Myth and Poetry in Macondo

One Hundred Years of Solitude has frequently been approached from a historical perspective, focusing on the colonial imprint in Latin America’s destiny. Yet in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, García Márquez made it clear that he wished to be remembered for the poetry that permeates his writing. This article is inspired by this assertion, as well as by a quote from Ernesto Sabato, who claims that for philosophers and artists, myth and poetry are keys to access the Absolute: truth, beauty, and perfection. Taking into account the few previous attempts to pursue these motifs in the novel, the article undertakes a search of the traces of both myth and poetry in García Márquez’s opera magna. The faces of myth are many: Oedipus, prophecies, magic, utopia, the mandala of the tree of life, cyclical time, alchemy, one-dimensional characters (actants), genesis, and apocalypse. On the other hand, poems and metaphors are ever present in the novel. This search led to a new reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude, discovering García Márquez’ celebration of ambiguity. For the novel’s conclusion moves the reader to two opposing interpretations: apocalypse (the destruction of Macondo and the solitary Buendía dynasty) and hope (solidarity in a new mankind). The possibility of clashing readings confirms Italo Calvino’s definition of a classic as a book that never finishes saying what it has to say.