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Literature Extended Essay
The Biblical Allusions in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Their Significance
Toni Lim
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Antwerp International School
May 2007
Word Count: 3997
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Abstract
In this essay, I have attempted to answer my research question – what is the significance
of the biblical allusions in Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude? – by
first explaining the various biblical references alluded to in the novel in detail, and then
attempting to explain why Márquez chose to include these allusions in his novel.
I found that almost all of the references were allusions to events early in the Book of
Genesis, the only exception being a weaker parallel between the loss of memory plague in
Macondo (the fictional town in which the novel is set) and the plagues of Egypt in the Book of
Exodus. I thus decided to set the context of my essay to only include events and themes alluded
to in the Book of Genesis, which were particularly strong – I believe Márquez chose to use the
Book of Genesis due to its earlier chapters' cyclical nature, as is so in his novel.
Through research and analysis, I discovered not only parallels between the general
storylines, but allusions to the Garden of Eden, the creation of the world, Adam and Eve, the
Trees of Knowledge and Life, solitude, the serpent which tempts Eve, the inheritance of sin, the
rains which destroyed mankind and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
I concluded that the inclusion of biblical allusions served two purposes, besides the fact
that biblical allusions complemented Márquez's heavy use of magical realism throughout his
novel. The first was to remind society that spiritual development should not be forgotten in lieu
of economic progress, the second was to emphasise the conflict between science and religion,
and to encourage their peaceful co-existence instead.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4
2. Setting: Macondo and the Garden of Eden ------------------------------------------------------ 4
3. The Creation of Macondo and the Creation of the World ------------------------------------- 5
4. José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Versus Adam and Eve ------------------------------------- 6
5. The Chestnut Tree and the Trees of Knowledge and Life ------------------------------------- 7
6. The Solitude of the Buendías and the Solitude of Man ---------------------------------------- 9
7. Melquíades and the Serpent ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 9
8. The Inheritance of Sin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11
9. The Rains in Macondo and the Rains That Destroyed Mankind ---------------------------- 12
10. The Destruction of Macondo and the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ------------- 13
11. Why the Bible? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14
12. Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
13. Works Cited ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18
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The Biblical Allusions in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Their Significance
Although many academic sources have noted the presence of biblical allusions in
Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, I encountered few which mentioned more than
a few specific images and even fewer which attempted to explain their presence. I thus decided
to investigate what the biblical allusions in the novel were and their significance.
One aforementioned source is the renowned literary critic Harold Bloom, who once went
as far as to christen the novel “the Bible of Macondo” (Bloom 1). Indeed this moniker is an
appropriate one, when one considers the outlines of the stories both tell. The first few chapters of
Genesis regard the creation of earth, the creation of man and the eventual destruction of mankind
due to their folly. Similarly One Hundred Years of Solitude tells of the founding of Macondo by
José Arcadio Buendía and his wife Úrsula, the saga of their family as the town develops and
succumbs to corruption, and ultimately the demise of both.
As such, I shall explore how the similarities run much deeper than the storylines, and
attempt to answer why Marquez deliberately closely alluded to the bible and the aforementioned
chapters of the Book of Genesis.
Setting: Macondo and the Garden of Eden
Márquez's fictional town Macondo is situated along the bank of a river in the middle of a
(presumably South American) dense jungle surrounded by a chain of impenetrable mountains
and vast swamps. Likewise, the Garden of Eden is situated in the middle of less hospitable lands
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where land has to be tilled, and a river runs through it – “and a river went out of Eden to water
the garden” (Gen. 2.10).
Also, in Macondo, no one dies until after Melquíades, the outsider gypsy who brings
knowledge to Macondo, attains too much knowledge and dies himself in the quest for
knowledge. Similarly in the Garden of Eden, man was made to be immortal – as they were
created in God's image – until Adam and Eve sinned and Adam was condemned to die – “for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3.19).
Márquez himself has described Macondo as being “not so much a place but a state of
mind” (Márquez and Mendoza 77). Likewise in literature, the Garden of Eden is often likened to
paradise, and an accepted definition of paradise is “a state of supreme happiness; bliss”
(Dictionary.com) – which is how Macondo could be described at its inception – “it was a truly
happy village” (Márquez 15). By alluding to an ideal, Marquez transcends the boundaries of a
country or continent, making his novel more accessible and applicable to all.
The Creation of Macondo and the Creation of the World
Almost from the beginning of One Hundred Years of Solitude can the first biblical
allusions be found. The novel opens with a flashback of José Arcadio Buendía's son, Colonel
Aureliano Buendía, as he is about to die by firing squad, remembering how pure and untainted
Macondo was at its inception. He describes the river along which Macondo was founded as one
of “clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like
prehistoric eggs” (Márquez 9). The cleanliness of white and clarity of clear water obviously
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refers to the aforementioned purity, the eggs to the birth of Macondo. Similarly, when God
created the world in the Bible, he “saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very
good” (Gen. 1.31), referring in part to the innocence and sinlessness of the world.
The importance of names and their power is mentioned throughout One Hundred Years of
Solitude, the first at the birth of Macondo – “the world was so recent that many things lacked
names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point” (Márquez 9). Likewise, when
God created the world, he brought the animals to Adam to be named - “and whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name thereof” (Gen. 2.19).
José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Versus Adam and Eve
José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán can be thought of as the mother and father of
Macondo, in the same way that Adam and Eve, being the first man and woman, can be thought
of as the mother and father of the human race.
The allusion to Adam and Eve is immediately obvious by the similarities that can be
found – Adam and Eve have no birth parents and were created adults, just as we are introduced
to José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula when they are adults with no mention of their relations or
origins, except for Úrsula's great-grandfather. Adam also lived for about as long as Úrsula did.
José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula fled the previous town they lived in before founding
Macondo, embarrassed by José Arcadio Buendía's killing of a man whose ghost haunted them.
This alludes Adam and Eve's shame and banishment for committing the Original Sin – when
they were pure, “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Gen.
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2.25), but after they had eaten from the tree they felt ashamed – “they knew that they were
naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Gen. 3.7).
However it was José Arcadio Buendía who was driven to insanity in his search for
knowledge, and not the practical Úrsula, whereas in the Bible it was Eve who was first tempted.
The Chestnut Tree and the Trees of Knowledge and Life
The Chestnut Tree in One Hundred Years of Solitude is representative of José Arcadio
Buendía's perilous quest for knowledge, and in turn, is an allusion to the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil in the Bible. It stood in the middle of the Buendias' garden like the Tree of
Knowledge stood in the midst of the Garden of Eden. It could be said that the Chestnut Tree
consumed José Arcadio Buendía as he was chained to it until he died babbling away in Latin –
thus saying José Arcadio Buendía's quest for knowledge ultimately consumed him. Similarly
Eve's curiosity led to her eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which condemned Adam
and mankind to mortality.
“Modern allusions to eating from the Tree of Knowledge usually carry the implication
that knowledge can be acquired only at the cost of a tragic loss of innocence” (Lass, Kiremidjian
and Goldstein 253). A perfect example of this: Melquíades' tribe had been “wiped off the face of
the earth because they had gone beyond the limits of human knowledge” (Márquez 39). Also,
José Arcadio Buendía obsessively pursued scientific enlightenment, which gradually drove him
mad, and was chained to the chestnut tree. On a larger scale, Macondo develops and encounters
all manner of foreign influence – from the gypsies' miraculous devices, to the Americans' banana
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plantation. These gains in knowledge, which can be seen as eating from the Tree of Knowledge,
were accompanied by the aforementioned tragic loss of innocence.
José Arcadio Buendía was busy trying to turn metals into gold; the philosopher's egg is
mentioned as one of the items Melquíades left behind to aid José Arcadio Buendía in his quest.
The philosopher's egg is a substance of lore that can be used to turn cheap metals into gold and to
extract what is known as the elixir of life to delay death indefinitely (Crystal), much like the way
eating the fruit of the Tree of Life in the Bible would give one eternal life. José Arcadio Buendía
was “seduced by the simplicity of the formulas to double the quantity of gold” (Márquez 13) and
ended up melting his wife's savings, leading to her turning the population of Macondo against
the gypsies. However in a similar attitude that led to Eve being seduced by a serpent to eat
forbidden fruit off a tree that promised ultimate knowledge, “curiosity was greater than fear”
(Márquez 14), and the people succumbed to the spell of the gypsies and their knowledge of the
fantastical. Both ultimately led to some form of condemnation – José Arcadio Buendía became
insane and Macondo was driven to ruin, and Eve gave her husband a bite of the forbidden fruit as
well that led to them both being banished from the Garden of Eden.
Eve was specifically instructed by God not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, yet she
went against his will, and thus was punished for it; Adam was with mortality. Similarly, José
Arcadio Buendía went against the church – and eventually died – by arguing with Father Nicanor
about the existence of God when the priest came to visit him while he was tied to the chestnut
tree, trying to “break down the priest's faith with rationalist tricks” (Márquez 75), saying “homo
iste statum quartum materiae invenit” (Márquez 74), roughly meaning 'men invented religion'.
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The allusion to the Tree of Knowledge essentially emphasises the destructive power of
knowledge or too much knowledge, as it is essentially how Macondo came to an end.
The Solitude of the Buendías and the Solitude of Man
As is evident from the title, a prevailing theme of this novel is the solitude of the Buendía
family and how it proves to be fatal to them. Every character's solitude motivates them to act in
ways that lead to their ruin.
This is an allusion to what God said when he created Eve – “it is not good that the man
should be alone” (Gen. 2.18), somewhat prophecising that their solitude would lead to their
demise.
After all, the final line of the novel reads “races condemned to one hundred years of
solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth” (Márquez 336). Similarly in the Bible, Noah
was commanded to bring two of every animal “to keep them alive” (Gen. 6.20) before God
flooded the earth, which implies that each animal could not survive in its solitude, as the final
line in Márquez's novel echoes.
Melquíades and the Serpent
Although Melquíades is a benign, wise and seemingly peaceful character, I believe that
he is a biblical allusion – representative of the serpent in the Bible that coerced Eve to take a bite
of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that led to her committing the Original Sin.
Úrsula would always associate Melquíades with “the smell of the devil” (Márquez 13) as
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she had walked in one day when he had broken a flask of bichloride of mercury, saying “that
biting odour would stay forever in her mind linked to the memory of Melquíades” (Márquez 13).
The serpent is always thought of to be symbolic of sin and temptation and thus Satan, the devil
himself, like the way Úrsula indirectly associates Melquíades and his scientific temptations with
the devil. Melquiades lab also seems hellishly chaotic – it is described as a “mad laboratory”
with a “noise of flasks and trays and the disaster of spilled acids” (Márquez 48). Melquíades also
alludes to Darwinism when he says “we come from the water” (Marquez 66) – this is obviously
in direct opposition to the teachings of the church, reiterating Melquíades' demonic or sinful
image.
Also, it was Melquíades who first disrupted the tranquility of Macondo by bringing new
inventions from faraway lands and a greed for knowledge that eventually led to the downfall and
demise of Macondo. Objects were trailing behind his magical irons in “turbulent confusion”
(Márquez 9), the first mention of any sort of unsettledness in peaceful Macondo. José Arcadio
Buendía became so lost in the alchemy that he learned from Melquíades, that he stopped eating
properly and developed other strange behaviours, his pragmatism giving way to idealism - “those
who had known him since the foundation of Macondo were startled at how much he had changed
under Melquiades' influence” (Márquez 14). Melquíades paved the way for the corruption José
Arcadio Buendía by planting an insatiable need for knowledge in him, much like the way the
serpent corrupted Eve by coercing her into eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of
Knowledge, leading to her committing the original sin.
It is not mentioned in the Bible as to why God did not want Adam and Eve to gain
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ultimate knowledge of good and evil, except a hint that they would attain a level of knowledge
that only God should possess, and their purity would be tainted by knowledge of sin. It has also
been said that the order was to test Adam and Eve's obedience, and by disobeying God's wishes
they committed and thus became acquainted with sin (The Church of Yahweh). In the same way
I believe Márquez believes that knowledge comes with corruption, and that a gain in one
inevitably leads to a gain in the other. In this case, it would be that knowledge would corrupt
them in the way knowledge corrupted José Arcadio Buendía, the way the reading of Melquíades'
indecipherable scriptures – described using the biblical word “encyclicals” (Márquez 66), a
circular letter sent to members of the church – destroyed Macondo.
The Inheritance of Sin
The Buendías by generation inherit their parents' worst traits – the Aurelianos “were
withdrawn” and the José Arcadios “were marked with a tragic sign” (Márquez 152); as Ursula
said “children inherit their parents' madness” (Márquez 40).
Similarly, Adam and Eve's descendants suffered for their ancestors wrongdoings - “if
Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold” (Gen. 4.24). Due to their
actions, mankind were forced to till the soils and fated to die, women would forever be forced to
experience pain in childbirth and obey their husbands. According to the Bible, humankind
essentially inherited hardship due to the Original Sin of the parents of the living - “Cursed is the
ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (Gen. 3.17).
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The Rains in Macondo and the Rains That Destroyed Mankind
Although the rains in Macondo were not destructive, they definitely allude to the biblical
rains that lasted forty days and forty nights.
The rains in the Bible served to cleanse the world of sin as it had become corrupted –
“God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth ... The end of all flesh is come
before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold; I will destroy them
with the earth” (Gen. 6.5-13).
The decay of Macondo alludes to this corruption of the world, and when the scriptures
were deciphered it showed that the corruption was great, similar to the point where God decided
to destroy all living beings. Macondo decays both physically and spiritually. The once dovewhite paint of the houses starts to peel, thirty-eight civil wars are fought and the construction of a
railroad which brings “many changes, calamities” (Márquez 184). The spiritual decay begins
with a church that arrives in Macondo to try to salvage it – “no land needed the seed of God so
much” (Márquez 73) – and ends up falling to a loss of faith. Various individuals involved with
the church end up mired in incidents ranging from bestiality to illegitimate children to being
murdered for gold, emphasising the spiritual drainage of Macondo. This reminded me of how,
before God cleansed the earth of its evil with the rain, Cain murders his brother Abel out of
jealousy as God favoured the latter brother's offering, which eventually led to God deeming the
world as “filled with violence” (Gen. 6.11).
The Spanish galleon found in the middle of the jungle may be an allusion towards Noah's
Ark. With its description of abandonment – “one of solitude and oblivion” (Márquez 17) – and
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dilapidation – “dirty rags of its sails” (Márquez 17), it can be seen as a foreshadowing of the fate
of Macondo. Noah's ark was built when God needed to cleanse the earth, and bore a new
beginning for the world; in the novel when the galleon was found, Ursula looked in wonder at
the untouched nature of the jungle and said, “it's as if time had turned around and we were back
at the beginning” (Márquez 162).
The wreckage of the galleon is also an example of the foreshadowing of how José
Arcadio Buendía's search for knowledge will end in disaster.
The Destruction of Macondo and the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
Whilst Macondo was not destroyed by rain, it was “wiped out by the wind” (Márquez
336). Likewise in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by natural forces “brimstone and fire” (Gen. 19.24).
Macondo was destroyed when Aureliano Babilonia eventually deciphers Melquíades'
parchments, but essentially Macondo's spiritual deviance had led to its destruction. Sodom and
Gomorrah were likewise demolished because of their sins – “their sin is very grievous” (Gen.
18.20).
One of the sins mentioned is later referred to in the Book of Jude, and it was that their
inhabitants had been “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh” Jude
1.7). The aforementioned of incidences of bestiality in the church in Márquez's novel could be in
reference to this 'strange flesh', which reflected the spiritual decay of Macondo.
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Why the Bible?
A stylistic reason could be that Márquez's novel is woven together by magical realism:
the realism of everyday events interwoven with fantastic elements, sometimes borrowing from
myths; time, form and subject matter, amongst other literary elements, are experimented with
(Abrams 135). Márquez exaggerates reality and injects doses of surreality throughout his novel –
essentially, it could be said that Márquez plays God in Macondo. An example would be when
Remedios the Beauty ascended to heaven among white linen sheets like an angel. This may be
why he chose to allude to the Bible so closely in his novel. He has said the Bible is “a fabulous
book where fantastic things happen all the time” (Márquez and Mendoza 49), like Moses parting
the Red Sea as an example or Noah living hundreds of years. Also, in the Bible, time is a
questionable element, and many believe that the time mentioned in the Bible, for example the
week that God created earth, is not meant to be taken literally – in the same way that magical
realism plays with time. I believe that to Márquez, the Bible is essentially the prime example of
magical realism.
However I doubt that he would choose to use the Bible just for stylistic purposes. I think
there are two possible reasons as to why this novel is so heavily laced with biblical allusions.
My first guess would be regarding Márquez's opinion on development – both spiritual
and economical. This novel suggests that he feels that with economical development (the gain in
knowledge I referred to before) comes detrimental social effects, one of the “vices of time”
(Márquez 17), such as the erection of brothels to cater to foreigners. Strong biblical allusions,
besides drawing parallels like how knowledge corrupts Eve, seem to be how Márquez proposes
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that a way to keep these unavoidable negative effects on society in check is by embracing
religion or some other form of spiritual guidance. I believe that he illustrates through this novel
that a loss of religion, or any form of moral compass, in hand with the rapid progression, will
eventually bring society to a grinding halt. After all, Márquez himself has suggested that a form
of spiritual guidance in one's life to keep one in line is necessary – “if you don't believe in God,
at least be superstitious” (Márquez and Mendoza 111).
As Macondo developed, the people begin to lose faith in the church's didactic teachings
and proposed teaching things such as “free love”. Father Nicanor had to resort to performing
tricks with chocolate to prove God's existence, but his head was split, signifying the loss of belief
in God. Thereafter sins prevailed, without anyone in Macondo except the pragmatic Ursula
noticing - “the devil had probably won his rebellion against God, and that he was the one who
sat on the heavenly throne, without revealing his true identity in order to trap the unwary”
(Márquez 155), and Macondo began to sink into decrepitude: people's houses were left to ruin,
incestual relations took place, a strike and an ensuing massacre occurred, and eventually
Macondo was no more. Both the disgrace of Adam and Eve and the condemnation of mankind in
the Bible and the corruption of Macondo and its eventual demise were caused by a lack of firm
moral commitment and loss of morality.
The second reason I propose is one not directly relating to the plot of the book but more
of an underlying theme – to emphasise the chasm between science and religion, as illustrated by
the metaphor of Melquíades as scientific knowledge – he is an alchemist, a practicioner of a
branch of science, and the introduction of his fancy gadgetry to then-religious Macondo was
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initially strongly objected against from traditional people like Úrsula. Nowadays, and certainly in
the time Márquez wrote this novel, religion is now seen as being comparatively whimsical to
science, in reversal to the early attitudes depicted in One Hundred Years of Solitude, although
they gradually switch through the course of the novel – perhaps biblical allusions in a novel of a
loss of religion could be his ironic way of pointing out radical this change in beliefs. The
progression and end of the book suggests that Márquez feels that reconciliation is perhaps
possible – perhaps science and religion could live in harmony, like José Arcadio Buendía trying
to make a daguerreotype of god. Failing that, a middle ground has to be found. Ursula is a
proponent of the church; she and José Arcadio Buendía represent religion and science
respectively. Her practicality has been shown time and again to bring José Arcadio Buendía back
down to earth when he was chasing scientific escapades, but even this practicality is described as
a “terrible practical sense” (Márquez 165), showing that Márquez never chooses between science
and religion in the book, further supporting my theory about the co-existence of science and
religion, two contrasting disciplines.
I believe Márquez chooses only to allude closely to the Book of Genesis because it ties
in nicely with the cyclical theme of this novel. At the end of the Book of Genesis the world was
essentially reborn, pure once more, a complete cycle – and the repetition of names, Úrsula's
utterance regarding returning to the beginning of time at finding when they find the ruins of the
galleon as mentioned earlier, and deja vu throughout the novel are all in line with the cyclical
theme. At the same time I believe the miracles of the Bible were contrasted with the reality of
Macondo – even the rains could not cleanse Macondo, could not save it as God saved the world.
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Conclusion
The biblical allusions in One Hundred Years of Solitude serve a double purpose in subtly
reminding us not to forget our religion or morality in today's rapidly changing world whilst
simultaneously showing us what will happen if we do ignore what keeps us grounded – there are
no second chances. This of course is referring to the condemnation of man following Adam and
Eve's disobedience and eating from the Tree of Knowledge. It is perhaps not because of the act
of Adam and Eve gaining knowledge, but because of their disobedience of the simple wish of the
very entity they owed their existence to, which reflected a deep ingratitude and loss of morality.
This in a way reflects the extremes people go to, as illustrated by how José Arcadio Buendía's
irresponsible behaviour showed a lack of respect for his wife and family, to gain knowledge.
Marquez does not criticise scientific progress, but he respects and adovcates respect for
simultaneously including religion or some other form of beliefs to govern one's life – and the
constant use of biblical allusions aptly shows this. They also make One Hundred Years of
Solitude accessible to a broad base of readers as the first chapters of Genesis are the most readily
identifiable to many people – his novel is a message of spiritual and economic harmony to the
world.
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Works Cited
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College,
1993.
Bloom, Harold. Gabriel García Márquez. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.
The Church of Yahweh. “Chapter 4: Forbidding the Fruit”. The Church of Yahweh. 2006. 21
September 2006. <http://yhwh.com/Garden/garden4.htm>.
Crystal, Ellie. “The Philosopher's Stone”. Crystalinks. 30 Apr. 2006. 1 May 2006
<http://www.crystalinks.com/philosopherstone.html>.
Dictionary.com. "Paradise". Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Based on the Random House
Unabridged
Dictionary,
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Random
House,
Inc.
2006.
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<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=paradise>
The Holy Bible, King James (Authorised) Version. Cambridge: The British Foreign and Bible
Society, 1970.
Lass, Abraham H., David Kiremidjian and Ruth M. Goldstein. The Dictionary of Classical,
Biblical, & Literary Allusions. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Márquez, Gabriel García. One Hundred Years of Solitude. London: Picador, 1978.
Márquez, Gabriel García and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza. The Fragrance of Guava. London: Faber
& Faber, 1988.
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