As humans, all of our personalities are in some way or another bound by the human condition. The best thing we can try to do is to be as well rounded as we can, balancing our different characteristics. However, some people have personalities which are more extremely one sided, and grow consumed by that single unchecked characteristic. In Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, each character of the Buendía family represents and epitomizes a single aspect of the human condition. José Arcadio Buendía represents a thirst for knowledge about the world. He embodies the human desire to learn more about the world in which he lives, and was desperate to do so at any cost. He would grow “completely absorbed in his tactical experiments
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When faced with the limits of present knowledge, he didn’t allow himself to be held back but rather went on to innovate for himself. It was in such a scenario when he made the startling realization that “the earth is round, like an orange” (4). However, even this discovery came at a great cost to him and his family. The obsession led him to spend “several days as if he were bewitched, softly repeating to himself a string of fearful conjectures” that severely frightened his wife and kids (4). José Arcadio Buendía’s desire to satisfy his thirsting curiosity would lead him to explore aspects outside of the sciences. He went on an expedition to learn more about his physical surroundings so that he could find a direct route to the outside world from which technology, the gypsies, and new knowledge all come. His failure in this endeavour would not disappoint for long. Though José Arcadio Buendía could not find the way to the land of Melquíades, the latter would end up coming to Macondo. By this point, Melquíades “had been through death, [and] had returned” to help the Buendías during the insomnia plague (49).
When faced with the limits of present knowledge, he didn’t allow himself to be held back but rather went on to innovate for himself. It was in such a scenario when he made the startling realization that “the earth is round, like an orange” (4). However, even this discovery came at a great cost to him and his family. The obsession led him to spend “several days as if he were bewitched, softly repeating to himself a string of fearful conjectures” that severely frightened his wife and kids (4). José Arcadio Buendía’s desire to satisfy his thirsting curiosity would lead him to explore aspects outside of the sciences. He went on an expedition to learn more about his physical surroundings so that he could find a direct route to the outside world from which technology, the gypsies, and new knowledge all come. His failure in this endeavour would not disappoint for long. Though José Arcadio Buendía could not find the way to the land of Melquíades, the latter would end up coming to Macondo. By this point, Melquíades “had been through death, [and] had returned” to help the Buendías during the insomnia plague (49).