Jose Arcadio Buendia in one Hundred Years of Solitude

Jose Arcadio Buendia in One hundred Years of Solitude:

Ashwin Anil Utturkar

Word Count: 1343

Jose Arcadio Buendia is an unusual character with bizarre and crazy methods of understanding the natural world. It is through Garcia Marquez’s free reign to imagination that results in this remarkably inventive fictional character who exhibits extremely exaggerated personality traits. Jose Arcadio is an introspective, inquisitive man of massive strength and energy who spends more time on his scientific pursuits than with his family. He flirts with alchemy and astronomy and becomes increasingly withdrawn from his family and community. Marquez uses carefully chosen diction, imagery and biblical references to portray this wonderfully unique character to the reader.

The first chapter clearly illustrates Jose Arcadio Buendia’s enthusiasm for new ideas and technologies which is shown through his dealings with magnets, the magnifying glass, the telescope, and the sextant. He is a visionary, whose ‘unbridled imagination always went beyond the genius of nature and even beyond miracles and magic..’, but is out of touch with the real world, “having completely abandoned his domestic obligations”. He is constantly wrapped up in his own imagination and “he conceived a notion of space that allowed him to navigate across known seas, to visit inhabited territories, and to establish relations with splendid beings without having to leave his study”, which was his form of solitude. As readers, we slowly see him being neglected by the rest of society as he seems to delve deeper into delusion. He becomes too preoccupied with the exploration of the world, rather than dealing with the problems his family are faced with. Jose Arcadio’s efforts lead to the climax of his great piece of deductive reasoning, “the world is round like an orange”. The practical minded Ursula shows little patience with his scientific speculation. At this point she totally loses her patience and informs him that if he goes crazy he would have to do it alone. This shows that Ursula, unlike Jose Arcadio Buendia, is only concerned with the immediate future of the family and not with grand schemes.

Through the friendship of Melquiades, Jose Arcadio Buendia becomes exposed and even more enthralled with the nature of the world. Jose Arcadio’s grand schemes of solar warfare with the magnifying glass and his first forays into alchemy; wherein he turns Ursula’s precious inheritance into ‘a large piece of burnt hog cracklings’, is soon replaced with interest into another one of Melquiades’ items- false teeth, discovered by the Naciancenes, which is the final proof of the gypsy’s supernatural power. Jose Arcadio Buendia believed that Melquiades’ knowledge had reached unbearable extremes and his interest soon makes him aware of the backward state of Macondo-“Incredible things are happening in the world…while we keep living as donkeys.”

Jose Arcadio Buendia’s obsession with progress affects the whole village. “A kind of youthful patriarch”, he leads the people, giving instructions for planting and advice for raising the children. It is here that Macondo is like a perfect society and is reflected by the descriptions of the house, ‘well lighted’, ‘gaily coloured’, ‘gigantic chestnut tree’, ‘well kept garden’ and ‘peaceful communion’. It is through this description that reader’s can associate Macondo with the Garden of Eden from biblical times. However, Jose Arcadio Buendia’s obsession with "knowledge" and "progress," are the very same desires that caused Adam and Eve to be expelled from Eden. Jose Arcadio Buendia believes that Macondo must establish outside contact and he leads an expedition in an attempt to ‘open a way that would put Macondo in contact with great inventions’. From a reader’s point of view we feel great respect for Jose Arcadio’s heroism and determination due to the epic nature of the enterprise, but we do feel he has become irrational.

In chapter 2 the reader is introduced to the founding of Macondo. It is here that we are exposed to the more physical side of Jose Arcadio Buendia. It is here that he gives Ursula a complete demonstration of his machismo, which results in the birth of their first son. He kills Prudencio Aguilar in order to defend his pride. However, this death haunts him and Ursula and they are forced to flea. With a band of men, they establish the town, Macondo. Again, Marquez makes another biblical reference, this time to the story of Moses and the Jews searching for the Promised Land. Here, Jose Arcadio is compared to Moses- both Jose Arcadio and Moses is leaders of men and founders of society. It is in this chapter that the reader feels even more respect