One Hundred Years of Solitude - Ch1

So far, I have enjoyed reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of the things I find most interesting is the mixing of science and religion. For the most part, these two forces have always been placed in juxtaposition. But in the world of Macondo, the references I saw that seemed to relate to the book of Genesis in the Bible in the first chapter of One Hundred Years of Solitude were being introduced to scientific inventions and ideas by Melquiades. As we discussed in class, the description of Macondo when it is first founded (9) appears to be a utopian community similar to Eden. In a similar light, the townspeople of Maconodo let their curiosity overpower their fear (7), as Adam and Eve do with the forbidden fruit, with the gypsies. Again, Jose Arcadio Buendia is "seduced by the simplicity of the formulas to double gold" (7), causing Buendia to turn away from his family and his community, as the devil seduces Eve to take the fruit from the tree. Science and religion oppose each other, as the introduction of these inventions cause disruption within the utopian Macondo. Yet, as the townspeople become more exposed to these new objects, science becomes part of the culture - and thus, science and religion are able to blend.

Beyond the mythical world of Macondo, I was curious to see what the role of religion played in Latin America during the time in which this book was written. According to the book I found, Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: Religion and Democracy in South America, I came to discover that theologians began to incorporate Marxists insights along with existential analysis into Catholicism. Thus, science and religion were beginning to meld in a similar fashion to Macondo. Science in South America (around the 1960s), becomes incorporated with Catholicism like the alchemist's set and inventions that become intertwined with the Eden-esque community of Macondo. This new discovery helped me see the book in a new way - not just a literature but also as a symbolic representation of what was going on in South America.