As I was reading "100 Years Of Solitude", one thing in particular that stuck out to me were the obvious cycles that were fundamental in the progression of Macondo. I noticed a pattern where a dictator would be overthrown by a new, humanitarian revolution, only for the modern ideologies to become corrupted and a new movement was needed. For example, Colonel Aureliano genuinely believed he was doing good; in the early stages of the novel, he liberated the town and became a symbol of revolution. However, as more time passed, he became corrupted and lost his moral compass. This is confirmed when General Moncada, moments before he is to be killed, points out the fact that Aureliano had become subservient to the revolution and as a result had failed to consider the consequences of his actions.
This reminded me of a play I read over summer, "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. At one point, two of the characters (Beneatha and Asagai) get in an argument regarding the nature of progress. Asagai makes a resounding point when Beneatha confronts him about his belief that he can cause change in impoverished Africa. An excerpt reads, "Perhaps the things I believe now for my country will be wrong and outmoded, and I will not understand and do terrible things to have things my way or merely to keep my power. Don't you see that there will be young men and women... to step out of the shadows some evening and slit my then useless throat? Don't you see they have always been there... that they always will be. And that such a thing as my own death will be an advance? They who might kill me even... actually replenish all that I was."
This quote stuck with me to the extent of remembering it while reading of Macondo and the way in which the most recent form of progress always attempted to prevail. Asagai accepts the concept of dying in the name of revolution and is eloquent in describing some of the themes that play out in "100 Years of Solitude". I think keeping this account of participating in progress is thought provoking as we review the events that took place within the novel.
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Alana, I agree with your assessment that the cycles in the novel portray both rises and falls for many of the characters (including Colonel Aureliano) and Macondo itself. Colonel Aureliano's character rises in morality, strength, and influence at the height of his leadership of the Liberals in the civil war, but he eventually fades into obscurity. Likewise, his own father, Jose Arcadio Buendia, is the beloved founder of Macondo at the beginning of the novel. He creates a new town from nothing. He fathers a line of Buendias that will be instrumental in the town's development for the next one hundred years. However, he doesn't remain the leader forever. Over time, he develops an obsession with alchemy and technology, abandons his family life, trades away his wife's belongings, and eventually descends into madness. His former followers see him live out the end of his days tied to a tree.
Our discussion of cycles in the novel reminded me of William Butler Yeats's "gyres," which we learned about in Mrs. Klebba's AP English last year. Yeats's theory of human history revolved around the idea of 2000-year cycles of time that would reach a height at the 1000-year mark and then descend into chaos by the end of the 2000-year gyre. Yeats believed that the most recent gyre began with the birth of Christ, continued in an upward trend to reach an apex at the Byzantium Empire, and fell into madness with the two World Wars in the 1900s.
In my opinion, the entirety of the novel could be viewed as a gyre, with many smaller cycles in the middle. Yeats's gyre begins with the birth of an important figure and the founding of a new religion that would impact the entire world. Likewise, the novel starts with the founding of a new town and a new family lineage that would have great significance in Macondo and Colombia. For a time, the gyre heads upward; Macondo grows peacefully for some of the novel. However, what goes up must come down. As Macondo is influenced more and more by the outside world, it begins to deteriorate; the civil war brings political strife, and the banana company leads to a massacre of striking workers. Furthermore, over time, the Buendia family disintegrates--many family members (including the 17 Aurelianos) are killed off, the second-to-last generation unknowingly commits incest, and the last member of the Buendia line is eaten by ants as the town of Macondo fades away.
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