a lot of Don Quixote when he read so many books about chivalry during the night and day that the reading withered his brain and he went mad. Buendia cannot figure out what day it is and he constantly says it is Monday even though people assure him that it is no longer Monday. Buendia says, "This is a disaster. Look at the air, listen to the buzzing of the sun, the same as yesterday anf the day before. Today is Monday too" (77). The most shocking part about this chapter is the ending when everyone grabs him and brings him outside and ties him to a tree. This is very strange and it reminds me of a modern day insane asylum when a person is mad they are put all by themselves where they cannot do harm to anyone else. This shows me that they think that Buendia is dangerous and needs to be alone. It is interesting that Marquez writes that he is "giving off green froth at the mouth." This compares him to some sort of animal that is scary. Buendia also is talking to himself and saying things that no one understands.