A Hundred Years of Solitude

INCEST IN ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE “Incest refers to inappropriate sexual activity between individuals who are considered to be too closely related socially or genetically. It is a social and cultural term, in other words, within any culture, any given sexual activity can in principle be categorized as either incestuous or non-incestuous (Webster 1).” At the very end of the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude the contents of Melquiades’ scriptures are revealed and it is alas exposed that the Buendia family was all along ill-fated. One of the central themes that perpetuate the idea of fate is incest; one of the most paramount and continuously recurring themes of the novel. The entire history of the Buendia’s is centered around the family’s struggle trying to escape having any family member being born with the tail of a pig; a conviction for sinful incestuous relations. Marquez structures the tale of the doomed family in a circular form that indicates that such taboos as incest are unavoidable within this particular family. This novel primarily serves as a forewarning or a mirror in that it wants to show the impact isolation had on one family, let alone a country. For example, in Colombia many people share the characteristics that the Buendia family members exaggeratedly represent. The strife and corruption that plagues the country is in large part a product of the inability of Colombians to experience the reality outside of their own homes. The Buendia’s lived within the only spectrum they recognized, their home. For that reason, many of them were physically incapable of leaving Macondo without ever returning. They were isolated from the towns outside of Macondo, from the people of Macondo and to a degree, from each other. Because they are only exposed to one another and are named after each other. They involuntarily inherit the traits of the attributes of whosever name they share. Even the people who are not Buendia by blood are somewhat entangled

Cited: Fiorello, Robin A Family’s Struggle through a Tumultuous Century © January 2, 2000 by literatureview.com Marquez, Gabriel Garcia One Hundred Years of Solitude Matriarchs Are the Most Influential Characters in the Novels ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ And ‘The House of Spirits’ © Coursework Bank 2001-2005 Muñoz, Martin Análisis de Cien años de soledad © 1997 Lucas Morea / Sinexi S.A. Neu, Jerome “What is Wrong with Incest?” Today 's Moral Problems (an anthology) by Richard A. Wasserstrom, Third Edition (Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, copyright 1985), pages 220 to 230.]