The focal point of the paper is to explain how “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Marquez can be regarded as a biblical allegory and what this reveals about Marquez’s views on religion. For this, the first measure would be to understand the biblical allegory presented in the text and then analyze the religious essence of the author.
One Hundred Years of Solitude presents a scenario where the major characters represent the significant characters of the Bible, and thus the novel itself becomes an allegory of the Bible. The novel reveals the Mocando creation description, where the creation story of the Bible is used as alignment. Then the story of Eden of the Bible and its innocence can be found in the innocent days of Edenic early stages.
The innocence is ramified with the existence of a cleansing flood and the apocalyptic end thereafter, much like the Bible. José Arcadio Buendía and his wife Ursula Iguarán in the novel clearly represent Adam and Eve of the Bible, and here too, we find the man falling from grace due to a sanity crisis. Even here, the character was looking for knowledge, much like the fruit-eating from the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible.
Much like Bible, this novel is also an account of human nature that is developed from the stories of human history presented in the package of metaphors. There is a huge amount of pathos in the novel, but if looked closely, we would find the inroads to happiness as in the case of Buendías narrations. This again is completely aligned with the teachings of the Bible that shows the path of endless happiness through similar pathos.
It is clear from the novel that the author Gabriel García Marquez has little faith in traditional and ritual-based or organization-related religion as the church teaches. His beliefs are based on the fundamental goodness and path to happiness as depicted in the Bible. This becomes obvious from the portrayal of Padre Nicanor through his hypocrisy and his intention to trick the villagers of Macodo and build his church. The text shows complete evidence of this as we find the Padre is performing tricks and referring to them as “undeniable proof of the infinite power of God.” (Marquez, 85).
Similarly, we find Padre Antonio Isabel is busy with cockfighting, and this is a symbolic feature of José Arcadio Buendía and his vices that has been formulated in the civilized world and organized religious sects far from the simplicity of the religion of Jesus Christ or Bible. This account turns into satire when we find him teaching José Arcadio Segundo “the catechism as he shaved the necks of his roosters” (Marquez, 191). It was also found the celibacy of the church was overcome by the act of “business with female donkeys” (Marquez, 191). Later, José Arcadio Buendía was found to become a rationalist and tried to counter the religious tricks with “rationalist tricks” (Marquez, 86).
Thus, it is evident that Marquez is a person who denies the authority of the church as a religious institution but is more aligned towards the inner truth of religion that is the measurement of finding the path towards happiness. This is a person whose essence of religion is not limited to doctrines but is a believer of truth and happiness, and the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” proves his belief fully.
Works Cited
Marquez, Gabriel García; “One Hundred Years of Solitude”; Christchurch: Allied Publications; 2007.