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Hayavadana By Girish Karnad | Hayavadana Themes & Analysis

Introduction

“Hayavadana” is a play by Indian writer Grish Karnad. It was first published in 1971. The play was originally written in Kannada and Karnad translated it into English himself. Karnad writes ‘Hayavadana’ inspired by Thomas Mann’s – The Transposed Heads and Thomas Mann was inspired by an 11th-century Sanskrit text ‘Kathasaritsagaro’. It is the story of two best friends ‘Devadatta and Kapila’ or their love Padmini. It is also the story of a man with the face of a horse, who is seeking to become human.

‘Hayavadana’ is based on the idea that humans are imperfect and thus have several limitations. The play also deals with women’s emancipation. It is divided into two parts.

Some Important Characters

Devadatta – One of the play’s two main protagonists. Son of Brahmin and he is a poet and political observer. He is a close friend of Kapila but end of the play feels jealous when he sees there is a mutual attraction between Kapila and Padmini

Kapila – One of the play’s two protagonists. Son of Ironsmith and a muscular and dark man. When Padmini chooses to remain with Devadatta’s head on Kapila’s body, Kapila goes into the forest and withdraws from society. He and Devadatta kill themselves in Solidarity by the end of the play.

Padmini – She is a beautiful young woman who is the object of desire of both Devadatta and Kapila. She chooses Devadatta because she is attracted by his intelligence. She is also very attracted to the physicality of Kapil.

Bhagavata – Narrator of the play.

Hayavandana – He is a man with the head of a horse born from a woman who married a horse and bore his son.

About Grish Karnad

Girish Karnad is an outstanding Indian English and Kannada Playwright. He is one of India’s brightest shining stars and earned international acclaim as a playwright, poet, actor, and translator. Karnad is the recipient of ‘The Sahitya Academy’, ‘Padmashri’, ‘Padmabhusan’, and ‘Janpith Award’. Among his best-known plays include – ‘Yayati, ‘Tughlaq’, ‘Naga-Mandala’, ‘Tale-Danda’, ‘The Dream of Tipu Sultan’, and many more.

About the Title Of Hayavadana

The title of the Hayavadana has a significant meaning, ‘Haya’ means horse, and ‘Vadana’ means head. The central character of the play is a man with the head of the horse. The title gives an idea of the story.

Theme of Incompleteness depicted in the play Hayavadana (Conflict between Body and Mind/ Theme of Identity Crises)

The play Hayavadana presents the theme of incompleteness. There is the conflict between body and mind portrayed. There are also tangled relationship that reveals the unclear nature of human personality. In this play, there are two intimate friends, Devadatta, the man of intellect and Kapila, the man of physique. Devadatta married Pamini but Kapila falls in love with Padmini. In a comical scene, Padmini changes their heads, giving Devadatta’s. Hence the result of confusion of identities.

At the beginning of the play, a mask of Ganesha is brought onto the stage and kept on a chair. Worship is done and Bhagavata signs verses in praise of Ganesha, accompanied by the musicians. So from the very beginning of the play, we find the use of the word ‘Incomplete ess. Ganesha is considered the destroyer of obstacles and the lord of perfection and success.

Bhagavata, the narrator finds in Lord Ganesha the picture of incompleteness because he has an elephant head and a human body. The theme of incompleteness is presented at three levels – Divine Level, Human Level, and Animal Level.

A scream of horror is heard off the stage by Bhagavata. An actor comes running in trembling with fear. He tells Bhagavata that he has seen a man with a horse head. It’s Hayavadana, a man with the head of a horse. ‘Haya’ means horse and Vodana means head. He is the son of the princess of Karnataka. She was a very beautiful girl who fell in love with a white horse. Hayavadana felt incomplete with this horse head and wanted to rid of it.

In the city of Dharmpura, there were two best friends called as the only son of revered Brahmin, Vidyasagar. He is attractive in appearance, fair in colour and unrivalled in intelligence. The other one is Kapila. He is the son of iron-smith, Lohita. He is dark and plain to look at and he has immense strength and Physical Skills. Bhagvata describes their friendship as Lava and Kusha, Ram and Lakshmana and Krishna and Balarama.

Bhagavata Calls them “One mind one heart”. Devadatta falls in love with Padmini, she is the beautiful daughter of a merchant in Dharmpur. Devadatta falls in love fifteen times and he fails to get married to any one of the girls. His 16th Love also seems to be a failure. He swore that he would sacrifice his two arms to the goddess Kali and head to Lord Rudra if Padmini became his wife.

Devadatta and Pamini get married Kapila frequently goes to Devadatta’s house. Padmini is attracted towards Kapila. One day threesome planned a trip to Ujjain. Padmini and Kapila go out to the temple of Rudra and Devadatta walks to the temple of Kali. He offers his head to the Goddess.

When Kapila and Padmini returned to the cart, Devadatta was not there. Kapila goes to the Kali temple and finds Devadatta dead. Now Kapila also cuts off his head, thinking people will say he has murdered Devadatta for Padmini. It is darker when Pamini reach the temple and She stumbles over the bodies.

Finding both of them dead, Padmini lifts the sword to sacrifice her too. But goddess Kali appears and interrupts her. Padmini falls at her feet and begs for their life. Goddess Kali grants her request. Eagerly, Padmini puts the head back. But in her excitement, she mixes them up so that Devadatta’s head goes to Kapila’s body and vice versa. After their exchange of bodies, they are excited and happy. But the problem ensues when Kapila’s head claims Padmini as his wife.

Kapila broken hearted goes to the forest. Now, when Devadatta has Kapila’s body, Padmini gets complete satisfaction. Padmini again starts craving for Kapila’s body. Padmini sends Devadatta to Ujjain fair to bring dolls for the boy. She herself goes out in the forest where Kapila lives. Padmini wanted to join Kapila but he refused.

Thus, in the play ‘Hayavadana’ Girish Karnad presented the theme of incompleteness at three levels – divine, animal, and human. Fundamentally human beings are incomplete and imperfect.

How different is Padmini’s Attraction to Kapila and Devadatta?

Pamini is responsible for the rivalry between Devadatta and Kapila. She marries Devadatta because she loves his mind. Even while she is pregnant with Devadatta’s child, she begins to long for Kapila’s muscular body. It is her split desire which causes Devadatta to kill himself followed quickly by Kapila.

Padmini changes the man’s head accidentally. She appears to get the best of both when Devadatta’s head is attached to Kapila’s body. As the men’s bodies slowly return to their farmer states, she begins to yearn again for a different life. When the two men kill each other at the end of the play, she laments that they have once again left her alone. She tells the Bhagavata to take care of her son and performs Sati, throwing herself on the funeral pyre.

Panini is the central female character in the play ‘Hayavadana’. She is unconventional. She is beautiful and is also a strong woman who is able to demand what she wants. When Devadatta, the intellectual who marries Pamini, describes her to his friend Kapila, he says that her face is like a white lotus. Her beauty is like the magic lake. Her arms are like the lotus creepers.

Kapila offers marriage on behalf of Devadatta to Padmini, and she immediately accepts. After marrying, she is unhappy with Devadatta, who is an intellectual. Kapila says to his friend Devdatta that Pamini is as fast as lightning and sharp. She is not for the likes of Devadatta what she needs is a man of steel. Panini is too sharp and demanding for her husband, and she yearns for the muscularity of Kapila. She says of Kapila that he has an unearthly shape. Such a broad back – like an ocean with strong muscles.

Padmini demands a husband who is not only smart but physically appealing and when the two men kill each other in a fight, she appeals to the goddess Kali to help her. It is then that Padmini carelessly reattaches Devadatta’s head to Kapila’s body. Thereby creating what she thinks will be the perfect husband. While events do no turn out the way she expected.

Padmini is unusual because she connects Kapila’s head to Devadatta’s body and does the same with Devadatta’s head by fixing it on Kapila’s body. She was doing this in an attempt to create the perfect man. It should be noted that Kapila and Devadatta were very close friends, they were also quite different, especially with regard to the argument that the head is superior to the body.

Kapila supports the idea, that the body is more superior to the head since he is a wrestler. Devadatta holds the opposite since he is a learned poet. Padmini and Kapila fall in Love and make the situation complex because Padmini is Devadatta’s wife. It is after the death of both Devadatta and Kapila that she changes their head and their bodies. The situation after exchange brings about confusion in the bodies and eventually, Kapila’s and Devadatta’s heads return to their initial personalities. Changes end up in failure for Padmini who attempts to create the perfect man, both physically fit and intellectually superior.

Conclusion

Thus the whole story of “Hayavadana” moves around Pamini’s dreams of perfection. Actually, it is a foolish idea of her for a perfect man in mind and body together. Padmini suffers behind the Patriarchy bars. So the play is ‘Rebellion’ against tradition and Patriarchy. It also shows human dissatisfaction with life and physical and sexual desire which blinds the eyes of truth.

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The Bluest Eye By Toni Morrison | The Bluest Eye Summary

Summary, English Literature, Literature, Novel

Introduction

“The Bluest Eye” is the debut novel of Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. It is a profound exploration of racism, beauty standards and the human condition. It was first published in 1970 and is considered one of Morrison’s seminal works. Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1940, the novel explores the devastating effects of racism on Young African—American girls. The novel is divided into different sections named after the seasons – Fall (Autumn), Winter, Spring and Summer.

The story revolves around the life of a young girl named Pecola Breed Love, who years for blue eyes and believes that having them will make having them will make her beautiful and loved.

About Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison, originally named Chole Anthony Wofford was an American writer noted for her examination of the black experience (Particularly the black Female experience ) within the black community. She received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993, She was the First African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize. She normally wrote about racial discrimination. She also received a Pulitzer ‘Beloved’. She has published approximately 11 novels, among which world-famous novels are ‘Song of Solomon’, ‘The Bluest Eye’, ‘Sula’, and ‘Beloved’.

Historical Context

The Bluest Eye is Penned down in the Era when the Civil Rights was at its peak. The basic themes and core issues of the Novel are the same as that of the Movement. Inside the Civil Rights Movement, another movement emerged stating that ‘Black is Beautiful’. The ‘Black is beautiful’ movement, is intended to wipe out the possibility that dark individuals, common traits, like the colour of the Skin, facial traits and Hair are inalienably appalling and ugly.

The Setting of the Novel

The Bluest Eye happened in Lorain, Ohio. It is a small town located on the bank of the Lake Erie. The novel starts in 1940 when the economy of Lorain depends on the industry.

Summary of the ‘The Bluest Eye’

The story of the novel starts with Nine-year-old ‘Claudia Mac Teer’, and her 10-year-old sister, ‘Frieda Mac Teer’ who lives in an old house in Lorain, Ohio. It is 1941, near the end of the Great Depression and their family struggles to make ends meet.

“Quiet as it’s kept, there were
no marigolds in the fall 1941.”

Although there is a tremendous sense of love in their home, their mother Mrs. Mac Teer is strict and punishes them often, but out of a sense of concern and love for her Children. Their father works hard to keep the family afloat. To help financially, the Mac Teer’s take in a boarder named Henry Washington. They later take in a young girl named Pecola Breedlove because her family’s house was down and ended up in jail Claudia and Frieda like Pecola, but feel sorry for her.

Pecola and Frieda love Shirley Temple because of her beauty, but Claudia hates Shirley Temple. She also hates the similarly blonde and blue-eyed baby dolls that she is supposed to adore. The only thing Claudia likes to do is destroy the dolls.

“Adults, Older girls, shops, magazines
newspapers, window signs all the
the world had agreed that a
blue-eyed, yellow-haired, Pink
Skinned dolls were what every
girl child treasured.”

Eventually, Pecola moves back into the apartment where her family lives and her life continues to be hard. Her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother is neglectful and self-righteous. Her parents fight on a regular basis, and these altercations lead to physical violence by running away but Pecola being a young black girl is unable to escape. She believes she is fated to live her sad life because she is ugly, she is not white and because she lacks blue eyes. Her friend and other boys make fun of her several times. She prays for blue eyes because they will make her beautiful.

Pauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother is partially lame and often feels isolated. She loves movies, but they make her believe in her ugliness and that only the beautiful deserve love. She cleans a white woman’s home and it makes her hate her own.

Pecola’s father, Cholly, was an abandoned Child raised by an Aunt who later died. During Cholly’s first sexual experience, two white men stumble upon the girl he has with and force him to continue sexual act as they watch. This humiliating incident leads Cholly to develop a hatred for women.

One day during the spring of 1941, Cholly returns home drunk and finds Pecola washing dishes. He rapes Pecoal and leaves her on the kitchen floor. Afterwards, Mrs Breedlove beats Pecoal when she learns of the rape. In an act of desperation, Pecola visits Soaphead Church, a local Charlatan who claims he can work miracles and asks for blue eyes. Soaphed Church tricks Pecola into poisoning a dog he has long wanted to kill, stating that if the dog acts funny it is a sign she will receive her wish.

When summer arrives, Claudia and Frieda begin selling marigold seeds. As they make their way around the neighbourhood, they learn that Pecola has been impregnated by her father. Unlike the rest of the community, the girls want the baby to live. They spend the money they have made buying it at Pecola’s house and Plant the remaining marigold seeds in their backyard. They believe that if the marigold seeds grow their prayers have been answered and the baby will live.

In the end, however, the seeds do not grow and Pecola babies die. Afterwards, Pecoal goes mad, and in her psychosis, believes she has received blue eyes.

Conclusion

Overall, Morrison’s novel ‘The Bluest Eye’ provides an essential insight into the issues of discrimination that are experienced by many African Americans. But despite many changes, modern society is still subjected to these damaging effects of beauty perception.

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Disgrace Summary, Themes, & Analysis By J. M. Coetzee

Literature, Novel, Summary

Introduction

“Disgrace” is a novel by J. M. Coetzee, which tells who a 52 years old man who loses his everything after encountering an affair with his student. This novel was first published in 1999 and won the Booker Prize. It has a total of 24 chapters. It is set in post-apartheid South Africa.

About J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee is a South African novelist, critic and translator noted for his novels about the effect of colonization. In 2003 he won a Nobel Prize for literature. His first published book was Dusklands and this was followed by several others including – In the Heart of the Country, Slow Man, Diary of a Bad Year and Summer Times.

Themes Of The Novel ‘Disgrace’

The first theme that can be focused in the novel is “Lust”. In the novel lust is described as not merely fulfilling desire, but other meaning implied there. Sex is used as a way to fill emptiness and loneliness. In this novel, the author portrays sex as a symbol of domination as in Lucy’s rape. In the case of David and Melanie’s relationship, he seduces Melanie. After some time, after this incident, she made harassment complaints against David in the college committee.

The next theme the author wants us to understand is suffering. Sufferings in Disgrace appear physically, mentally and emotionally.

Soraya is a part-time prostitute having sex with David every Thursday, due to her financial sufferings. We can find physical suffering Lucy’s farm, where the dongs were killed by the introders, David being hit and Lucy was raped by the three men. After Lucy’s rape, she was mentally disturbed which leads to Lucy a psychological wound. We can also see Melanic as a vulnerable personality. She is actually weak and easily hurt physically and emotionally after the relationship with David.

Love and Support are the next themes of the novel. After David loses his reputation in Cape Town for sleeping with Melanie, he goes to his daughter’s far to stay temporarily to have a peaceful life and to escape from the problem. David supports Lucy in the aftermath of her rape. Even though David is a womanizer his love for his daughter is true and pure. But he could not protect her during her rape. David urges Lucy to report about terrible incident, to get justice. She decides not to report her rape in order to secure her privacy.

The Last theme is the society. David is a white man living among the Black society. The novel takes us to the setting of Post- Apartheid South Africa. Where Black people have just gotten their existence and acceptance upon their right to stand in the same position as the whites.

Summary And Analysis of ‘Disgrace’

The Novel starts with the protagonist David Lurie, a South African professor of English who loses everything. He is 52 years old, which means that he is losing his age and his good looks. Then he does something unacceptable, causing him to lose people’s respect and approval.

It is further told that he loses not only his job, but also his reputation, his dreams of artistic success, and even later the ability to protect his daughter. David has married twice and both of his marriages ended in divorce. He is given a daughter from his first marriage, named Lucy. David is a lecturer at a University in Capetown, South Africa. David does not enjoy his job as he is not fond of teaching. He just does it because it earns money.

David regularly meets with a prostitute, Soraya, but when he attempts to push their relationship into something romantic, Soraya denies him. David deals with this rejection by seducing one of the secretaries at his school, but after this success, he ignores her.

Still facing sexual urges, David turns his attention to one of the students in his Romantic poetry class, Melanie Issac, whom he seduces after using his access to university records to stalk her. Though Melanie eventually gives in to David’s relentless and inappropriate pursuit, his obsession is obviously unhealthy. He repeatedly follows her, spies on her, and pressures her into sexual intercourse. Malaine is hesitant during sexual encounters, and at one point, David uses alcohol and other actions to engage in an encounter that is not completely consensual.

After this rape, Melaine’s attendance in class beings to suffer. David becomes suspicious that the other students are aware of the affair. Melanie’s boyfriend confronts David and harasses him, and it implies that the boyfriend vandalizes David’s car. Melanie’s father, Mr. Issacs, confronts David, confirming David’s fears that the relationship is no longer a secret. David avoids Mr. Issacs in order to avoid the confrontation but Melanie soon files a sexual harassment suit against David.

Even this is not enough to spur David into reflecting upon his behaviour. The university gives David an opportunity to seek counselling, apologize, and save his job, but he does none of that. The committee hearings looking into the sexual harassment charge play out like a court case, and eventually, David resigns his position at the university.

David heads to the farm owned by his daughter, Lucy. His time there begins to have a positive effect on him as he settles into the routines of a farm life. He joins Lucy at the farmer’s market and helps tend to the dogs she boards on the property. His positive momentum is disrupted, however, as the political climate in the country changes. Three men attack the farm, rape Lucy, set David on fire and kill several of the dogs. The attackers steal David’s car and leave.

Lucy is deeply scarred, emotionally from the attack, and she becomes lethargic as a result. Though David encourages her to make a full report to the police, she refuses. She has become pregnant by the attackers. David suspects that one of the farm’s black workers was complicit in the attack, and when his suspicions are confirmed, Lucy again refuses to make appropriate reports. The worker is related to one of the attackers. Lucy, it seems, will be forced to marry into her attacker’s family, giving over her farm. David believes Lucy has resigned herself to this outcome.

David leaves the farm and returns to his house in Capetown. In his absence, someone has broken into the building. David tries to attend a theatre performance in which Melanie has a part but is harassed again by her boyfriend. David goes to apologize to Melanie’s father. While there, David encounters Mr. Issacs and Melanie’s younger sister. David is invited to stay for an awkward dinner. Mr. Issacs explained to David that any forgiveness he could offer David was irrelevant. David must find their redemption.

At the end of the novel, David returns to Lucy’s farm. He works with one of Lucy’s friends who operates an animal shelter. When animals are euthanized David’s job is to dispose of them.

Conclusion

Thus, the novel ‘Disgrace’ explores reactions in which humans fight for their rights. It was the post-apartheid era in South Africa when the novel was written. J. M. Coetzee focuses on the events of the characters ’ lives and their sufferings. This novel has cultural issues that can be applied in real life. These kinds of harassment happened not only in South Africa by Professor David Lurie, it happens in every day and in every part of the world. Many women are not ready to report this like Lucy in order to protect their privacy and not bring Disgrace to their families.

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The Life of Dr Johnson By James Boswell Biographical Literature

Literature, English Literature, Essay, Novel, Summary

Biography Of The Life Of Dr Johnson

“The Life of Dr. Johnson” by ‘James Buswell’ is a monumental work in biographical Literature. It was first published in London in 1791. Dr. Johnson also known as Samuel Johnson was an English poet, essayist and lexicographer who produced a pioneering and influential Dictionary of the English Language.

“The Life of Johnson is assuredly
a great, a very great work.
Homer is not more decidedly the
first of the heroic poets, Shakespeare
is not more decidedly the first
of dramatists,
Demosthenes is not more decidedly
the first of orators, than
Boswell is the first of biographers.”

James Buswell was a Scottish writer and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary, the English writer Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language.

On 16 May 1763, as a 22-year-old Scot visiting London, Boswell first met John’s son in the book shop of Johnson in the book shop of Johnson’s friend Tom Davies. They quickly became friends. From the age of 20, Baswell kept a series of Journals thoroughly detailing his day-to-day experience Johnson in commenting on Baswell’s excessive note-taking, playfully,

“One would think the man had
been hired to spy upon me.”

Johnson was born in 1709 in Lichfield, England, his parents belonged to the middle class. However, he also quickly begins to show signs of exceptional intelligence memorizing some of the contents of the Book of Common Prayer. He begins to write poems and translations when he is 16. Johnson enrolled at Oxford University in 1728, where he honed his skills in Greek and Latin and writing poetry. However, after their years at university, Johnson runs out of money and is forced to return home without a degree.

Back home in Lichfield, Johnson goes through a period of physical and mental anguish. He tries to become a school teacher but is rejected because he does not have a degree. With the help of his friend, Thomas Warren, a book published, Johnson began producing translated and annotated books. After Warren’s death, Johnson marries his widow, Elizabeth, who is 20 years senior from his.

In 1735, Johnson opened a school which failed soon after. One of Johnson’s students invited him to London and helped his secure work writing for The Gentleman’s Magazine. Johnson’s contribution to the magazine includes an allegoric poem London which earns him praise and comparison to England’s leading poet, Alexander Pope.

Around this time Johnson also finishes a play, the historical tragedy, Irene. Johnson’s reputation as a Brilliant writer grows by leaps and bounds. He also earns the reputation as an eccentric due to the tics that are probably symptoms of Tourette Syndrome and has periods of depression.

In 1746, some publishers pitched Johnson the idea of writing a complete dictionary of the English language. Johnson worked on the Dictionary for eight years with the help of a small secret rail staff, and it was finally published in 1755. In anticipation of the publication of Dictionary Oxford University awarded Johnson an Honorary degree. In addition, when George III acceded to the British throne, he awarded Johnson a pension for the rest of his life.

During this period Johnson also published the novel Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia and The Rambler, a collection of essays.

Boswell meets Johnson in 1763 and they form an instead friendship. Boswell sees Johnson whenever he is in London on business and the two men enjoy frequent conversation and meals together, often in the presence of the other member of the Literary Club which Johnson forms in 1764. In 1773, Johnson travels to Scotland to visit Boswell at home.

By the 1770s Johnson was showing signs of deteriorating health but continued to work, his later productions included an annotated edition of the works of Shakespeare and the ten-volume Live of the English Poets. In 1783, Johnson had a stroke and momentarily lost his ability to speak, although he is still able to write about his Melancholy and Fear of Death. Johnson died on December 13, 1784, and Boswell concludes the biography by expressing his view that Johnson’s works and reputation will endure.

Thus Boswell’s “Life Of Dr. Johnson” is the best biography of English Literature. Through this biography, Boswell not only praises Johnson but shows the entirety of his lie the good and the bad.

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One Hundred Years Of Solitude Summary, Analysis & Themes

Literature, Character Sketch, Indian aesthetics, Novel, Summary

Introduction

“One Hundred Years Of Solitude” is a 1967 novel by the famed Spanish author ‘Gabriel Garcia Marquez’. It is the story of the rise and fall of the Buendia family, which is mirrored by the development and destruction of their fictitious village, Macondo. Garcia Marquez’s unique narrative style in this work has made it one of the most significant novels of the 20^th century. The book has received universal recognition and has been translated into 37 languages. It was also cited among the works that earned Garcia Marquez the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

The book tells the story of seven generations of the Buendia family in a small, isolated village called Macondo. The Patriarch of the family, Jose Arcadia Buendia, founded the town after moving there with his new wife Ursula.

Characters SKetch

Jose Arcadio Buendia – He is the Patriarch of the Buendia Family and The Founder Of Macondo.

Ursula Lguaran – Ursula Lguaran is the Matriarch of the Buendia Family and is the wife and cousin of Jose Arcadio Buendia. She lives to be well over 100 years old and Oversees the Buendia household through six of the seven generations in the novel.

Jose Arcadio – Jose Arcadio is the firstborn child of Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula.

Colonel Aureliano Buendia – He is 2^nd child of Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula or the first person to be born in Macondo.

Amaranto – He is 3^rd child of Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula.

Remedios Moscote – Daughter of the town’s conservative administrator, Don Apolinar Moscote.

Rebeca – Rebeca is 2^nd cousin of Ursula Lguaran.

Pilar Ternera

3^rd Generation – Arcodia, Aureliano Jose, Santa Sofia, & 17 Aurelianos.

4^th Generation – Remedios the Beauty, Jose Arcadio Segundo, Aureliano Segundo, Fernanda Del Carpio & Pertra Cotes.

5^th Generation – Jose Arcadio, Renata Remedios, Amaranta Ursula, Mauricio Babilonia, & Gaston.

6^th Generation – Aureliano II

7^th Generation – Aureliano

About Author ‘Gabriel Garcia Marquez’

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a Colombian novelist, short story writer screenwriter and journalist. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20^th century, particularly in the Spanish language. He was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He is best known for his novels – One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Autumn of the Patriarch Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, called him.

“The Greatest Colombian who ever lived.”

Themes Of ‘One Hundred Years Of Solitude’

Solitude

The dominant theme of the novel, as evident from the title, is solitude. Each Character has his or her particular form of solitude. “If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself”, Ursula tells her husband. One form of solitude is that of madness – the first Jose Arcadio’s solitude is being tied to a tree, speaking in a foreign tongue, and lost in thought.

Love

In ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, Love’s various forms – lustful, familial love urges Jose Arcadio Buendia to discover a town to begin a new one. Sometimes familial love lifts its relatives to queenly and papal heights. Sometimes familial love veers into a devasting incestuous relationship.

Post and Present

Because characters are haunted by their pasts – decisions, history, ghosts, knowledge gained retrospectively – nostalgia Complicates their futures. Fernanda del Carpio’s upbringing affects her expectations, which estranges everyone in the Buendia house. Amaranta Ursula’s memory of home leads her back, where her life takes unexpected turns.

Setting

The setting of One Hundred Years of Solitude is the fictional town of Macondo, Columbia, which is much like Gabriel Garcia’s own hometown of Antarctica. The period is unclear at times, but it is roughly from the early-mid 19th century to the mid-20th century. Macondo is an isolated rural and surrounded by Jungle.

About The Title

‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ is so named because it describes the town of Macondo, which is relatively isolated from the rest of Colombia for most of its one hundred years history.

Summary & Analysis of ‘One Hundred Years Of Solitude’

“One Hundred Years Of Solitude” is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family in the town of Macondo. ‘Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ gives every member of the Buendia family one of the following names: Men- Jose, Arcadio, Aureliana & Women – Ursula, Amaranta and Remedios. In an effort to make the novel less confusing, Marquez has included a family tree at the beginning of the novel.

It is both the history of Macondo, a small town in an unnamed region of South America, and the town’s founders, the Buendia family. The family patriarch Jose Arcadia Buendia, founded the town with his wife, Ursula Iguaran. Because Jose Arcadio and Ursula were Cousins and they have a fear of bearing children with pig’s tails, this fear will linger over the novel.

Jose Arcadio Buendia is an intrepid, curious man with a flair for exploration and the sciences. He delves into one scientific quest after another and eventually loses his sense, forcing the town to tie him to a tree. Both his strengths and weaknesses are exhibited in the Buendia men throughout the novel, starting with his sons Jose Acardio and Aureliano. Jose Arcadio inherits his father’s massive strength and impulsiveness; Aureliano inherits his strong ethical sense and his solitary intensity.

“Children inherit their parent’s madness”.

Both these men go to their extremes: Jose Arcadio becomes the ultimate macho and dies mysteriously after usurping lands; Aureliano (known in the novel as Colonel Aureliano Buendia) becomes one of the greatest most notorious rebels in the country during an extended period of civil war. Macondo, once an innocent paradise becomes acquainted with the outside world during the period of evil war. It is during this period death and bloodshed first come to Macondo’s door; the town remains linked to the outside world because of the fame of Colonel Aurelian Buendia.

In contrast to her husband, Ursula Lguaran is fiercely practical and possessed of much common sense. She is energetic tenacious (She lives so long that she loses track of her age) and spends her life looking after the family line. Unfortunately, none of the female Buendia’s match her fortitude. Amaranta, her daughter, is tenacious only in personal bitterness while her great-great-granddaughters are. Renata Remedios and Amoranta Ursula are possessed of her energy but not of her common sense. The failure of the next generations to be possessed of their ancestors’ strength of Character causes the family to falter as history and modernity storm Macondo.

After the civil war, foreign imperialism comes in with devastating effects. White capitalists come to Macondo and seem to usurp God’s powers with their ability to change the seasons and the water flow. They set up a banana plantation that exploits the residents of Macondo, when the workers organize and strike, they all organize and strike, they are all systematically killed in a government-sponsored massacre. One of the Buendia’s Jose Arcadio Segunda, was a major Organizer and could not face the world after this event.

For Macondo, too the banana massacre brings major change. Rains begin the night of the massacre and do not stop for almost five years, washing away the banana plantation and leaving Macondo in a state of desperation. The impoverished town loses its importance and its modernity, from then on, the town exists in a state of regression.

For the Buendia also the rains signal the quickening speed of their downward spiral. The older members of the family are lost in debauchery and solitary isolation. As the town is abandoned, the lost members of the family succumb to incestuous desire and birth a child with a pig’s tail. At the end of the novel, it is revealed that the history of the Buendias has been ordained since the beginning and that they will never have a second chance.

Conclusion

Thus, throughout the novel ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ author Gabriel Garcia Marquez explores the Buendia family’s story, spanning multiple generations. It also explores the cyclical nature of time and the inescapable repetition of history through the story of the Buendia family. Magical realism is used to blur the boundaries between reality and fantasy in the novel.

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