The Power of Women

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, multiple generations of Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran are depicted. Although the men are revealed to be strong willed, single minded and passionate extremists, they are not necessary strong in character and eventually lose the reason for their passion. Instead harboring strong male role models, the clan of Jose Arcadio Buendia proves to be matriarchal with Ursula the one who controls and keeps the family on a somewhat straight course for well over one hundred years. Jose Arcadia Buendia is on a mission to explore and explain the mysteries of the world, locking himself up for endless amounts of time in his laboratory and losing touch with the world around him. It is Ursula who keeps the house running and takes care of the children. But moreover, it is Ursula who makes better judgments and more reasonable decisions and adamantly sticks by them. When Jose Arcadia Buendia wants to move from Mocondo, Ursula flatly refuses and firmly tells him, “If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die” (13). When no one can understand why Aureliano wants to marry the young Remedios, it is only Ursula who recognizes the young girl’s virtues. As Jose Arcadio Buendia succumbs to dementia and is left tied to the old chestnut tree, Ursula maintains control of the family, yet also shows a compassionate side as she lies to Jose Arcadio Buendia about their son Jose Arcadio so he does not know he is “bringing shame to the house” (106).

More importantly than just running the house and being the commander- in –chief with good judgment calls, Ursula dictates the moral code of the family and is not afraid to enforce that code. When Arcadio takes over control of the town when Colonel Aureliano Buendia leaves for war and starts to act like a dictator, Ursula is not afraid to step in and speak her mind. She publicly yells at Arcadio that he is bringing “shame on the family” for using public funds to build his house. She calls him a “murderer” when he has Caterino shot for disrespect. When Colonel Aureliano plans to kill Gerinaldo Marquez, Urusla knowing it is wrong, fearlessly threatens him, “I swear to you before God I will drag you out from wherever you are hiding and kill you with my own two hands.” She also recognizes that her son Colonel Aureliano, although obsessed with war and fighting for the liberal cause, has lost his reason for the fight, his spirit, and has only ended up with a “coldness in his insides” (155). Ursula understands that Colonel Aureliano has lost his moral compass and his inner soul and has literally becoming a stranger. She has a clear perception of the spiritual collapse of her sons as they grow old, especially Colonel Aureliano and has premonitions of his eventual spiritual solitude.

In the first two chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the concern with human loneliness and solitude is introduced, most notably in the story of Jose Arcadio Buendia’s killing of Prudencio Agular. Repeatedly, Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula are haunted by the ghost of Prudencio Agular. Instead of being scared by the ghost, they are more concerned that he is wandering in the town and identify that the problem is that he is “so very lonely.” The feeling of solitude is reintroduced multiple times throughout the novel and as a problem in all the generations. It becomes a reoccurring theme that man cannot or is always trying to escape solitude. Even Jose Arcadio’s first sexual experience with Pilar Terera is infused with “fearful solitude.” Aureliano, aware of Jose Arcadio’s secret sexual encounters with Pilar tries to live though his brother’s experiences, but the two end up “taking refuge in solitude,” instead of comfort in sharing their secret.

The first two chapters also create the mystical, super-natural, and fantasy-like quality to the novel. The gypsies, the hot jungle-like environment with singing birds, and the mysteries of the sulfuric smelling laboratory all reinforce this dreamlike state. There is no attempt at realism and this only highlights Jose Arcadia Buendia’s comment to Ursula that “incredible things are happening in the world.” One does not question or be concerned about the strangeness of the events. It is totally consistent in a fairy tale like way that Ursula disappears for five months in search of her son and then returns as if nothing had happened and having discovered the route that had eluded her husband for years. As we remember our lives is it no more than a collection of mysterious and not always understandable dream-like epsiodes?