"The past is never dead. It's not even the past."
Faulkner was one of Marquez's influences as a writer and I believe this quote from his Requiem for a Nun can be related to One Hundred Years of Solitude. The work was written in 1950, and the quote above is one of the best known. The idea that the past is never dead appears many times in One Hundred Years of Solitude, as the patriarch, Jose, is constantly haunted by the ghost of Prudencio. This ghost is even the reason that he decides to pack up and move from his town, planning to find another or make his own. The ghost of Prudencio appears in many parts of the novel, and becomes one of the only companions that Jose I (patriarch) acknowledges while tied to the tree. Another character, Melquiades, comes back to life from death. He can be seen shambling around the family's house and generally just hanging around. These instances prove that, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, the past and present often mix together and people who have died still seem to influence the the living characters. Since One Hundred Years of Solitude was written in 1967, it is possible that this quote and Requiem for a Nun expressed some of Faulkner's ideas to Marquez and are present in his work.
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2 comments:
I think the quote also speaks to the cyclical nature of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The past is never dead, nor is it truly the past, because it keeps repeating itself throughout the book! Although all of the characters having the same name was confusing, it was for an interesting point. Characters with the same names tended to act the same way and have the same fate.
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