Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, lived and experienced a religious Latin American life. These experiences played a vital function in the development of his characters, specifically Jose Arcadio Buendia. Jose Arcadio Buendia was the founder of the innocent city of Macondo where “the world was so recent that many things lacked names.”(p.1) He was a strong coordinator and looked to as a leader. As Melquiades and the other gypsies passed through the village, Jose Arcadio Buendia’s attention was quickly captured. Fascinated by their magic and determined to learn more, he bartered the most valuable possessions of his family in exchange for their mystical tools. He would then spend his time trying to figure out how to use these tools and what they meant, unaware of the fact that his constant pursuit for knowledge would soon lead to his downfall. In the meantime, he became obsessed with trying to find civilization outside of Macondo, a task he had failed to do but his wife, Ursula, had simply completed months later.
I believe Jose Arcadio Buendia’s desire to find other civilization is related to his obsession for knowledge and information for reasons beyond just the simple founding of people. The discovery of civilization will not only allow him to find more unknown information, but will also subconsciously allow him and his family to interact with more people. It is possible that this subconscious quest for social interaction is the actual cause of the introversion and solitary confinement that is evidently a characteristic of his family line. This unintentional corruption of his family is consistent with the significance of Jose Arcadio Buendia within the novel.
The innocence of the rest of Macondo was also corrupted through Buendia’s obsession for facts and information. If he had not sought answers, the gypsies may have had no incentive to return to Macondo, Jose Arcadio would have never impregnated the gypsy girl or