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What is the significance of the title?
The novel chronicles one hundred years of the Buendía family, whose members are all solitary figures. Solitude here appears to mean not just loneliness, but a state of being out of step with those around them, never fully able to connect with others or even the times they live in. Each member of the family has their own version of solitude. Some, like José Arcadio Buendía or Colonel Aureliano Buendía, lose themselves in their obsessions or ideals and become distant. For others, their passions prove dangerous or painful to themself and others, as with Amaranta or Aureliano Segundo. Their solitude eventually creates the disintegration of the family line.
Why is Úrsula afraid to have sex with José Arcadio Buendía?
Úrsula’s mother warns her that because José Arcadio Buendía is her cousin, their children may have birth defects. She in particular warns Úrsula of another cousin who was born with a pig’s tail. Throughout her life, Úrsula is terrified her offspring will have pig’s tails, and she fruitlessly warns future generations against incest for this reason. José Arcadio Buendía appears unconcerned by this warning, promising they’ll raise whatever children they have.
Why does Colonel Aureliano Buendía initially go to war?
Colonel Aureliano Buendía goes to war because he’s angered by the injustices he sees carried out by the Conservatives. He’s initially reluctant to become a rebel because he doesn’t like the excess violence preached by those like Dr. Noguera. However, when he sees the Conservative soldiers beat a woman to death after she’s bit by a rabid dog, he decides to fight the unbridled violence that those in power enact. Sadly, his ideals become eroded over time by violence and politics.
Why does no one believe José Arcadio Segundo about the massacre in the square?
No one believes in the violence that José Arcadio Segundo witnesses because the banana company and the government enforce their version of the truth. Because the government is considered an official source, people who don’t know the truth trust their version of events. Anyone who happens to know otherwise is scared into silence with the threat of violence. As years pass, their version of events is written into history books, further drowning out José Arcadio Segundo’s eyewitness testimony.
What is Melquíades’s prophecy for the Buendía family?
Melquíades’s prophecy for the Buendía family is also their family history, with past, present, and future blurring. It begins with the epigraph, “The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants,” citing José Arcadio Buendía’s solitary madness and the sad death of Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula’s pig-tailed son, neatly collapsing the family’s beginning with its end. He predicts Macondo will someday revive as a city of glass but with no Buendías.
