In “The Dark Side of Magical Realism: Science Oppression, and Apocalypse in One Hundred Years of Solitude”, a critical essay about Gabriel Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Brain Conniff argues that the apocalyptic end of Macondo is told through magical realism in order to make the end credible and believable. The crux of his argument, however, is that this end is turel the result of imperialist oppression forced upon Macondo through technology and science. While the oppression imperialism are clearly represented in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Conniff’s claim that the novel’s end is due to the science introduced is fundamentally incorrect. Instead of causing the apocalyptic end of the novel, technology serves to prolong the fate of
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As Macondo and the Buendia family are intertwined it is no surprise that the end of Macondo is tied in with the end of the Buendia bloodline. The fate of the Buendia family was determined before technology is introduced to Macondo, indeed before Macondo is established. Thus the fate of the Buendia family cannot be a result of science, as Conniff claims, as it was destined before “Sir Francis Drake had attacked Riohacka only so that [Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano] could seek each other through the most intricate labyrinths of blood until they would engender the mythological animal that was to bring the line to an end”(Marquez 416). As Sir Francis Drake attacked Riohacka several centuries before the original Ursula was born, it is difficult to claim the end of the novel is a result of the introduction of science (20). Instead, it appears that the end of the Buendia bloodline had been written down in the days of Sir Francis Drake. Near the end of the novel, it is revealed that Melquiades, a gypsy that befriends the Buendia family, had written “the history of the family ... one hundred years ahead of time”(45). Accordingly it seems to be that one's fate in One Hundred Years of Solitude is a uncontrollable life that can not be permanently altered. On the contrary, Conniff argues that if science had not been introduced by Melquiades “Aureliano Buendia might never have wound up before a firing squad of his own government”(Conniff 144). Whereas viewing the introduction of technology through the use of fate in the novel, it is clear this statement is inherently flawed. Aureliano’s fate had been written out centuries before, and no new, or lack thereof, magnetic or telescope could reverse his fate. This idea of fate through the novel is blatantly displayed, notably with Pilar Ternera. Pilar has the capability of “[reading] the future in cards”(Marquez 25). This capability
As Macondo and the Buendia family are intertwined it is no surprise that the end of Macondo is tied in with the end of the Buendia bloodline. The fate of the Buendia family was determined before technology is introduced to Macondo, indeed before Macondo is established. Thus the fate of the Buendia family cannot be a result of science, as Conniff claims, as it was destined before “Sir Francis Drake had attacked Riohacka only so that [Amaranta Ursula and Aureliano] could seek each other through the most intricate labyrinths of blood until they would engender the mythological animal that was to bring the line to an end”(Marquez 416). As Sir Francis Drake attacked Riohacka several centuries before the original Ursula was born, it is difficult to claim the end of the novel is a result of the introduction of science (20). Instead, it appears that the end of the Buendia bloodline had been written down in the days of Sir Francis Drake. Near the end of the novel, it is revealed that Melquiades, a gypsy that befriends the Buendia family, had written “the history of the family ... one hundred years ahead of time”(45). Accordingly it seems to be that one's fate in One Hundred Years of Solitude is a uncontrollable life that can not be permanently altered. On the contrary, Conniff argues that if science had not been introduced by Melquiades “Aureliano Buendia might never have wound up before a firing squad of his own government”(Conniff 144). Whereas viewing the introduction of technology through the use of fate in the novel, it is clear this statement is inherently flawed. Aureliano’s fate had been written out centuries before, and no new, or lack thereof, magnetic or telescope could reverse his fate. This idea of fate through the novel is blatantly displayed, notably with Pilar Ternera. Pilar has the capability of “[reading] the future in cards”(Marquez 25). This capability