One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabo Marquez

It's noted that Garcia Marquez's grandmother was the inspiration of this book, 100 Years, and it shows that the world Marquez saw through his own and sometimes his grandmother's eyes was one of violence, corruption, passion, greed and sorrow. This world or place is one that seemed to have a unending cycle that started with their version of Adam and Eve(Ursula and Jose Arcadia Buendia).

Marquez uses magical realism to describe his world and in part to entertain, but in part to show a sense of his belief that if we get caught in a cycle of violence, corruption, etc that we tend to lose our selves and follow a path that we can not find ourselves out of. A labyrinth is a journey that one takes to find thy self. As I read 100, I see starting with Jose Arcadia Buendia, that he chose a path that started this trend to disaster. Ursula, his wife, warned him about the prospects of children in their marriage and he refuse to believe what would happen. Thinking that she meant their kids would become mutant-like was not the real problem, but how they would grow up and affect their world around them was. Each member of the Buendia family had choices that came with consequences that mostly ended up ruining the family.

Like regular life itself, this book touches on the real problems facing our world (violence, poverty, greed, war, family values, etc) and maybe Marquez was critiquing what he saw in a very unusual way. Going back to the labyrinth example, we all have a journey that we have to go on to find ourselves. Take for example, A Wild Sheep Chase, by Murakami, we read how Boku went on his own spiritual journey and how his own isolation of his feelings cost him a lot if not everything. In One Hundred Years , a spiritual journey critique on life and the aspects on how it can affect certain people is why I see this book being very important to read. I'm learning more and trying to relate it to my own journey in life. I think this book is very thought provoking in how our society is and what we might need to do to change things. I do not think this is a "solitude" experience or problem. As for this labyrinth, the choices made or not made are not mysterious to figure out. Once you find yourself, you can go back out again. The simple part is the choice to go in or not. The hard part is to figure out who you are and why you are. That can help guide you out. I'm looking forward to finishing this book very much.

OMT, I think the Castro connection is not that important or at least not in a negative way. I believe that American propaganda has put some of us in the boat that socialism and Castro is evil. I do not see it being that simple. I'm glad that you steered away from that in class. Its like the current political news, oh Obama is a socialist, that means he is evil! Wow. Sorry, I got off the subject there.