In this essay I will analyze the use of hyperboles by Márquez in his novel One hundred years of solitude in order to interpret what the author conveys about history of his home country Colombia. I will focus on exaggerations in representation of politics, technology, science and art in the key setting of the novel, Macondo, that represents Colombia. I will argue that by means of hyperboles Márquez communicates the distress about purposeless fights for power or wealth and generally out of pride. I will mobilize Marxist approach to argue that according to the novel internal struggles make communities vulnerable to degrading influences of capitalism. Furthermore, I will use post-colonialist approach to show that Márquez by means of exaggeration depicts Western technology as a medium that introduces capitalism into Macondo. The writer also criticizes science for the sake of acquiring knowledge and art for the sake of art rather than for doing common good.
To begin with, the exaggerated description of the rivalry between Conservatists and Liberalists emphasizes absurdity of this civil war that makes society susceptible to later exploitation by banana company. For example, Márquez writes that “Colonel Aureliano Buendía fought thirty-two civil wars and lost them all” (Márquez 197). The hyperbolized nature of this statement is apparent: there was only one armed conflict between Conservatives and Liberalists that received the name The War of Thousand Days and lasted from 1899 until 1903 (Britannica). The exaggeration evokes a feeling of bitter irony about the fact that someone could be so persistent in a mission doomed for failure. Moreover, the hesitation that one of Colonel’s political advisors speaks out: “for almost twenty years we’ve been fighting against the sentiments of the nation” (Márquez 86) additionally reinforces the illogicality of internal struggle. Another hyperbolized account that depicts absurdity of civil war is the fact that Colonel Aureliano Buendía survives a “dose of nux vomica strong enough to kill a horse” (70). Colonel epitomizes Liberalism because Colombian Liberal Party “represented coffee plantation owners” (Britannica) and Aureliano Buendía likes coffee without sugar and drinks a lot of it: “his mugs of coffee at five in the morning” (Márquez 107). The exaggeration of his survivability shows the insoluble nature of the conflict. Neither Conservative, nor Liberalist ideology concedes the arena of popular minds, and thus their rivalry is irrational because no side can ever win. This idea is also conveyed through the fact that weapons of unknown origin bring down both Liberalists and Conservatives throughout the novel. For example, murderers of Colonel’s sons are never found: “someone in the crowd who was never identified fired a revolver shot” (119). Captain Aquiles Ricardo, a Conservative, “was brought down by two simultaneous bullets whose origin was never established” (79). According to my interpretation, these bullets symbolize futility of ideological struggle since people are deprived of agency and a mysterious force assigns victories.
The hyperboles deployed to convey the purposelessness of social divisions lead to the climax of the novel, which is the exaggerated account of destruction brought by the arrival of banana company. It extracts resources from Macondo and leaves it in ruins. While discussing the way in which Márquez depicts the introduction of capitalism into Macondo, I will include historic accounts of events that served as basis. Banana company that arrives in Macondo is drawn from United Fruit Company, an American corporation. In One hundred years of solitude it becomes an epitome of destructive imperialist capitalism. I will prove it by drawing attention to the following details about the company. It uses dishonest methods to maximize its profits: “the scrip system was a way for the company to finance its fruit ships” (147). Also, the workers are exploited and left powerless: “terrible working conditions” (147). Márquez depicts capitalists as hyperbolically inhumane:
because the child accidentally bumped into a corporal of police and spilled the drink on his uniform, the barbarian cut him to pieces with his machete
(118)
Furthermore, when the citizens of Macondo protest against exploitation, the United Fruit Company persuades the Conservative government to stop riots by force. The army gathers a large crowd of people with a pretext that authorities will arrive and offer compromise. Instead, the soldiers open fire and murder three thousand people. Then the bodies are loaded on the train and taken to the sea. The train has “almost two hundred freight cars and a locomotive at either end and a third one in the middle” (150). This exaggerated description emphasizes the horror of capitalist system. Another criticism of capitalism is ingrained into the hyperbole of a rain that lasted for four years. Márquez says that one of founders of banana company, Mr. Brown, “unleashed the storm” and that “it rained for four years, eleven months, and two days”. After that “Macondo was in ruins” (154). Mobilizing Marxist approach, I argue that this description alludes to the long-term negative consequences of exploitation. It is possible to assume that the metaphor of destruction refers to the economic collapse that happened in Colombia during the Great Depression when the prices of exports fell (Britannica). Márquez blames capitalism for the downfall because under this system of exploitation people were deprived from creativity and could not easily recover when exports of coffee and banana ceased.
Capitalism, together with destruction of native culture, are brought into Macondo by Western technology and its exaggerated description emphasizes its large-scale impacts on Macondo. For example, when the train first arrived, “the town was shaken by a whistle with a fearful echo and a loud, panting respiration” (111). This description by evoking anxiety foreshadows the decline of Macondo due to capitalist exploitation. Exaggerated nature of the account further reinforces the large-scale nature of capitalist impact. Also, Western technology is used to eliminate magic that has always been part of life in Macondo. For example, when José Arcadio died, there was a strong smell of powder coming from his corpse that could not be extinguished. Only the engineers from the banana company succeeded in liquidating the smell by covering “the grave over with a shell of concrete” (69). This victory of science over magic symbolizes the death of national believes in supernatural powers.
Hyperbolized description of scientific paths pursued by four philosophical figures in the novel – José Arcadio Buendía, Aureliano Segundo, José Arcadio Segundo, Aureliano Babilonia – emphasizes its uselessness since it cannot save Macondo from destruction. From post-colonial perspective enchantment with exotic knowledge, pursuit of omniscience through the pathways opened by globalization makes households unstable and unhappy. Similarly, Aureliano Buendía’s art fails to obtain social significance. I will start with considering the philosophers and then discuss the artist. Márquez writes about José Arcadio Buendía’s exaggerated passion for science:
That spirit of social initiative disappeared in a short time, pulled away by the fever of the magnets, the astronomical calculations, the dreams of transmutation, and the urge to discover the wonders of the world.
(12)
This description suggests that prioritization of entirely intangible dreams over social obligations impedes the development of Macondo. Eventually José Arcadio Buendía loses his sanity after “he connected the mechanism of the clock to a mechanical ballerina”. Once again Márquez uses hyperbole to emphasize how ridiculous this pursuit of useless discoveries was:
That discovery excited him much more than any of his other harebrained undertakings. He stopped eating. He stopped sleeping.
(43)
Yet other examples are stories of José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Babilonia who spend most of their lives deciphering Melquíades’ parchments that are written in Sanskrit, “the private cipher of the Emperor Augustus and <…> a Lacedemonian military code” (200). When Aureliano Babilonia succeeds in understanding that the parchments describe the history of his family, Macondo gets destroyed by the strong wind. It is hard to believe that two men would devote their lives to learning foreign languages, however, this hyperbole emphasizes that “knowledge in itself is useless without action” (Deaver 10). Now I will discuss the artist. Aureliano Buendía writes poetry during the civil wars only to burn the whole trunk filled with it in a fire. He says: ““They’re things that a person writes to himself”” (Márquez 89). Also, since youth, Colonel creates gold fishes. However, in the end of his life they start to be collected as relics, and he stops to manufacture new fishes. In my opinion, Aureliano Buendía’s failure to serve a higher social purpose with his art leads to his death as an artist.
To conclude, in my view, Márquez’ One hundred years of solitude by means of using hyperboles evokes bitter irony about the purposeless confrontation between Conservative and Liberal parties that made Macondo uncapable to resist exploitation by capitalists. Since it is an allegoric description of Colombian history, it also cautions against repeating the absurdity of civil war in the future. Exaggerations also evoke fear of inhumane behaviors, such as banana massacre, propelled by capitalism. The novel laments the fact that Colombia is becoming increasingly Westernized by adopting capitalism, technologies, sciences and does not follow its own path of development. Márquez criticizes atomization of society by ridiculing the acquisition of knowledge that cannot sustain lives and creation of art that does not serve any significant purpose.
Works-Cited
Clemente Garavito, William Paul McGreevey and Others. “Conservative-Liberal Struggle, 1840-80.”Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 13.03.2019 <https://www.britannica.com/place/Colombia/Conservative-Liberal-struggle-1840-80>.
Deaver, William O. “Cien años de soledad: The Critique of Sophism and Pseudo-Science.” Theory in Action 6.1 (2013): 8-28. CrossRef. Web.
Marques, Gabriel Garcia. One hundered years of solitude. A division of The Hearst Corporation 105 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10016: Avon Books, 1967. Print.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The War of a Thousand Days.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 13.03.2019 <https://www.britannica.com/event/The-War-of-a-Thousand-Days>