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Vital Space In The House Of Buendía, Nina M. Scott

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

In terms of both narrative and thematic organization, Gabriel Garcia Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude deals with tightly-closed structures. Whereas from the beginning Macondo has been interpreted in a variety of ways, critics have paid less attention to the meaning of the Buendía house itself. A close reading of the text shows that the way in which certain characters interact with the physical spaces of the house is highly symbolic and closely related to the thematic development of the entire novel. The rise and fall of the Buendía dynasty is presided over by three women, who function as the …