COLLEGE PAPER SERIES. Submitted in English 10 as reaction paper to 100 Years of Solitude of Marquez.
And I suddenly realized that Marquez was actually using events in the Genesis in his novel 100 Years of Solitude. And that’s what a literature in magic realism mode is all about: telling about a concrete reality with usage of its opposite or contradiction. Looking closely, we will see that the novel talks about the rise and fall of Macondo, just like in Genesis which talks about the very beginning of humanity and their several fall because of sin.
The first imitation of Genesis is Ursula and Jose Arcadio Buendia being the Adam and Eve of the town. They latter had two sons and a daughter: Cain and Abel, and Seth, as the other had Jose Arcadio (II) and Aureliano, and Amaranta. (Gen. 2: 4- 5: 32)
The plague of rains causing the town to be in ruins is like the great flood that Noah conquered. (Gen. 6: 1- 9: 12)
Buendia facing the firing squad and was saved in the lass minute is similar to Isaac almost to be sacrificed. (Gen. 22:1- 12)
The twins Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo is like Jacob and Esau, sons of Isaac. (Gen. 25: 23)
In the bible, we see Isaac being rich after planting crops (agriculture) while we have Aureliano Segundo becoming rich out of livestock. Having multiple sons is demonstrated by Jacob in the bible, having married to four women (Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zipah) (Gen. 32: 22- 30); while Col. Buendia had 17 sons from 17 women.
We could also see the importance of burial in 100 Years of Solitude after Melquiades dies. In the bible, we see Joseph bringing his father’s bones to the land of his fathers, and when he died, he asked his bones to be brought someplace. (Gen. 50: 7; 50: 25)
Corruption in the government or abuse of power (as seen in the novel as by Moscote ordering all houses to be painted blue) could be related to Joseph taking everything from the people when he was in authority. (Gen. 47: 13- 26)
The ending of Macondo being wiped out by a cyclone is like the destruction of the Tower of Babylon. (Gen. 11: 1- 
And, the only factor left is the presence of God. In the Genesis, God has been making contact to His people throughout their journey. And as we know, all is God’s plan. It is similar to Melquiades appearing several times throughout the story having immortality or as a ghost. He even wrote a prophecy which in the end will tell us that he knew what will happen to the Buendia clan, as well as Macondo. The people, both in bible and the novel, is living under the plan.
100 Years of Solitude is like the Book of Genesis in several ways, as presented. At the same time, it tells of things that are ignored in the bible. For example, how did Cain, Abel, and Seth (next generation after Adam and Eve) continued their clan? The concept of incest is portrayed in the story a lot of times. Well, Jose Arcadio and Aureliano had to bore a son to the same girl, Pilar Ternera. Could this be Garcia’s way of answering how Cain and Abel had children? With their sister Seth?
It is obvious that the cast of the story tend to be in solitude, alone. It’s like the clan is destined to be alone because of their actions and as well as other people’s actions. But note that in the Genesis, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen. 2: 18) and so He created the woman to assist the man. Supporting this idea, we notice that men dominated the casting of the novel.
Plus, could the story be Garcia’s way of telling about human errors affecting the rest of mankind? What follows the Book of Genesis is the Book of Exodus and it is now about the Israelites’ fall, slave under the Egyptians. If 100 Years of Solitude is equivalent to Genesis, then, it must also be talking about the humans, having the possibility to lose their prestige after committing mistakes (negative events narrated in the story).
From here, we could now see that 100 Years of Solitude is more than a novel. It is a concrete example of magic realism since it wrote about the Genesis (Religion) and adding elements of magic. At the same time, it represents events in our reality using that kind of narration.
