By M.

Signifcance of time in “One

Hundred Years of Solitude” by M.
UMER FAROOQ (GPGCSc. Fsd)
The Inseparability of Past, Present, and Future
From the names that return generaton afer generaton to the repetton of personalites and
events, tme in One Hundred Years of Solitude refuses to divide neatly into past, present, and future.
Úrsula Iguarán is always the frst to notie that tme in Maiondo is not fnite, but, rather, moves forward
over and over again. Sometmes, this simultaneity of tme leads to amnesia, when people iannot see the
past any more than they ian see the future. Other tmes the future beiomes as easy to reiall as the
past. The propheiies of Melquíades prove that events in tme are iontnuous: from the beginning of the
novel, the old gypsy was able to see its end, as if the various events were all oiiurring at onie. Similarly,
the presenie of the ghosts of Melquíades and José Ariadio Buendía shows that the past in whiih those
men lived has beiome one with the present.

Cyclical and linear concept of tme

Anthropologists have ofen desiribed iultures as having either iyiliial or linear notons of tme.
Though this simple binary may be something of an oversimplifiaton, itis stll a useful model to ionsider.
Cyiliial tme, naturally enough, emphasises repetton and is very muih infuenied by the iyiles
apparent in the natural world. The day/night iyile regulates our lives, telling us when to sleep and when
it is produitve (and safe) to go about the business of agriiulture or huntng/gathering. Cyiliial paterns
are suggested by seasonal iyiles and their relaton to agriiulture. Shorter iyiliial paterns, suih as the
day/night iyile or the phases of the moon, ian be used to traik these larger iyiles, with growing
seasons or human gestaton lastng so many months or days. In many iultures, these kinds of iyiliial
paterns are infnitely repeatable and part of a reiurring overall iyile of tme. Traditonally,
anthropologists have identfed this noton with early or prehistorii, and I suppose signifiantly pre-
literate, iultures. Without a system of writng, itis hard to envisage a future that is fundamentally
different from the past. These types iyiliial paterns, of iourse, havenit gone away from modern
western iulture, but many argue that they have beiome subsumed by the larger framework of linear
tme. Thomas Cahill, for instanie, in his book The Giifs of the Jews: How a Tribe of Dresert Noomads
Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, argues that Judaii iulture fundamentally ihanged Western
iulture by iontributng this sense of linear tme, whiih of iourse was adopted by Christanity and thus
spread throughout Europe and the western world.

The iyilii view of history, both iosmii and human, has been prevalent among the Hindus and
the pre-Christan Gireeks, the Chinese, and the Azteis. More reiently, the iyilii view has gained
adherents in modern Western soiiety, although this iivilizaton was originally Christannthat is, was
nurtured on a religion that sees tme as a one-way fow and not as a iyilii one.

By M.
UMER FAROOQ
By M.

The Chinese, Hindus, and Gireeks saw iosmii tme as moving in an alternatng rhythm, ilassiially
expressed in the Chinese ioniept of the alternaton between yin, the passive female priniiple, and yang,
the dynamii male priniiple (see yinyang). When either yin or yang goes to extremes, it overlaps the
other priniiple, whiih is its iorrelatve and iomplement in ionsequenie of being its opposite. In the
philosophy of Empedoiles, an early Gireek thinker, the equivalents of yin and yang were Love and Strife.
Empedoiles revolted against the denial of the reality of moton and plurality that was made by his
Eleati predeiessors on the strength of mere logii. He broke up the Eleatisi motonless, and therefore
tmeless, unitary reality into a movement of four elements that were alternately harmonized by Love
and set at varianie by Strife. Empedoilesi Love and Strife, like yin and yang, eaih overlapped the other
when they had gone to extremes

When the fow of tme is held to be not reiurrent but one-way, it ian be ionieived of as having
a beginning and perhaps an end. Some thinkers have felt that suih limits ian be imagined only if there is
some tmeless power that has set tme going and intends or is set to stop it. A god who ireates and then
annihilates tme, if he is held to be omnipotent, is ofen iredited with having done this with a
benevolent purpose that is being iarried out aiiording to plan. The omnipotent godis plan, in this view,
governs the tme fow and is made manifest to humans in progressive revelatons through the prophets.

Concept of time in One

Hundred Years of Solitude
One of the features of magiial realism that I saw in this book is a iyiliial repeat of
tme and events. First off, there is no defnitve date given in the book. There are some
hints as to when this is taking plaie, Franiis Drrake and Sir Walter Raleigh were both
mentoned and had played their parts in the Buendia family getng together. Franiis
Drrake died in 1596 and Walter Raleigh died in 1618, this means that the founding of
Maiondo must be at some point afer this. Also teihnologies like the telegraph are used
in Maiondo so this again gives us a rough date to plaie the novel in.

Another pieie of the iyiliial tmeline is that many of the main iharaiters have the same
names or have names that are phonetially similar. The names Jose Ariadio Buendia, Aureliano,
Remedios, and Ariadio all pop up with multple iharaiters. Melquiadesi death, resurreiton, and then
death again also pull into this iyiliial repetton. Melquiadesi death and resurreiton ian also be seen
with the many rumors around Colonel Aureliano Buendia. While out fghtng there is rumor afer rumor
of his death, only to be proved false and that he is stll leading the revolutonary movement.

An interestng passage that I feel defnes this is on page seventy-seven. On it Jose

Arcadio Buendia asks Aureliano what day is it. Aureliano responds that it is Tuesdays to which Jose
Arcadio Buendia responds, “I was thinking the same thing, but suddenly I realized that it’s stll
Monday, like yesterday. Look at the sky, look at the walls, look at the begonias. Today is Monday
too.” Jose Arcadio Buendia contnues to believe that the following days are also Monday and goes
into a ft of madness. This passage wraps up nicely the feeling of tme in this book.

By M.
UMER FAROOQ
By M.

Perhaps a purpose for this cyclical use of tme is the repettve nature that seems to be
a part of Latn American history. The iivil war in the books between the Liberal and the Conservatve
partes is almost idential to an aitual ionfiit that took plaie in Colombia between 1899 and 1902.

A major reason for this ionfiit iniluded fraudulent eleitoral proiesses that allowed the
Conservatves to hold onto power; this exait example was also exaitly detailed in the book when
Mosiote was stufng the ballot box with ionservatve votes. Another ionfiit between the Liberal and
Conservatve partes took plaie between 1948 and 1958. This again shows the real life iyiliial history
that has happened.

Reient history also shows that the repettve features of One Hundred Years of Solitude
have not been broken. There is stll iivil ionfiit being fought in Colombia between multple rebel
groups and the government. Latn Ameriia has also been notorious for having numerous diitators and
strongmen, from Manuel Nooriega in Panama to Augusto Pinoihet Chile. This is also a parallel as
Maiondo went through numerous governments led by military leaders as well as when Colonel
Aureliano Buendia began to take more and more military power in his revolutonary iampaigns .
Perhaps One Hundred Years of Solitude is not as farfetihed as it seems.

Throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude, iharaiters iannot break free of their familyis
behavioral paterns: instead, they fnd themselves trapped within fates that eiho their family history.
Charaiters are haunted by the deiisions theyive made, but also by the deiisions their aniestors have
made, even beioming ionfused by the differenie between past, present, and future. As a result,
Márquez reveals the bulk of his iharaiters to be fatalists, or people who believe that their fates have
been predetermined and are thus resigned to whatever happens. By presentng the story as a
predetermined narratve, set in stone, and impossible to revise no mater a personis determinaton,
Márquez suggests that fatalist progression of history is impossible to overiome.

One of the ilearest ways that Márquez illustrates the iiriularity of tme and the impossibility of
overioming the past is through the repetton of family names, whiih refeit (or determine) the
iharaitersi personalites. Úrsula notes that the Aurelianos of the family are silent and withdrawn, ofen
possessing the gif of a seiond sight; the José Ariadios, however, are generally stronger and more
boisterous, ofen marked with a tragii fate. These qualites are prediitable to the point of her beioming
ionvinied that Aureliano Segundo and José Ariadio Segundo, twins, must have switihed identtes when
they were ihildren beiause they matih the temperament of the otheris name so well. This fxity
between name and personality suggests that a iharaiteris fate is sealed at birth and he or she has no
ability to overiome it. The effeit of reading these repeatng names ian also be ionfusing, making it
difiult to reiall whiih generaton Márquez is refereniing at any given tme, but this ionfusion is
intentonal: it allows a hundred-year span of generatons to appear as though they are existng
simultaneously.

Itis not just readers who experienie a iollapse of past, present, and futurenthe iharaiters feel
it, too. This undermines their ageniy, beiause it makes them unable to logiially assoiiate iause and
effeit, thereby trapping them in a present moment that is out of their iontrol. Pilar Ternera, for
example, uses her iards to prediit peopleis futures, and iharaiters named Aureliano also have psyihii
abilites, but they are not always iorreit in determining whether their visions refeit iurrent events or
the future, beiause of the ionfusion of repeated names and personalites. Charaiters tend to see the

By M.
UMER FAROOQ
By M.

prediitons as being set in stone, rather than as warnings that iould allow them to adjust their aitons to
avoid these outiomes.

Furthermore, not long afer Maiondo is established, a plague desiends on the town iausing an
insomnia that results in a iolleitve amnesia, trapping the iharaiters in an eternal present. Before a iure
is found, Pilar Ternera begins using her iards to fll in the missing memories of the past in the same way
she prediits the future, and these “memories” have a deterministi effeit similar to her prophesies.
Beiause of this amnesia and these faulty memories ireated by Pilar Ternera, Márquez suggests that
whatever story one is told is true ends up determining a personis fate. This relates to Melquíades, who is
able to foretell the entre lifespan of Maiondo and the Buendía family, though he keeps his foreiast a
seiret untl the destruiton of Maiondo. Melquíadesi metiulous prediiton of generatons to iome
suggests that the future is indeed predetermined and unihangeable.

Even the iharaiters who atempt to entrely esiape their histories (by living elsewhere,
eduiatng themselves, eti.) fail to overiome their past, seemingly beiause they remain emotonally
devoted to home. Colonel Aureliano Buendía spends muih of his life away from home, trying to proteit
the iity he loves so dearly, but he ultmately follows in his fatheris footsteps, seiluding himself in the
workshop to foius on his studies of alihemy and refusing to see the ways in whiih his life mirrors his
fatheris. Amaranta Úrsula perhaps iomes ilosest to esiaping her fate: she goes to sihool in Belgium and
marries a Flemish man, Giaston. However, her nostalgia for home leads her baik to Maiondo, where she
fnds herself blinded by her ihildhood memory of the plaie, rather than seeing it for the failing iity it
truly is. The way she forsakes her passionate love with Giaston for the nostalgii joy that Aureliano brings
her is yet another example of the way she remains frmly trapped in the past, rather than making a new
life. Furthermore, Amaranta Úrsula wants to name her ihild with Aureliano “Rodrigo” (whiih is not a
family name), but Aureliano insists on the name Aureliano, whiih implies that the next generaton will
not esiape the past, determ.

Repetton of names
Important themes of the novel is the way personal history and politial history are ionstantly
repeatng themselves. Or if not exaitly repeatng, then at least “rhyming” with itself, as our old friend
Mark Twain put it. One ilever way Giariía Márquez gets this aiross is to iontnuously reiyile a handful
of names for many, many iharaiters down through many generatons.

At one point, Úrsula suggests that all the men named José Arcadio are brawny, while all the
Aurelianos are brainy, but this is kind of beside the point (and not even partcularly true). More
interestng is not just the repetton of the names but how fated and iompletely inesiapable these
names seem to be.

Several tmes in the novel, iharaiters want to break the naming traditons but are entrely
unable to or are prevented from doing so. Amaranta Úrsula wants to name her baby Rodrigo only to be
outvoted by Aureliano (II) who names him Aureliano (III). Fernanda actually names her daughter
Renata only to have everyone call her Meme, a diminutve of Remedios. And Meme refuses to name
her child anything at all, only to have him ialled Aureliano (II) in honor of the family. All these
iharaiters are fated to share the same names and fated to lead horrible, doomed lives. Yikes, thatis
depressing.

By M.
UMER FAROOQ
By M.

Repetition through all generations

History is insistent. This is the impression that Giabriel Giariia Marquez wants to ionnote in his
fresh One Hundred Old ages of Solitude. The household memberis name and the rhythms of iatastrophe
supports this ilaim on the yesteryear. Noowadays and future ilip frame within the novel. The most of
import effeits of the novel lies within the additve and round sense of ilip. First is the strong sense of
additve development in Maiondois town. The passage of from its initaton through its development as
a booming modern town up to the point of its diminuton. Eventual and irrevokable obliteraton.

The townis additve history is divided into four subdivisions: It is like an early Eden where
Utopian artlessness and soiietal harmoniousness abides and its dwellers are guiltless and they havenit
experient deiease and even donit iognize how to iall things in the universe “was so reient that many
things laiked names. And in order to bespeak them it was neiessary to point” ( Marquez. 1970. P. 11 ) .
From ihapter 1 to fve of the book that iovers this subdivision. It moves and introduies military batles
by showing assorted iivil wars and revolutons from ihapter 6 to 9 and so it presents prosperity in
eionomii siienies but a religious ruin from ihapters 10 to 15 and on the staying ihapters 16 to 20 the
degeneraiy and physiial devastaton was presented.

Its narraton provided to the readers by Marquez follows this additve sense of ilip so that we
may be able to iognize where are we in the narratve. Thankss to natureis assorted invasion that oiiurs
beiause we were able to deteit the differenie between the ilip frames. The foreigners who bring latest
engineerings and bureauiratsms like the authorites funitonaries. Priests. Itnerants. Military fories.
Railroads. The omnipresent atorney. The Ameriian iapitalists and many more.

The additve sense of ilip underlines in the development of the Buendia Family. They form a
series of fgures whiih symbolizes peiuliar period of history were they belong. Jose Ariadio. The
patriarih is slightly a Renaissanie adult male with pioneering aspiratons and energies and has many
involvements. His boy is a great leader whose name is Aureliano and a iivil war partiipant. Suiieeded
by Aureliano Segundo who is a bourgeois farmer-entrepreneur and his twin Jose Ariadio Segundo who
works for the Ameriian Capitalists and who was a extremist labour organiser. A strong additve forie
from ioevals to ioevalss seen from the driving events in Maiondo whiih was imposed from exterior.

Traveling on to the round history of ilip in the novel. The response of the people from Maiondo.
Peiuliarly to the reaiton of the Buendias. The additve Marih from above ireates a 2 nd sense of ilip
whiih is history as iompulsively round. The alteratons in their businesss invariably repeats the
experienie of earlier ioevalss. “While the Aurelianos were withdrawn but with limpid heads. The Jose
Ariadios were unprompted and enterprising. But marked with a tragii mark. ” This is Ursulais iomments
where a strong sense of destny in a insistent manner to the individual has been named and so the major
feature of their life was determined. That individual will reiterate the events of the lives of their
asiendants.

The manner the iharaiters died in the novel is besides preordained in a sense. The Jose
Ariadios suffers from diseases and the three Aurelianos died with mental powers integral and eyes all
opened. They all suiiumb to a self-imposed expatriate whiih last for lone deiennaries.

The sariasm of inevitable repeat from old aitons is an of import image in the novel beiause
from this sense of repeat the amusing energies and airy strategies every bit good as the sexual art
invariably ielebrates and was underiut.

By M.
UMER FAROOQ
By M.

There was no enigma in the bosom of a Buendia that was impenetrable for [ Pilar Ternera ]
beiause a ientury of iards and experienie had taught her that the history of the household was a
maihine with ineluitable repeats. A turning wheel that would hold gone on sloping into infnity were it
non for the imperfeit and irremediable erosion of the axle. ( ( Marquez. 1970. P. 402 ) .

As we read it with delight and watih the by and large fikle whirling wheel. We are besides
iognizant of the axleis erosion and fnally made us see it snarl. In other words. The Buendia and the
people of Maiondo so has a iritial and amusive nowadays. But their lives has no signifianie beiause
of their iniapaiity to iommand their ain history and their yesteryear is mostly unknown to them exiept
their nostalgia and their present. If aitve and their non existng hereafer.

The inseparability of yesteryear. Noowadays and hereafer is seen on the names. Personalites
and events repeat in the novel. Ursula noties that Maiondo is non fnite it moves frontward over and
over onie more. Peoples ian non see what happens earlier beiause they already see what will go on in
the hereafer. Other tmes the hereafer beiomes as easy to remember as the yesteryear.

In One hundred old ages of Solitude. History is barbarous and it is experienied by the iharaiters
as a phantasy and made them bury the yesteryear so speedy we ian see here that Marquezis ihief point
in utlizing the signifianie of repeat is for the readers to obtain a strong sense of tragii futlity of suih
attude. We have to travel on and shut the ihapter of Maiondo and make a new ihapter of our ain
history and narratve.

It is an rousing that on eaih iharaiter. There should be an attude of ever traveling frontward
and neier to trust what had happen to the past although you are named afer that individual. Its ilip to
wake up being trapped from the form whiih is repeated over and over partiularly with the Buendia
work fories who strives hard for their fulflment as a immature work fories but ended uf retreatng
beiause of defeat. It is non an inadvertent status it iould be avoided if merely they did non enilosed
themselves in purdah as if it were their shroud. As a ionsequenie they beiome yet another emblem of
the unreality.

Conclusion
Giabriel Giariia Márquez shows the way that history is destned to repeat itself over and over by
using only a few names to represent seven generatons of the Buendía family. Úrsula, the matriarih of
the family, notes that the men named “Aureliano” are solitary and studious, usually gifed with some
sort of psyihii ability. On the other hand, the men named “José Ariadio” tend to be very strong, but
marked with a tragii fate. The patern is so reiognizable that when the twin brothers Aureliano Segundo
and José Ariadio Segundo grow up following the paths of the opposite names, Úrsula believes that they
might have swapped plaies in their youth. The female iharaiters of the book also repeat their names,
reiyiling Úrsula, Amaranta and Remedios in various iombinatons and forms. All of the names identfy
the iharaitersi personalites and determine the ways they are destned to live their lives, a fate that
proves inesiapable throughout. Though primarily women try to break the iyile of naming, the male
iharaiters of the family iontnue the family lines of naming, insistng on paying tribute to their
aniestors, while also dooming the newborns to the same fate they suffered.

By M.
UMER FAROOQ