Chosen pages/passages from One Hundred Years of Solitude:
Chapter 12- page 255, Chapter 15, Chapter20 - pages 435-end
One Hundred Years of Solitude is quite different. I can identify with Jose Arcadio Segundo’s restlessness and sometimes indifference towards the corruption of the world, or Aureliano’s (II) thirst for knowledge. But, in terms of plot, the novel does not offer a great deal that I can relate to on a personal level. I cannot know the feeling of living in such a disjointed, secluded society, pressed by the issue to conform to western ideals. I also cannot relate to the workings of the inter-connected Buendia family and their troubles regarding advancements and corruption in the town of Macondo. To my surprise, in this disconnection between text and self, I find intrigue. One Hundred Years of Solitude, instead of being relatable, serves as a means to expand my awareness.
Capitalism and imperialism, as referenced in One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a direct correlation to the history of Western imperialism on Latin America. Garcia Marquez is not timid in pointing out the West’s flaws. He depicts the capitalist imperialism of the banana company as extremely destructive to the inhabitants of Macondo. Capitalism, which is supported by the country’s conservative government, brings oppression to the town of Macondo. This is not fiction, for Garcia Marquez, but an actual account of western colonialism’s impact on his native Columbia.
In Chapter fifteen of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the culmination of capitalism’s corruption becomes ever apparent. The banana plantation, introduced to Macondo to bring wealth and prosperity, declines and produces excessive destruction. Jose Arcadio Segundo organizes a strike against the plantation’s inhumane working conditions. The government steps in and places Macondo under military supervision. The government invites the workers of the plantation to gather at a meeting to discuss the problems. However, the meeting is a hoax, and the army surrounds the workers and opens fire with machine guns, inevitably planning to kill them all. Jose Arcadio Segundo feels “intoxicated by tension, by the miraculous depth of the silence, and furthermore convinced that nothing could move that crowd held tight in fascination with death, Jose Arcadio Segundo raised himself up over the heads in front of him and for the first time in his life he raised his voice” (Garcia Marquez 328). By some unforeseen fate, Jose Arcadio Segundo manages to survive and returns to Macondo to tell of the massacre.
This passage of the novel incorporates the power of wealthy capitalists in their quest to remain superior to the inhabitants of Macondo. They exploit their power through wealth, military, and governmental actions. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s Critique of Postcolonial Reason touches on the corruption of capitalism and the unequal separation of power between the wealthy West and the poor East. She writes of the “subaltern”, also known as a person holding a subordinate position. Spivak expands on the notion of the subaltern by explaining that “the ‘subaltern’ always stands in an ambiguous relation to power-subordinate to it but never fully consenting to its rule, never adopting the dominant point of view or vocabulary as expressive of its own identity” (Spivak 2194).
Jose Arcadio Segundo, as well as the rest of the banana plantation’s workers, wholly represent Spivak’s subaltern. They hold a subordinate position to the military, yet, they do not conform to the ideals of the western plantation owners. The plantation workers rebel against their practices, instead choosing to wreck havoc and sabotage the plantation. But the workers’ efforts are useless as the higher-ups of the plantation recruit military and governmental force, proving their dominance over the helpless workers.
Spivak also considers the issue of separation in power and those held accountable for stopping the advance of capitalism. She writes, “When most of the power resides in the West, why should the least powerful of those be caught up in globalization be responsible for halting its advance?” (Spivak 2194). In Jose Arcadio Segundo’s rebellion, he and the other workers tried to stop capitalism’s advance in his own town. But they soon were proved the weaker of two sides, as military force is able to ruin all. Their rebellion went unnoticed, even on a small scale. How could someone like Jose Arcadio Segundo stop the advancement of capitalism when he has no way to reach the masses? Only the muscle of the west has the power to bring change in the capitalist system, but that idea is purely wishful thinking.
Jose Arcadio Segundo, upon surviving the massacre, returns to town to tell his tale, yet, he realizes, horrified, that all memory of the massacre has dissolved. The officers of Macondo explained to Jose Arcadio Segundo that, “You must have been dreaming…nothing has happened in Macondo, nothing has ever happened, and nothing ever will happen. This is a happy town” (Garcia Marquez 333). This passage explains much about the corruption that power can bring. Anything can be skewed to make the “subaltern” inhabitants of Macondo believe what the higher officials want. In this case, the massacre is not only distorted in the inhabitant’s minds, but erased from the town’s history entirely.
This separation of power and government control is all but too common in western society today. It is not an issue apparent only in less-developed nations. People’s opinions can and are swayed in western, developed nations as well. The government uses its power through the media and propaganda to control thought. Take for instance the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The United States government used this incident to instill fear in its citizens. The government also used the 9/11 attacks as justification for a war completely unrelated to those guilty of the tragedy. Yet, through continual, most likely skewed media coverage, relentless warnings of America’s instability and cautionary safety, the government was able to arguably “justify” their actions.
The British indie rock band, Bloc Party, have taken a stand against the political propaganda created by western governments. In their sophomore album titled A Weekend in the City, the track “Hunting for Witches” touches on the fear that government instills on their citizens as a means of control. Lead singer/guitarist, Kele Okereke writes, “the newscaster says the enemy’s among us as bombs explode on the 30 bus, kill your middle class indecision, now is not the time for liberal thought” (Bloc Party). Okereke’s lyrics are filled with irony. He makes reference to our culture’s indecision, or possibly, our apathetic nature in relation to social issues and politics in general. He also sarcastically criticizes the liberal standpoint, to drive home his point that governments want us to live in fear of imminent attacks.
Later in the track, Okereke sings, “90’s optimistic as a teen, now its terror, airplanes crash into towers…I watched TV it informed me, I was an ordinary man with ordinary desire, there must be accountability, disparate and misfortune, fear will keep us all in place” (Bloc Party). Okereke makes reference to the 9/11 attacks and the impact the media has on “informing” the public. A more accurate verb may be “misinform,” as Okereke stresses the importance of fear as a means of control in modern society. The media is used to distort the public opinion of any political uprising by those in power using fear to keep people in place.
These references are no different from the massacre in One Hundred Years of Solitude. The military, enlisted by the banana plantation, abused their power to evoke fear in the Macondo inhabitants. People living in fear are much easier to have control over than those living fearlessly. This is the idea that western governments hold to be true. Oppression is used to dominate and manage the “lesser” individuals.
As the banana plantation culminates into a huge art of destruction, the townspeople are affected. The plantation affects the town and exploits Macondo’s natural resources. This original corruption then leads to the massacre which is responsible for thousands of lives lost. Remedios the Beauty, however, is the only character that remains unchanged by the banana company’s vice. She appears unreal throughout the novel and after her disappearance, there is rarely mention of her, making her appear to be only a delusion. Garcia Marquez writes,
“Amaranta felt a mysterious trembling in the lace of her petticoats and she tried to grasp the sheet so that she would not fall down at the instant in which Remedios the Beauty began to rise…waving goodbye in the midst of the flapping sheets that rose up with her, abandoning with her the environment of beetles and dahlias and passing through the air with her as four o’clock in the afternoon came to an end, and they were lost forever with her in the upper atmosphere where not even the highest-flying birds of memory could reach her” (Garcia Marquez 255).
Because Remedios the Beauty is unaware, or perhaps just oblivious to capitalism, she represents purity, and with this purity comes beauty. Remedios the Beauty is the opposite of fraudulence and greed. By making her float to heaven, Garcia Marquez seems to be saying that she is inhuman and other-worldly in that she has the miraculous ability to completely shut out capitalism and continue living her life of purity and free of corruption. She is an unrealistic being. Greed, money, power are all aspects of human nature. Since the beginning of civilization, people have tried to resist these temptations, yet they always succumb to these evils.
A recent Newsweek article titled “The Fall of America, Inc.” by Francis Fukuyama describes in depth how the recent stock market crash has forever changed America’s vision of capitalism. Fukuyama writes, “Ideas are one of our most important exports, and two fundamentally American ideas have dominated global thinking since the early 1980s. The first was a certain vision of capitalism-one that argued low taxes, light regulation and a pared-back government would be the engine for economic growth. The second big idea was America as a promoter of liberal democracy around the world, which was seen as the best path to a more prosperous and open international order” (Fukuyama).
Fukuyama goes on to explain that promoting democracy through diplomacy and aid has never been controversial. However, the problem arises when the word “democracy” is being used by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq war and suggest military intervention and regime change under the idealized view of a western government being implemented in Iraq. Fukuyama argues that America, “doesn’t have much credibility when we champion a “freedom agenda” (Fukuyama). This tarnished profile that American governmental officials have plagued our nation with has been undeniably detrimental. Fukuyama adds that, “in many parts of the world, American ideas, advice and even aid will be less welcome than they are now” (Fukuyama).
In Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, capitalism, in the form of the banana company, was welcomed with open arms. Things appeared to be running smoothly and the workers of the plantation were happy. As time went on, the company became more and more corrupt. As Fukuyama states, western ideas are becoming less romanticized and the effect of these distorted ideas can be seen in One Hundred Years of Solitude. In addition to Fukuyama’s comments on America’s diminishing capitalistic success, Spivak writes that cartels have “become one of the foundations of the whole of economic life. Capitalism has been transformed into imperialism” (Spivak 2208). I feel that the novel, as a whole, is a testament to Western economies and their overwhelming ability to taint and destroy developing nations. The novel is timeless and I can only expect it to become more relevant as time continues on.
The final chapter of Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude focuses on Aureliano’s love for Amaranta Ursula. It is the only tangible thing the two of them can feel. Garcia Marquez writes of the two lovers, “they lost all their sense of reality, the notion of time, the rhythm of daily habits” (Garcia Marquez 435). Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula are able, through their love, to escape the corruption and the ruin that plagues Macondo. Like Remedios the Beauty, they are too pure for the corruption, or perhaps just living in oblivion. After
Following Amaranta Ursula’s death, Aureliano (II) discovers Melquiades’ prediction of Macondo and the Buendia family’s fate. Melquiade’s story is told with such incredible accuracy, that Aureliano knows it cannot be false. Aureliano realizes he is reading about the town’s destruction as he is experiencing it. The ending of the novel explains the inevitable cycle that life brings. Deeper still, this cyclical perception can be related to the inescapable destruction that capitalism and imperialism brings to postcolonial society. It is a bleak perspective, however, a precise one. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude captures the reality of twentieth century advancement in technology and the distribution of political ideologies, as it affects nations worldwide. The novel is hauntingly beautiful.
Work Cited
Bloc Party. “Hunting for Witches.” A Weekend in the City. Vice. 2007.
Fukuyama, Francis. “The Fall of America, Inc.” Newsweek. 13 October 2008. 30 November
2008. < http://www.newsweek.com/id/162401>
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York,
NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1992.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “A Critique of Postcolonial Reason.” The Norton Anthology of
Theory and Criticism. 1st edition. Ed. Leitch, Vincent B. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2001. 2193-2208.
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