One Hundred Years of Solitude

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Writing a Family Chronicle”

In this activity, students will write a magical realist family chronicle of their own and draw comparisons to the novel.

Where does your family come from? In this activity, write a brief account of your family’s background and history, but with a twist: Instead of trying to make the account as accurate as possible, emphasize the magic and fantasy of everyday life. (You may opt to create a wholly fictitious family for your account instead of using your own.) In writing this magical realist family chronicle, you may want to consider the following points:

• How far back can you trace family generations? What stories accompany the family’s origins?
• Are there any family stories about supernatural occurrences, such as encounters with ghosts or religious figures?
• Have any family members experienced anything that would normally be considered impossible?

Analyze your completed draft for evidence of magical realism. In your notes or writing journal, draw comparisons between the events or circumstances in your story and the ones in the novel that represent magical realism. After completing and turning in the assignments, participate in a class discussion on the process of writing a family chronicle and on the line that separates history from fiction.

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students’ creative thinking; for example, they can embellish their family histories or make things up entirely. To that end, it may be helpful to discuss in class some of the literary devices and traits associated with magical realism, especially the way authors of magical realism seek to transform the magical and fantastical into the everyday. Students may benefit from interviewing their older family members as they complete the assignment.

Differentiation Suggestion: For increased student agency and for students with artistic abilities, writers might create a visual representation of some aspect of their family or family history instead of or in addition to the writing task. These representations should highlight the magical and/or fantastical aspects of their family; for example, these students might draw a family house that shows the ghosts that occupy it.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The novel strongly emphasizes The Nonlinearity of Time, showing events and patterns repeating themselves again and again.

• What is the nature of time in the text? (topic sentence)
• Identify 3 examples of nonlinear time in the text; analyze and discuss the significance of each example with regard to the plot and characters. Clarify the ways in which these examples substantiate the topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, determine and summarize the strongest impacts nonlinearity has on character development.

2. Though Macondo is a fictional place, García Márquez makes many references to Colombian history.

• Generally, what is the role of Colombian history in the novel? (topic sentence)
• Analyze and discuss the ways in which García Márquez uses and reframes events from Colombian history (e.g., Francis Drake’s ship, the Thousand Days’ War, etc.). Specify at least 3 detailed examples and analyze these in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, speculate on the main ways in which the novel would be different in the absence of historical references.

3. The Roma Melquíades plays a prominent role from the beginning of the novel until its conclusion, appearing to many members of the Buendía family in life as well as in death.

• What is Melquíades’s overall significance in the novel? (topic sentence)
• Discuss Melquíades’s relationships, actions, and impact throughout the novel. How is this character symbolic or allegorical? Use details and examples from the text in substantiating your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the way Melquíades reflects the central themes of the novel.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Consider the way the novel begins: Colonel Aureliano Buendía remembers his childhood “as he face[s] the firing squad.” (Chapter 1) The framing device of Aureliano’s execution is not picked up again until over 100 pages later. What is the significance of the framing narrative? What is the effect of beginning the novel this way and then having such a long delay before resuming that narrative? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, analyze and discuss the ways in which Aureliano’s execution fits into the larger structure of the novel. Incorporate a variety of details and examples from the text into your essay.

2. How do the different characters think about sex and sexuality? What does each character’s attitude toward sex and sexuality reveal about them and their values? Why is incest so prominent in the novel’s depiction of sex and sexuality? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, discuss the role of sex and sexuality in the novel. Draw on character actions and reactions for details and examples.

3. At the end of the novel, Aureliano discovers that the entire history of Macondo had been predicted and recorded by Melquíades in the writings he left after his death and “that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments […] because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.” (Chapter 20) What does this ending say about the role of fate in the novel and the characters’ lives? In a 3- or 5-paragaph essay, evaluate the extent to which characters in the novel use agency or free will in affecting the events. Cite other passages from the text to support your arguments.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Who is the sex worker who has a child with the younger José Arcadio?

A) Pilar Ternera

B) Santa Sofía de la Piedad

C) Amaranta

D) Úrsula

2. How does the elder José Arcadio acquire most of the items in his laboratory?

A) From Melquíades and the Romani

B) From the lost galleon

C) From his old hometown

D) From the capitol

3. In what way is the younger José Arcadio the foil of his brother Colonel Aureliano?

A) They have intellectual differences.

B) They have sexual differences.

C) Aureliano is calculating, while José Arcadio is impulsive.

D) Aureliano is peaceful, while José Arcadio is very violent.

4. Why does Pietro kill himself?

A) Because Rebeca rejects him

B) Because Amaranta rejects him

C) Because he becomes paralyzed

D) Because he loses all his money

5. What do small yellow flutterings (e.g., butterflies and flowers) symbolize in the novel?

A) The interplay of war and peace

B) The legacy of the Buendías

C) Virginity and sexuality

D) The relationship of the dead to the living

6. Who saves Colonel Aureliano from being executed?

A) Úrsula

B) Amaranta

C) The elder José Arcadio (his father)

D) The younger José Arcadio (his brother)

7. Why doesn’t Colonel Aureliano become a patriarch in the traditional sense?

A) Because he is gay

B) Because all his offspring are killed

C) Because he has no offspring

D) Because he dies very young

8. Why does Aureliano Segundo insist that he should maintain a sexual relationship with Petra?

A) Because she makes the animals more fertile

B) Because she is rich

C) Because she is important politically

D) Because she can be very violent when she is angry

9. Which of the following concepts does the banana company represent?

A) Latin American nationalism

B) Socialism

C) Egalitarianism

D) Imperialism

10. According to Úrsula, who is the only courageous member of the Buendía family?

A) Aureliano Segundo

B) Colonel Aureliano

C) The elder José Arcadio

D) Rebeca

11. What instrument does Meme play?

A) The violin

B) The harp

C) The saxophone

D) The clavichord

12. How does José Arcadio Segundo occupy himself while hiding from the banana company?

A) By making tiny gold fishes

B) By weaving a shroud

C) By reading Melquíades’s writings

D) By writing a family chronicle

13. How does the long rain impact Macondo?

A) It leaves the town desolate.

B) It improves the soil.

C) It makes the town a tourist attraction.

D) It has no impact at all.

14. Where is Úrsula’s gold discovered?

A) Under the foundation

B) Under her bed

C) Buried with the elder José Arcadio

D) In Melquíades’s workshop

15. What does the malformed child of Aureliano Babilonia and Amaranta Úrsula symbolize?

A) Divine wrath

B) Beauty

C) Incest

D) Time

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What are some ways in which Macondo’s connection with the outside world brings harm?

2. What happens to the child of Aureliano Babilonia and Amaranta Úrsula? How does the fate of this child reflect the larger context of relationships and childbirth in the novel?