Solitude Fatalism

In Marcus Aurelius’ book, Meditation, he advised for one to “Suit [themselves] to the estate in which [their] lot is cast.” Fatalism, often associated with predestination, is the belief that every event including all actions we as humans partake in are caused by outside forces beyond our control. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses irony to reveal how preventing a prediction guarantees its fulfillment. Fatalism, as revealed in the novel, requires a state of peace of mind which can only be achieved when characters escape active emotional involvement in life and accept the fate which they have been given.
Apprehension over fatalism traces back to the beginning of the predicted marriage of the two cousins, Jose Arcadio
Aureliano Triste’s sketch of the railroad is a “direct descendant of the plans with which Jose Arcadio Buendia had illustrated his project for solar warfare” (221) and when Jose Arcadio Segundo isolates himself away devoid of contact from others to study Melquiades’s manuscript, his face reflects “the irreparable fate of his great-grandfather” (313). Even though characteristics are largely influenced by genetics and by surroundings, life, to an extent, is subject to certain laws because all human beings go through a lot of the same experiences, which goes on to correspond to a conventional pattern. With this pattern in mind, it can be deduced that Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran are essentially the only two characters within the novel; all their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are merely variations of their strengths and weaknesses. Through the repetition of names and characteristics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez draws the connection that: history is cyclical, human nature does not go through a great deal of changes, and that the Buendia family is trapped into a cycle of repetitions. No matter whom the character the reader is introduced to, the reader is able to quickly learn to expect the unexpected just as Pilar Ternera, whose quiet wisdom helps guide the Buendia family, no longer needed her cards to “tell the future of a Buendia”