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He was silent and withdrawn. He had wept in his mother’s womb and had been born with his eyes open.
This description of Colonel Aureliano Buendía at birth appears in Chapter 1, establishing his distant, somber, and vigilant nature that remains constant throughout his life. From birth, Aureliano holds himself apart from others but is extremely observant. Throughout the novel, he’s often the first to pick up on things, such as José Arcadio’s excitement over his affair with Pilar Ternera or the hypocrisy of politicians. However, seeing so many things also makes him distant from others, despairing over how much injustice there is in the world.
“Not madness,” Aureliano said. “War. And don’t call me Aurelito anymore. Now I’m Colonel Aureliano Buendía.”
Colonel Aureliano Buendía says this to Don Apolinar Moscote in Chapter 5, as he decides to rebel against the Conservative government. Although Aureliano is initially horrified by the indiscriminate violence of the Liberal leaders in Macondo, the occupation of the Conservatives and their violent abuses of power force Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s hand. Not fully in step with either side, he decides that he will wage war his own way to fight for what he believes is just. This moment marks the transition from Aureliano the withdrawn boy to the mysterious military leader Colonel Aureliano Buendía.
“What worries me,” he went on, “is that out of so much hatred for the military, out of fighting them so much and thinking about them so much, you’ve ended up as bad as they are. And no ideal in life is worth that much baseness.”
General Moncada says these words to Colonel Aureliano Buendía in Chapter 8, after Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s military tribunal has sentenced Moncada to death. Far from being concerned about his own death, Moncada is worried about Aureliano’s soul. Although on opposite sides, both men have maintained a friendship because they recognize the hypocrisies and injustices inherent in the structures that maintain war, politicians, and military hierarchy. By allowing for General Moncada’s death, Aureliano is sacrificing his ability to see the personal ties that political ideals erase simply to keep the war going.
His only happy moments, since that remote afternoon when his father had taken him to see ice, had taken place in his silver workshop where he passed the time putting little gold fishes together.
This quotation comes from Chapter 9, as Colonel Aureliano Buendía considers his solitude. He has just sanctioned the execution of his closest friend, Colonel Gerineldo Márquez, for high treason because he disagrees with Aureliano’s dilution of their ideals. Aureliano has only found happiness in his fish-making, a solitary activity that involves extreme concentration and patience, and results in something that is perhaps not worth the time it took. Similarly, all the effort and bloodshed he has put into this endless war has resulted in no real change or gain.
She reached the conclusion that the son for whom she would have given her life was simply a man incapable of love.
This quotation comes from Chapter 13, as Úrsula’s eyesight begins to decline. Barely able to look outside, Úrsula turns her sight inward and examines her life and children. Here she realizes that Aureliano, despite being a man of such great passion that he has seventeen sons and becomes a military legend, is nevertheless unable to feel love or tenderness. His lack of true feeling means that he is able to recover from Remedios’s death quickly, and also why he can continue fighting an endless war. He never makes a lasting connection that he isn’t able to sacrifice.
