Faculty of Humanities General and Interdisciplinary Studies The Second Semester, 2010 THE MAGIC IN THE REAL: WORKS BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ Take-Home Exam, moed A
1 4.07.2010 D.1)  The myths in the foundation history and the decline of Macondo  Macondo's turbulent history and the characters' intense struggles against a hostile environment constitute a vast synthesis of social, economic, and political evils which plague much of the continent and firmly anchor the novel to Latin American reality. Founded toward the middle of the nineteenth century, Macondo experiences its first and only boom when an American company establishes a banana plantation nearby, imports gringo technicians, and employs local workers. The town's ephemeral prosperity terminates, however, with a series of labor difficulties after which the company closes down and moves out. The resulting economic stagnation hastens Macondo's disastrous physical and moral decay. The novel also presents a vivid and, generally speaking, a dismal picture of daily life in Macondo: the town's isolation from civilization; the ignorance, backwardness, and superstitions of its citizenry; its diversions, most frequently in the form of drunken carousals, passionate sexual encounters, cock fights, and carnivals brought in by roving bands of gypsies; its political upheaval and corruptions; and its decrepit, in effectual Church. As stated previously, Garcia Marquez embroiders his view of Latin American reality with fascinating flights of fantasy, many of which derive from the myths so prevalent among the inhabitants of Colombia's coastal region. Based on the historic and legendary past reduced to more human proportions, these myths are a synthesis of fact and fiction, a transformation from the concrete to the fabulous, wrought at least in part by the impact of time on the folk memory. Macondo emerges as a place where anything is possible.
For example, gypsy carnivals arrive periodically in Macondo bringing such commodities as flying carpets and magnets with unheard of powers of attraction. The old gypsy Melqulades dies and years later re-turns from the dead to live in an isolated part of the Buendia home where he pores over his manuscripts containing occult secrets. Immediately after the demise of Jose Arcadio Buendia a drizzle of small yellow flowers begins to fall, covering the streets, blocking doorways, and asphyxiating animals. The death of the old man's eldest son, Jose Arcadio, produces equally strange repercussions. His wife hears the sound of a shot from his room and although no wound is visible, his blood flows from his right ear directly to his parents' home several blocks away. Moreover, the corpse emits a strong odor of gun powder that for years permeates the air around his grave. A final example, Jose Arcadio Buendia's great-granddaughter, Remedios is folding sheets one day in the garden when suddenly a wind comes up and she ascends heavenward, never to be seen or heard from again.
The story of Macondo and the Buendia ….