One Hundred Years of Solitude and A Series of Unfortunate Events

We learned that the voice of Gabriel García Márquez’s grandmother heavily influenced his writing style. He chose to talk about magical events as if they were normal. This reminds me of A Series of Unfortunate Events, particularly the tv series. Violet’s inventions, which border on magic, are accepted as nothing out of the ordinary. The baby sister communicates in noises and can chew just about anything, even rocks. The narrator speaks with a monotone voice and an emotionless face. He’s very matter-of-fact, even when talking about horrible or unrealistic events. Also, the story is told in such a way that doom is inevitable. The end is already solidified, and there’s no chance for the children’s happiness. The reader is warned many times to not keep reading/watching. This reminds me of the ending prophecy in One Hundred Years of Solitude; the end of the whole family was written and set in place the entire time. There’s also a bigger force at work in the series; there’s a secret society that had had a hand in many of the events that take place. This too relates to the idea of inescapable fate. A Series of Unfortunate Events is also cyclical; the children are forced to move from one house to the next as Count Olaf follows them and repeatedly tricks their oblivious caretakers. This is like the Buendia family’s cycle of members coming and going, being born and dying. Lastly, like the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude, the children in A Series of Unfortunate Events are desperately trying to escape. Their parents died and they spend their lives thereafter trying to find peace and escape Count Olaf, who, much like Jose is obsessed with knowledge, is obsessed with gaining their fortune. The Buendia family is trying to escape their past and fate as well.