One Hundred Years of Solitude is "The Bible of Macondo"

One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered Columbian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez's (1927-2014) magnum opus and is recognized as one of the most significant works in the Spanish literary canon. It provoked a literary earthquake in Latin America when it was first published in 1967. It inspired a sense of liberation in the minds of the readers and liberated them from dull realities into a world of magic and fantasy.

(Picture Credit- Penguin Books)

Harold Bloom, the renowned literary critic, has called One Hundred Years of Solitude as “The Bible of Macondo,” by comparing it to the Book of Genesis in the Bible:

"In his subsequent work, Garcia Marquez went back to Faulkner and Kafka; but then, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a miracle and could only happen once, if only because it is less a novel than it is a Scripture, the Bible of Macondo. " (7)

Macondo is a picture of the Garden of Eden that is notably discussed in the first chapter of the Old Testament, which is the Book of Genesis. In the Book of Genesis, the basic narrative, expresses the central theme: God creates the world and appoints man as his regent, but man proves disobedient and God destroys his world through the flood but preserves a righteous man, Noah, and his family. Marquez actually wrote a ‘prophecy’ novel; by creating a character who left a parchment to be deciphered. Melquiades is one of the leaders of Gypsies band who regularly visit Macondo to show wonderful stuffs that people in Macondo had never seen before. He started to write a parchment during his stay in Buendia family’s house which is written in Sanskrit. In the end of the novel, we learn that the parchment is contained with the information of fortunes and misfortunes fate happened to the Buendia family written by Melquiades.

Through the story line written in the novel, we can see how it works with the narrative in Book of Genesis. Begin with the existence of two people - man and woman - as the starter of living then good things that become corrupted by the sin of humans such as crime committed by humans and it results in destruction. Adam and Eve pictured as Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran; they ate forbidden fruit, something that can be identified as crime, like how Jose Arcadio Buendia murdered a villager and joined in the war; then ended up with disaster: great flood in the Bible and in the novel it describes as plagues and hurricane which destroys Macondo. Ricardo Gullon remarks:

"The novel's beginning is Genesis; its end is the Apocalypse; rain is equivalent to the Flood; wars are War." (32)

We see that some plagues occurred in Macondo, insomnia plague and rain that remained to fall in the village for almost five years. The flood that caused by that rain seems to be a way to clear out wicked men in the village and also the start of downfall of the village. Just like the narrative of Noah, there were only several people who were saved from the flood while the other creatures were wiped out by the flood. The five years of rain in Macondo happened right after the banana company massacre, as the phenomenon of how the village is already full of violence and it followed by disaster to destroy human’s monstrosity.

The meaning of the word ‘Eden’ is believed to be more closely related to Aramaic language root which means “well-watered, fruitful.” Similarly, Macondo is a village surrounded by water. The Garden of Eden was watered by a river, which is supposed to be a big one because it can be parted into four heads and covered all the surroundings.

As time goes by, Macondo is settled by the Buendia family chronicle and other people who come and decide to live there. People in Macondo are questioning about the form of earth, until Jose Arcadio Buendia, who is thirsty of knowledge and invention, as the influence from band of Gypsies who visited Macondo; told the children that the earth is round:

"The children would remember for the rest of their lives the August solemnity with which their father, devastated by his prolonged vigil and by the wrath of his imagination, revealed his discovery to them: "The earth is round, like an orange."" (Marquez 9)

It is totally related to the opening of the Book of Genesis. The unidentified form of earth and complete emptiness of Macondo in the early time described in Book of Genesis; both in One Hundred Years of Solitude and the Bible followed by a plot of area identification.

The strong proof about the close relationship between One Hundred Years of Solitude and Book of Genesis is the role of two main characters in the novel, Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran. Their role as the founder of Macondo represents the idea of Adam and Eve as the first human beings who were created and lived together. In the Bible, Adam and Eve had to be expelled from Heaven because of the crime they committed, eating a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In "The Book of Genesis," Chapter 3, such as in 3:23-3:24:

"Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree." (King James Version Bible 3:23-3:24)

(Picture Credit- jesuit.org.au)

Parable of civilization between Macondo and Greek can be identified by the development of both areas. Macondo is a village which is located in an isolated area, surrounded by forests and water and there is no way to move out from the village. Greece in the Archaic period was divided into many self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges.

To wrap up, we can say from the above discussions that One Hundred Years of Solitude is the Bible of Macondo and I strongly support this view, as we have seen many similarities between One Hundred Years of Solitude and "the Book of Genesis" in the Bible. The characters both in One Hundred Years of Solitude and in "the Book of Genesis" keep committing the same mistakes again and again which ultimately leads to their doom. By this parable, we come to know that from the violence and crime we committed, it will bring destruction to ourselves. God and nature, they seem to be fine for a several times but we never really know when they will punish us for our ferocity. 

Works Cited:

1. Bloom, Harold. Bloom’s Guides: One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Chelsea House, 2006. Print.

2. Gullon, Ricardo. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Lost Art of Story-telling". trans. Jose G. Sanchez. Diacritics 1. 1 (1971): 27-32. Web.

3. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Avon Books, 1971. Print.

4. The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford University Press, 1998.

5. <https://www.academia.edu/ 34004961/ Macondo_ as_Garden_ of_ Eden_ Book_ of_ Genesis_ Parable_ in_ One_ Hundred_ Years_ of_ Solitude> Accessed 05 July 2020