One hundred years of loneliness

Gabriel Garcia Marquez located with his work One hundred years of loneliness (published in 1967) the Hispano-American narrative in the forefront of world literature. It is one of the most studied and well-known stories at an international level, so so that you know a little more about it, we have prepared a lesson for you in a PROFESSOR. One hundred years of loneliness: short summary as well as a brief biography of its author. We hope that you will be encouraged to read it if you have not already done so or if you know something more about this marvel of Hispanic American literature and the "magical realism" genre.

Born in Aracataca on March 6, 1927, Gabriel García Márquez grew up with his maternal grandparents and his aunts since his parents moved to Sucre when he was very young. His grandparents marked for him key and inspirational moments for his later literature, his grandfather's, Nicolas Marquez, was a veteran colonel of the Thousand Days war and he told his grandson many stories as well as taught him to love culture and they recurrently attended both the cinema and the theater. On the other hand, his grandmother

Doña Tranquilina Iguarán she was also in charge of telling him fables and family stories based on legends that fed the most superstitious part of Gabriel. Part of these learnings are those that will later lead to his work becoming part of that genre called "magical realism".

In the year 1947 and under pressure from his parents, he moved to Bogotá to study law, which was not exactly his passion. Even so, he managed to consolidate his vocation as a writer and on September 13, 1947 he published his first story called The third resignation. On the other hand, also at the beginning of the 40s a group dedicated to literature called The Barranquilla Group, of which Gabriel became part. Thanks to him, she ended up trading his job for a daily column on The Herald from Barranquilla starting at January 1950. They talked, shared tastes and worked in the newspaper, although he never became a literary critic since he always preferred to be the one who told the stories.

The great consecration as a writer he came in 1966 when he had the idea for his great novel, the one he had been brewing for about seventeen years, so he started writing. On 1967 was publishedOne hundred years of loneliness: a succession of fantastic stories that tell the history and family life of the Buendía generations in the magical world of Macondo. Finally, after many more published works and winning a Nobel Prize, Gabriel Garcia Marquez passed away in 2014 due to lymphatic cancer.

Among the many other well-known and outstanding works of him are: Love in the time of cholera, A Chronicle of a Death Foretold or The Autumn of the Patriarch.

Published in the year 1967, One hundred years of solituded has been a piece key to Hispanic American literature from the 60s and from history. It was an international boom and it is the main example that is studied and used to talk about gender "magical realism".

His argument revolves around the story of all the founders -the Buendías- of a imaginary village called Macondo. The novel is divided into 20 narrative sequences or chapters that go in chronological order, although it is true that within each chapter the author allows himself to go back and explain other events that happened in time. To make the summary more understandable, we will divide it into chapters that we have put together by subject.

From chapter I to V

These first chapters are dedicated to the narration around how the foundation of the Macondo was created as well as the magical events that surround the village and its superstitions. Characters indicated as José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán and we will know the childhood of the second generation of Buendía founders. José Arcadio Buendía leaves Riohacha in Colombia with his wife Úrsula after being persecuted by another character, Prudencio Aguilar. After camping one night on the edge of a river, he will dream of Macondo, a beautiful city. It will be when you wake up when you decide found and create it there where he was sleeping.

From Chapter VI to IX

One of the sons of José Arcadio and Úrsula Iguarán, the colonel, becomes the protagonist Aureliano Buendía, who presents himself as a warrior and artist due to his special gift for poetry. In addition, he is a character with many premonitions that are normally fulfilled. The peaceful life in the village is disrupted by the civil wars that they carry during 20 years stalking the country. Here we will know how Aureliano and other characters live it.

We continue this summary of One Hundred Years of Solitude speaking from chapter X to XX, the last chapter of the novel. Here we summarize what happens:

From chapter X to XV

The war ends and the banana company appears in the village with whom a new stage begins in Macondo. Social conflict increases but also prosperity, unfortunately everything ends and leads to a terrible bloody repression. We meet here the members of the fourth generation of our initial characters, these are: José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo.

From chapter XVI to XX

In the last chapters we attend the destruction of the village of Macondo. A biblical flood attacks the city and we are told of its decline and destruction: the end of generations and the founders. The last Buendía are going to live in a town in ruins until they finally disappear, the lineage will be extinguished in a scion with a pig's tail. Aurelian Babylon, the last descendant, will achieve decipher the prophecies that a gypsy will have written about Macondo and its destruction. The prophecy is fulfilled the moment the writing is read.

The novel is considered a metaphorical and critical interpretation of Colombian history from its beginnings to the contemporary stage. Through the Buendía we will know different national myths and important historical moments: the liberal political reform coming from a colonial life, the Thousand Days War, the cinema, the automobile, the massacre of striking workers and many others more events. It is without a doubt, a key book in the history of literature and of Colombia.