To understand the order of the novel, we can go back to Chapter 1, as we can see how the first chapters were presented as Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s memories. The story is developed in chronological order by narrating the rise and fall of each generation of the Buendía family. The novel is structured in non-numerated chapters using analepsis and prolepsis to narrate the story, Gabriel García Márquez narrative style is focused on telling what is happening without making questions about the magical aspects in a realistic environment.
The cyclical structure of One Hundred Years of Solitude goes around the Buendía family over and over again, Márquez made a clever move by creating different characters with the same name, as we can see how the story repeats itself, as members of the family usually have a tragic downfall like Arcadio and Colonel Aureliano Buendía during the war between conservatives and liberals, the example is more obvious on the previous chapters since the 17 Aurelianos were executed by the conservatives, and also the 32 campaigns of Colonel Aureliano, losing every single one of them.
Rather than a hero, we can assume the whole Buendía family are the main characters, Márquez made sure he gave a bigger role to the current generation of each chapter without letting the reader forget what happened in the past. Fantasy and Reality are mixed in a single world, the best example is the blood trail Úrsula followed to find the body of José Arcadio. The flower rain over Macondo is another case where magical realism is used during José Arcadio Buendía’s funeral on chapter 7.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía is corrupted by the war, instead of fighting for what he felt it was right back then, he gets rid of his morality and stays fighting to satisfy his pride, Aureliano José has an urge of repeating incest in the family by being attracted to his aunt, Amaranta. Rebeca decides to spend the rest of her life in solitude, this is also the Colonel’s destiny, as he lost support from the Liberals. On the other hand, José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo are born, resetting the cycle Gabriel García Márquez has been aiming since the beginning of the story. This reflects on the title of the book as well, relating to the story and the destiny of the Buendía family and the town of Macondo of being left in solitude, forgotten.
We can conclude through the analysis of the last 3 chapters how Gabriel García Márquez expressed his disagreement with wars, turning Colonel Aurelio into a man without vision, just following his impulses and urges, fighting multiple battles without no other objective than fulfilling his pride. Even by having a chronological order during the timeline of the novel, we can understand how the story is repeating itself on the new generation of the Buendía family, condemning its members to spend their lives in solitude, Macondo has been suffering the risk of being forgotten thanks to the war between Liberals and Conservatives and the disruption of the order by José Arcadio.
