October 30, 2008
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 244-291 and Jorge Luis Borges

From the Jorge Luis Borges' short story we read: "The Library [the universe] is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order). My solitude is gladdened by this elegant hope” (5).

The idea of an infinite universe is supported in One Hundred Years of Solitude Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano "learned that dominant obsessions can prevail against death and they were happy again with the certainty that they would go on loving each other in their shape as apparitions" (378). The implication here seems to be that death is not an end. Although bodies die, the obsessions people have in life, such as Jose Arcadio Buendia's obsession with the truth of great inventions, continue living. The obsessions, the ideals we carry, transcend death. The apparitions or ghosts throughout the novel support this idea—these characters have died, yet their living family members still see and hear them. One of the questions on the magical realism handout asks, “Is there a metamorphosis in the text? Is it treated as something mundane?” The answer to both is yes. Death, rather than being an end, is a metamorphosis. We morph from physical entities to intangible ideas—the ideas we carried during our physical existence. The ideas books contain, as well as the ideas people possess, transcend physical existence and are thus immortal.

In his short story, Borges says that the cyclical nature of the universe has gladdened his solitude. I wonder then, if the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude acknowledged their own immortality through their ideas, (as Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula realize their own immortality through their love for one another), would this ease their solitude, or rather, whatever pain they feel because of their solitude?

Colonel Aureliano Buendias seemed to experience a solitude more intense than most of the other characters: he “locked himself up inside himself and the family finally thought of him as if he were dead” (246). If he viewed himself as a solitary individual, isolated in time, this would exacerbate the solitude he experienced. He thinks his feelings are locked up inside of him, as though he were holding them in captivity, and they would consequently die with him. But if he were to view his obsessions as possessing him, he might be able to realize that they extend beyond him, do not belong to him alone. And they will continue living and thus keep him alive after his physical death, so that he transcends time as well and is actually connected to each of his ancestors and those born after he dies. A cyclical universe connotes a simultaneity of time. Acknowledging this, perhaps Aureliano, his family, and we can transcend solitude.