Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude
Test: February 14/15 (tentative dates meant to hold off the inquisition)
“Lost in the solitude of his immense power, he began to lose direction.”
Pre-reading study and analysis:
 Biography: It’s particularly important to research “Gabo’s” life-his childhood
experiences with his maternal grandparents; his career in journalism and love for
journalism; his “exile” from Columbia (both the exile imposed on him by his
country and the self-imposed); his literary influences, Faulkner (“A Rose for
Emily”) topping that list (Hemingway’s in there, too, don’t worry, as well as
Kafka-read the first few pages of The Metamorphosis, and you’ll understand
why); his passionate political interests and views
 http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/marquez.htm
 Two critical reviews of the novel, printed and annotated
 Research magical realism. Sites which examine magical realism using One
Hundred Years of Solitude as a baseline for defining the style are obviously more
helpful.
 Historical context-Columbian secession from Spain, Columbian civil wars,
political unrest and oppression in the times of Marquez-the War of a Thousand
Days, la Violencia, and especially the banana strike of 1928 would be helpful
research destinations; it’s important to research the historical contexts because
Marquez molds characters in his novel after real people. The novel’s Macondo is
built as an alternative to the rural towns where their people turn on each other, kill
each other. Jose Arcadio and Ursula wish to establish a utopia, free of senseless
death but rather filled with love, free of modern civilization. They also wish to
avoid inbreeding, but I think we should all have our Punnett squares out as the
novel progresses. Spoiler alert.
We’ll again divide the annotations into three separate assignments again (). You should
obviously pay attention to the novel’s magical realism-fantasy, magic beside reality.
Really, the novel focuses so heavily on paradoxes: life and death,
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Annotate the description of the magical Macondo, characters (which can get a bit
confusing because of the repetition of names over the generations, events, annotate time
and Marquez’s use of temporal sequence. This is considered an epic, spanning five
generations of Buendias.
Highlight words, which are unfamiliar even if they aren’t entirely unfamiliar. Re-write
and define the terms at the top of each page.
Keep track of the chapters. OPTIONAL: Include a one-sentence summary at the end of
each short chapter. You could imagine that the collection of these statements would well
summarize and analyze the novella.
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Identify passages of quotes, which are clearly intended to communicate a broad message
or thematic significance.
Post it notes will be should be used for examples of magical realism, narrative
techniques, mythical allusions and mythical events. Develop multiple interpretations.
Extend your learning and take chances on developing perspectives and insights even if
you believe they are “risky.” Post its should also mark thematic elements.
Use post-its to mark pages with repetitions and motifs (especially fantasy: levitation)
and potential or identified symbols in addition to rhetorical strategies and significant
passages. Consider alliteration, irony, paradox (very important),
assonance/consonance, antithesis, simile/metaphor, personification, synecdoche,
understatement, allusion, antithesis, parallelism, asyndeton/polysyndeton (this
especially), zeugma
Ask questions. Write questions which come with a reasonable guarantee of an answer
“down river,” but use post-its when you develop questions whose answers will lead to
major thematic explanations or questions worthy of asking a small group or the entire
class or questions which would lead to deep discussion.
In your composition book open a series of pages, which act first as a receptacle for three main
items:
1. Record the unfamiliar terms and definitions from the tops of your pages.
2. Summarize the three sections: Chapters 1-9, 10-15, 16-20
3. Look back at your post-its. They should mark the pages of the chapter where you have
identified points for critical analysis. While a minimum should never exist, you should
choose three to five post it for every section. Once you’ve identified these points,
expound. Ask and attempt to answer deep questions about Hemingway’s purpose and his
intent. Your analysis should challenge your psychoanalysis of characters, broaden your
understanding of symbols, illustrate the effects of Hemingway’s style, sew the settings
and places to thematic elements, map your insights even if the roads don’t have ends.
You should certainly focus on magical realism, but I don’t want it to be the focal point
because you won’t directly refer to magical realism unless a prompt asks you to analyze
the impact of fantasy in some way. As always, focus on the characters and events as they
impact theme.