One Hundred Years Of Solitude Essays (1610 words) - Thousand Cranes

One Hundred Years of Solitude Since the beginning of time, man has clung to the notion that there exists some external force that determines his destiny. In Grecian times, the epic poet Hesoid wrote of a triumvirate of mythological Fates that supposedly gave "to men at birth evil and good to have". In other words, these three granted man his destiny. Clotho "spun the thread of life", Lacheis distributed the lots, and Atropos with his "abhorred shears" would "cut the thread at death"(Hamilton-43). All efforts to avoid the Fates were in vain. In every case their sentence would eventually be delivered. And it appears that once the Fates' ballot had been cast, the characters in Greek myths had no chance for redemption. One must wonder if man, like the Greeks portrayed, has any real choice in determining how he lives. That issue of choice arises when comparing Gabriel Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Yasunari Kawabata's Thousand Cranes. The men in Yasunari Kawabata's Thousand Cranes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude forever seem to be repeating the lives of their male ancestors. These cycles reveal that man as a being, just like the mythological heros, has no true choice in the ultimate course his life will take. The male characters' personal development is overshadowed by the identity of their ancestors. Clotho, it appears, has recycled some of her spinning thread. The new male generations, superficially, are perceived to be woven of like design. Kikuji Mitani and the male Buendia's face communities that remember their ancestors. As a result, their unique communities inadvertently compare the actions of the sons to their respective fathers', having recognized the apparent similarities. Eclipsed by his father's aura, within his village, Kikuji's identity has no separate definition. To most townsfolk, like those at Chikako's tea ceremony, Kikuji exists as "Old Mr. Mitani's son"(16). He and his father are therefore viewed as essentially the same person. Kikuji can take no action to change the village's preformed perception. In contrast, The Aurelianos and Jose Arcadios have been set into a self that their name, not their upbringing, dictate. Ursula, after many years drew some conclusions about "the insistent repetition of names"(106) within the Buendia family. While the eldest Jose Arcadio Buendia was slightly crazy, his raw maleness is transferred to all the Jose Arcadio's that follow. They tended to be "impulsive and enterprising" though "marked with a tragic sign"(186). On the other hand, the Aurelianos, corresponding to the open-eyed Colonel, seem to be "indifferent"(15) and "withdrawn"(186) yet sparked with a "fearless curiosity"(15). The Aurelianos' tendency towards solitude that shut the Colonel away in his later years, would generations later, give his distant descendant Aureliano Babilonia the stamina to decipher Melquiades scriptures(422). Together, this perfunctory family tradition seemed to influence the course these men's live's would take in the same way that Kikuji's perception by his community lopped him into the path of his father. And just as Kikuji could not change the villages preformed opinions, the named Buendia males can have no hand in changing their given characters. The men's selection of lovers, in turn, continues to perpetuate their cycle of behavior shared with their relatives. Despite warnings, Kikuji Mitani and the Buendia men engage in hazardous sexual activity that harbors grave consequences. Lacheis' lots, in this case, are inevitable. Choice and independent action are impossible for these men since Lacheis has distributed the familial key to their female attractions. There is an eerie twist in Kikuji's Mitani's love affairs with his father's mistress and her daughter. His first encounter with Mrs. Ota leaves Kikuji suspicious of the affair where agewise, "Mrs. Ota was at least forty-five , some twenty years older than Kikuji"(28). However, despite the generation gap, during their encounter Kikuji had felt that he "had a woman younger than he in his arms"(28). Mrs. Ota had substituted Kikuji as his father, thus forcing Kikuji to follow in his fathers footsteps. Kikuji is not oblivious to the strange path his love life seems to be taking, yet he does nothing to resist. Instead, a defiant Kikuji asserting that he had not been seduced determines, it was something else that had drawn him to her. The "something else" was