One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is a novel of both changes and constants over the many decades that pass between the first page and the last. There are obviously many changes throughout the story as time progresses, especially since this book covers such a large period of time. The reader witnesses characters’ personalities develop and grow, for better or worse, from the time they’re born to the time they die. The reader is also given new major historical events to look at from beginning to end. However, the occurrences that stay the same and continue happening throughout the novel are the most interesting happenings.
The largest constant is that of incestual relations. Over and over, family members resist and then fall into each other as if it’s in all of their natures to do so, and maybe it is. Doomed from the start, the founding pair of Macondo, José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán were related and still started a whole family together. Some family members with passion for one another are able to resist their urges, while others hardly hold themselves back. The Buendía bloodline in Macondo ends similarly to how it began, with two related lovers (Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula this time) having a child.
Another constant in this book is the names of characters. The name “Aureliano” is used in 21 characters’ names. “José” and “Arcadio” are both used in five. It also seems to set up the characters for a destiny in which they repeat their family’s past sins.
There is also the occurrence of loss of memory, starting with the insomnia plague that came to Macondo in its early days and ending with the erasure of Macondo from everyone’s memories in the end. There was also the notable massacre of plantation workers that everyone but José Arcadio Segundo forgets.
Lastly, Márquez continuously makes his characters be visited by ghosts. It is interesting the way he handles this fantastical aspect of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Along with the other fantasy elements in the novel, ghosts are treated as quite normal, not-entirely-unexpected guests in the land of the living. The first ghost in the story, Prudencio Aguilar, is met by Úrsula Iguarán. Although he was a horrific sight to see, he “did not bring on fear in her, but pity,” (pg 22). The reader can begin understanding that the less realistic parts of the story won’t be treated as wild and impossible, but rather acceptable developments. Even when Remedios the Beauty floats off into the sky, it does not cause the citizens of Macondo to believe they’ve perhaps lost their marbles.
This handling of the unrealistic adds a fun layer to the story as a whole. It’s already filled with relationship drama, sex, war, and the like, and it also has near-magical phenomenons that make it that much more intriguing.