As one of the most famous and outstanding writers in Latin America, Marquez's works are sought after by readers all over the world. Not long ago, Marquez died, once again pushing his works to the center of people's vision. This semester, our course "Western Modernist Literature" involves his work "One Hundred Years of Solitude". I read this novel carefully after class and felt very shocked. Now, I will take the opportunity of my final paper to briefly talk about some of these problems.
Marquez was born in Colombia. Although he had to leave his motherland because of political oppression, he never stopped paying attention to Latin America and actively participated in political and literary activities in Cuba, Mexico, Chile and other countries. Through reading One Hundred Years of Solitude and some short stories of Marquez, I noticed that nostalgia and vicissitudes in a specific historical background are very distinctive features in his works.
The opening sentence of One Hundred Years of Solitude, "Many years later, facing the firing squad, Colonel aurelio Buendia will recall ..." is a classic that many readers are familiar with, and even many writers have applied or adapted this sentence in their own works, such as Yu Hua's Brothers. See note 1. This magical sentence pattern has the function of connecting the preceding with the following. It has appeared several times in One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I don't think the narrative order of the whole book has been greatly affected. It is still telling the history of the rise and fall of a family in a linear time sequence, so Latin American history also appears in the background of the story in a linear order.