- What kinds of exoticizing stereotypes emerge from the "magical realism" of Latin America?
One of the most common exaggerations in the novel is the idea of machismo and sexual prodigies. Jose Arcadio Seguno, the son of the Patriarch, is one of the many figures of machismo and legend, which old men in a bar might tell one another. Likewise, many of the women in Marquez's tales--not just the prostitutes--are seen as throwing themselves at the macho men and macho boys. At times, this again seems to be the imagery of young pubescent boys in narration.
In turn , the women in Marquez's novel, in general fall into many female stereotypes. For example, there is the hard-working and sober matriarch of the clan, Ursula, who is keeping the men on their toes and, whenever possible, lovers under lock and key. There are the flirting types, like Rebecca, who goes after two men's hearts simultaneously. As well, there is Amarant, Rebeca's adopted sister, who stands for the woman who is never quite ready to get married and is constantly breaking any suitors hearts. Likewise, there are trainloads of persecuted prostitutes and witches who make love to any man who knocks at the bedroom door. (Above, I have already noted the Erindira and her grandmother figures passing through Macondo.) Finally, there are little girls who are married off to men twice there age, in the appearance of Remedios, and princes, like Fernando, who are told that they will inherit a kingdom, while their family is actually made up of has-been-royalty who have no real wealth in modern Latin America--except for a family name.
Traditionally, young men, in this macho world are often taken to prostitutes to prepare them for their wedding night. However, in this tale the young men, instead, go looking for free love from their dream matriarch, named Pilar Ternura. Ternura in Spanish, by the way, means "tenderness, delicacy, humanity" and "fondness". (In Spanish, ternura is a noun of female gender.) She is both a mother figure and these young men's dream or ideal of a woman--open to exotic sex and accepting the concept of free sex for all. Ternura, who claims also to be able to read the future through tarot cars, represents these macho ideals throughout the work. Naturally, she becomes the mother of sons with many different fathers. Two of these sons are the only sons of Jose Arcadio Buendia, the founder of the town. Meanwhile, both these irresponsible and macho lovers leave their mother, sisters and other family members (or military academies) to raising their offspring.
In this world, it is not too uncommon that a man "can become his own grandpa" because they are prolific in bed and pretty well have little discipline when it comes to sex and raising kids. This is why the matriarch's role is especially strong in this tale and reflective of many Latin American traditions. As a matter of fact, I would not be surprised if the title of Marquez's novel was not a direct play on Octavio Paz's classic, The Labyrinth of Solitude. That masterpiece is among Paz's "most famous works, [and] is a collection of nine essays: "The Pachuco and other extremes', "Mexican Mask', "The Day of the Dead', "The Sons of La Malinche', "The Conquest and Colonialism', "From Independence to the Revolution', "The Mexican Intelligentsia', "The Present Day' and "The Dialectic of Solitude'. The book's first publication was in 1950" in Mexico.
Even to this day, Paz's book is recommended as a classic work in sociology of Latin American customs and trends (at least through the mid-20th century). Paz explained in a sweeping portrait the importance of the home in Latin America along with describing the role of the matriarch, like Ursula, in maintaining the power of a family politically and socially. Pilar Ternura would be the example of "la Malinche". Malinche was the name of Indian women who supposedly helped Cortez to takeover the kingdom of the Aztecs. She is that other women in the macho's eyes who can destroy a family and future of family members through her seductive ways. In short, as far as realism goes, the legends of the Latin American family and its history in Latin America are ever-present in this work of Marquez's. However, he plays with the various Latin American stereotypes and gives readers joy in critiquing classic literature, like Paz's, much in the same way that a melodrama makes a farce out of serious drama.
- In what ways does "magical realism" contribute to the international success of this novel?
Magical Realism is inherently international in the pens of Latin American writers, who see or at least dream of a world of post-nationalism--where multiculturalism is not only appreciated but is the most important remaining high caste of literary-emphasis. In an anti-nationalist narration, the truth is told: We come form different tribes, different kingdoms, different continents and different gender preferences. However, through time and intermarriage we are one whole mystical family. Hence, traveling and multicultural Sanskrit speaking gypsies are the norm, as seen through their parading in and out of One Hundred Years of Solitude. There are Italians, Arabs, Sir Francis Drake and travelers, soldiers of fortune, and run-away sailors from all over the world passing through and touching the lives of those in the somewhat isolated town of Macondo.
Moreover, in magical realism, ghost and apparitions play a common role. They can be used to tell what the author thinks or feels about metaphysics, politics or civilization. They can also remind the reader of collective memories of a community or tell us about long forgotten links to lost families or distant communities. In addition, according to some practices in the genre, they are used in instruction against solitude and isolation, such as the ghosts who came to lecture and show Ebenezer Scrooge his past, present, and destiny. However, Gabriel Garcà a Mà ¡rquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude is more than a ghost story, it is story within stories of biblical and Homeric proportions.
Many people love horror and ghost stories. One only has to think of Poe's fiction and the love people have had for monsters, and science fiction, e.g. Shelly's Frankenstein, to understand the popularity of these stories which are at once real (science) and fiction (mythical). Two important ghosts for Jose Arcadio Buendia were the ghosts of the dead gypsy genius, Melquiades, and the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar. Prudencio was the man whom Jose Arcadio senior had killed in his hometown before eventually taking his family (and friends' families) on a march to the coast--a trek he had never finished.
Instead, Arcadio and his fellow travelers had all eventually decided to settle in the wilderness and thus built the town of Macondo. In fact, however, an important point to note--from the beginning--is that the murder of Prudencio had not been the source that forced Jose Arcadio to flee his hometown because in that era in history a dual of honor between adversaries was not considered a crime in that country. Lesser ghosts in Marquez's tale include the grandmother of Fernanda, the woman who would-be-queen-of Madagascar and who would marry Aureliano Segundo.
Instead, it was rather --the existence" of the ghost of Prudencio which had forced Jose Arcadio to finally flee with his family to the Wilderness. This ghost had come very often to visit Jose and his wife before he left his ancient home. This annoyance of a bad memory and a sense of guilt for his hand in Prudencio's fate eventually had inspired Jose Arcadio and his wife Ursula to uproot from their old world and flee the very village in which they (and some of their ancestors) had grown up in. Decades later, after the second death of Melquiades, Prudencio's spirit also arrived in Macondo and once again takes up residence at Jose Aracadio and Urula's home.
By this late date, both the ghost of Prudencio and Jose Arcadio recognized each other as good friends--although when alive, Prudencio had been an enemy of Jose Arcadio. Years later, after it is clear to all in the town that Jose Arcadio is crazy, his old enemy and now old friend, the ghost of Prudencio, comes regularly and washes his sweat and takes care of him as he lives out his last days tied to a tree or stuffed into a bedroom. Some apparent lessons from this ongoing relationship with Prudencio, the ghost, for Jose Arcadio Buendia appear to have been that (1) you cannot run from your past, (2) in death an enemy may become your friend, and (3) even the dead seek to preserve their memories by seeking out the living. Such are the tales of the past, present, and future in Marquez's novel, which also certainly focuses on how we deal with memory.
One other obvious international appeal to the tale is the fact that by telescoping centuries of history into a short (or long) book, one has a refreshing sense of how to view and retell tales and various repetitions in history in a way that is amusing, farcical and, yet, still rings of fact rather than fiction. In the very fact that we can see the future and past written on the same page throughout this (or any family history book), we can also bring all these past and future ideas into the present to the extent that the reader is fully engrossed in the tale (in the now). Tragedy in this way can become farce and farce can be seen simply as comedy. The mixing up of narrative order can add a comedic element to tragedy because we, the reader or audience, can often see the tragedy coming from very far away--and we desire to shout into the book: "You idiot! Didn't you learn anything from your parents or your ancestors?" or "Oh, God, why doesn't she accept that man's hand in marriage and save us another suicide?"
In short, the novelist, Marquez plays with our ability to study history and our sometimes inadequate attempts to forge new destinies (for ourselves and our families) only to repeat the same sins of the father's and mothers. However, the divine tragedy for us readers is that in the whirlwind of timeless history, which any book actually reflects, we readers must always come full circle, i.e. when the book is over, shall we reread it? Shall we remember the details photographically, or in our own interanal way of recalling memories?
We, as readers, bring this power of creating and going through history, i.e. interacting with history using our minds, even as the seasons change all around us. We can start at page one or we can read the last three pages as Monegal did. We are the writers or authors, like Melquiades. We are the captured readers, like Aureliano.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
