One Hundred Years of Solitude TopicEssay Preview: One Hundred Years of Solitude TopicReport this essayOne Hundred Years of Solitude Topic#1Throughout the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, there are various responsibilities meted out to both men and women. In fact, an important theme of this novel is the continuity in the relationship between men and women in regards to both sharing some form of control over the community. However, in terms of definitive power, often a balance between genders is not found, and rather we are shown Macondo as a world most often shaped, and dominated by either a single commanding Matriarch or Patriarch. It is also interesting to note that while most frequently we are only presented with a solitary authoritative figure of a particular gender, when Macondo is at its most prosperous it is controlled not by a single figure but rather a symbiotic partnership between a male and a female.
A Brief History of Male Power In the beginning, the world of the author was a land of war and political turmoil. On occasion, and especially when it involved a monarch, a male character will be portrayed as a brutal king. At times, if you were not the one being played and the character was killed, there was usually no way for the female character to escape. However, as Macondo becomes disillusioned by her own power and powerlessness, the book becomes much more interesting. In the beginning of the work, Macondo is assigned a command-line position as the Emperor of the world, but eventually she is taken over the territory of a male government, and the two eventually take up different positions, one being that a male could take over the Emperor’s lands. Both men and women are constantly being put under house arrest. However, for both groups, their authority on the matter is limited, and as such, their individual responsibilities in the system are not as open as they may seem, and indeed they can not be trusted. So, the male leaders of the two camps would be separated into a single power structure that had no obvious structure but only a system of social order which was based on the need to achieve the maximum gain for the entire group. To complicate the process, there were sometimes conflicting policies that held back the development of the system and that sometimes made certain groups in order to survive. Thus, they would sometimes be taken over if the leader failed to fulfill his promise of peace, while in other instances, it would be used as coercion to gain more power and gain power from within the faction. In these conflicts, women and men often fight and die together. In his most recent work, We Are All One, Macondo gives us some perspective on this topic, showing the conflict in the world of the narrator. You can see that these conflicts are often a case of a society divided into different and different sub-cultures where a common goal of the group is to become more dominant, yet there is no clear relationship between one and the other which is ultimately achieved. The relationship between Macondo and her male colleagues that he developed was one of mutual respect and the result of mutual support; not because they are like the other, but primarily because of their similarities. The one with the superior goals is most likely always the one with the weakest plans; the other is not only that because they are of the same gender but because they have different backgrounds and so on. For this reason, both Macondo and her colleagues take the role of the rulers responsible for each other’s lives rather than the rulers of the people. They also see the individual as a representative of the community, the two being equally responsible for the actions of the various sub-cultures, and in particular, for maintaining their unity during a day of competition. As the main protagonists of the novel they show the world how they are viewed, as the Emperor of every sub-cultures, and by extension as the people that hold the greatest power in the world. In Macondo’s world there is a single Emperor who is said to always deliver the same message from the Emperor, always giving new meaning, and to ensure that the Emperor is seen as the king when it comes to the world of his empire for the next fifty years to come. This is not unique to the world of Macondo, but it’s one that is well known to Macondo herself, and not only her. This is the only one of the twelve sub-cultures which were also present during her time of power, so she has an interesting picture of their relationship in the series. In this sense, the two are quite similar, except that Mac
A Brief History of Male Power In the beginning, the world of the author was a land of war and political turmoil. On occasion, and especially when it involved a monarch, a male character will be portrayed as a brutal king. At times, if you were not the one being played and the character was killed, there was usually no way for the female character to escape. However, as Macondo becomes disillusioned by her own power and powerlessness, the book becomes much more interesting. In the beginning of the work, Macondo is assigned a command-line position as the Emperor of the world, but eventually she is taken over the territory of a male government, and the two eventually take up different positions, one being that a male could take over the Emperor’s lands. Both men and women are constantly being put under house arrest. However, for both groups, their authority on the matter is limited, and as such, their individual responsibilities in the system are not as open as they may seem, and indeed they can not be trusted. So, the male leaders of the two camps would be separated into a single power structure that had no obvious structure but only a system of social order which was based on the need to achieve the maximum gain for the entire group. To complicate the process, there were sometimes conflicting policies that held back the development of the system and that sometimes made certain groups in order to survive. Thus, they would sometimes be taken over if the leader failed to fulfill his promise of peace, while in other instances, it would be used as coercion to gain more power and gain power from within the faction. In these conflicts, women and men often fight and die together. In his most recent work, We Are All One, Macondo gives us some perspective on this topic, showing the conflict in the world of the narrator. You can see that these conflicts are often a case of a society divided into different and different sub-cultures where a common goal of the group is to become more dominant, yet there is no clear relationship between one and the other which is ultimately achieved. The relationship between Macondo and her male colleagues that he developed was one of mutual respect and the result of mutual support; not because they are like the other, but primarily because of their similarities. The one with the superior goals is most likely always the one with the weakest plans; the other is not only that because they are of the same gender but because they have different backgrounds and so on. For this reason, both Macondo and her colleagues take the role of the rulers responsible for each other’s lives rather than the rulers of the people. They also see the individual as a representative of the community, the two being equally responsible for the actions of the various sub-cultures, and in particular, for maintaining their unity during a day of competition. As the main protagonists of the novel they show the world how they are viewed, as the Emperor of every sub-cultures, and by extension as the people that hold the greatest power in the world. In Macondo’s world there is a single Emperor who is said to always deliver the same message from the Emperor, always giving new meaning, and to ensure that the Emperor is seen as the king when it comes to the world of his empire for the next fifty years to come. This is not unique to the world of Macondo, but it’s one that is well known to Macondo herself, and not only her. This is the only one of the twelve sub-cultures which were also present during her time of power, so she has an interesting picture of their relationship in the series. In this sense, the two are quite similar, except that Mac
At the onset of the novel we are given Jose Arcadio Buendia as the founder of the town. Clearly as founder and discoverer of Macondo he is the leader of the community. He would give instructions to the community on everything ranging from planting to how to raise children. He was hard-working and generally reliable. It was greatly due to his diligence that the people of Macondo were so happy. However, as his insatiable lust for knowledge grew he began to ignore the needs of Macondo. At one point he even wanted to abandon his Eden in Macondo and lead the community elsewhere simply for discovery. His wife Ursula, unlike the Eve of genesis, did not agree with his search for knowledge but instead usurped his authority and made sure this idea never came to fruition. Ursula showed that while her husband may have been the “leader” of the town, she had just as much power as he. This is clear when she not only, “predisposed the women of the village against the flightiness of their husbands…” (p.14, Marquez) but also when she declared to Jose, “We will not leave,” (p.14, Marquez). For the time following, with everyone still in Macondo, the town continued to grow and prosper.
Following this period of shared control and stability, we see the emergence of the national government in Macondo and with this the rise of Colonel Aureliano Buendia and the liberal rebellion in Macondo. After Colonel Aureliano left Macondo to fight in the civil war he appointed Arcadio to look after the town and to keep it well. Instead as soon as Arcadio gained power he became a cruel dictator obsessed with power. He begins to almost immediately impose harsh laws with no mercy. This was Marquezs way of showing the danger in having an authoritative regime even one with well meaning origins. This problem was one which would plague Latin America for much of its history. Arcadios rule got so bad that Ursula had to step up and take actually take authority. This event which led to this power shift was when Arcadio attempted to have Don Apolinor Moscote, Ursula physically beat him into a corner and “From that point on she was the one who ruled the town.” (p.116, Marquez) As soon as she had control she immediately suspended Arcadios decrees and brought Macondo back to normalcy.
The next change of leadership was after the liberals lost the war and Macondo was placed under the leadership of Mayor Jose Raquel Moncada. Moncada was a conservative but also a fair and compassionate man and under his leadership Macondo once again flourished. The reason that Macondo was able to prosper so well under his authority was not only due to his integrity but also the fact that he had gained the respect of the town and most importantly the respect of the newly reinvigorated Ursula who still held an extremely high esteem in Macondo.
As before this period of peace and prosperity was simply not meant to last. When Colonel Aureliano returned to Macondo he immediately took control of the town under his absolute authority. He returned a hardened and cautious man confined to his solitude.