One Hundred Years of Solitude: Summary and Complete Study Guide

A literary technique where fantastical events (woman ascending to heaven, four-year rainstorm) are narrated as ordinary reality. García Márquez uses it to show Latin American reality is already so extraordinary that magic isn't more unbelievable than actual history.

The founding family of Macondo. Seven generations repeat the same two names (José Arcadio and Aureliano), same personality patterns, and same mistakes. Their curse is solitude—they cannot escape isolation despite being surrounded by family.

The fictional Colombian town founded by José Arcadio Buendía. Isolated from the world, then invaded by modernity (banana company), then destroyed by a biblical wind. Represents Latin American history in microcosm.

Family tradition repeats José Arcadio and Aureliano across generations. This creates confusion emphasizing cyclical time—history repeats because new generations make identical mistakes without learning from ancestors.

The last Aureliano deciphers Melquíades' prophecy as it happens: Macondo is destroyed by a biblical hurricane. The family line ends with a child born with pig's tail (result of incest). Everything is erased—the family, the town, the entire century.

Based on actual 1928 Colombian massacre. Three thousand striking banana workers are killed and bodies loaded onto trains. The government denies it happened—showing how real political violence is treated with same surreal tone as magical events.