Garcia Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie’s are challenging books that stray away from the norms within society through a deep-rooted connection with magical realism. Magical realism brings both stories to life enticing the reader to conceptualize and see beyond the normalities through a realm of different possibilities. Whether it is through the realm steering away from the ordinary and common or through the constant comparison providing personifications to the unreal or tangible the mystical elements are accepted and heavily used to bring the story to life making them like no other story or fable. The writing is evoked in a way that not only touches the mind and spirit but perceives sight, touch, smell, and taste allowing the dimension magical realism–also allowing the readers to be more in tune with the stories through synesthesia. Time periods within the novel are eras of sovereignty those amongst the society obligated to adhere to the rulers or governing bodies ultimate power and form of government. Challenging the ultimate power and means of life both “100 Years of Solitude” and “Midnight's Children” are fragments of golden glitter within the timeless universe of literature and the arts.
Salman Rushdie in Midnight’s Children takes the reader back into a postcolonial era where India is acquiring its independence. India is in a constant battle within the twentieth century trying to part ways from the British and partition splitting the nation between India and Pakistan. The British governing powers conquered the best way to avoid more trauma and bloodshed between the dominant religions of Hindus and Muslims sought out to be through two independent nations known as Pakistan and India. The post-colonial struggles are told by the grip of this novel known as, Saleem Sinai. “I ask you only to accept (as I have accepted) that I shall eventually crumble into (approximately) six hundred and thirty million particles of anonymous, and necessarily oblivious dust.” (Rushdie 36); Rushdie makes it evident from the beginning of the novel that Saleem will be the one to narrate this story's constant battle and journey to independence through opposition and the image of crumbling of pieces and dust through the power of his words marking an interest in the history of India and the relevance of Saleem himself. Saleem's life is told in fragments that are by no means linear. The voices of all of India are scattered and challenging through his body as he tries to represent the people, languages, and differences that are a part of India's ongoing battle to acquire its independence and freedom.
The countries issues are reflected through the politics and public affairs, people from different societies classes and political stances unite in order to formulate the best decision for the countries whether it is according to a democracy or a supremacy. Saleem is the bodily image and representation of India itself; all of these views running through his body, challenging the body, walking hand in hand with the political body of the countries developing state. Marquez’s novel “100 Years of Solitude” rooted within the Colombian culture coming to life through full characters and events that are supernatural in its entirety. The village of Macondo’s civilization and its beginning through the journey of the riverbank intertwined life and destruction through this city of mirrors. From the time when Colombia was not modernized only having limited resources is the way of life in Macondo, the villages state begins to evolve as the government begins to change bringing in technology such as Pietro Crespi and his extravagant devices of music from the Europe captivating Amarata and Rebeca. Latin America in a mix from varying cultures. The natives that composed the continent were Aztecs and Incas, overtime European settlers from the West began to emerge taking over different countries and imposing their religion, technology, and government upon the natives. Macondo, the city of mirrors is a reflection of everything that was happening within that time frame through the imaginative and descriptive eyes of Marquez as a child. Both “Midnight's Children” and “100 Years of Solitude” use their countries history to show the cycle of life and its recurrence and relevance throughout time. One’s culture and history are what makes the identity, framework, and ideologies that will never expire; but live on as a tale that could be applied to our everyday life.
Both novels have an interwoven theme of religion and spirituality; however, the two regions (therefore novels) center around two different religions: Catholicism and Hinduism. In “100 Years of Solitude” the dominant religion in Colombia is Catholicism, which is evidenced in the novel by the presence of a priest. The priest, Father Nicanor Reyna, has come to preach in the area indigenous to the Macondo people. Reyna is appalled by the cruel deliberate nature of the people he sees and stays to save them. The man who has the “expression of an old angel” tells the people this; they simply reply by stating they haven't had a priest in the area for so long. They have created their own connection to God in the absence of a priest–their souls and God, no middleman. The idea of creating your own connection to God is portrayed in Hinduism, the central religion in “Midnights Children” as well. “You don’t pray, you petition, you have a personal conversation with God,” says Devdutt Pattanaik, a former doctor whose India’s most famous mythologist.
These principles found in both novels are somewhat contradictory to the religions because due to both religions lack of physical scripture, or sacred writing, they need priests, who can relay God’s message to the masses. So this connection to priests are are quintessential for these religions. Another similarity between the two religions is the presence of numerous saints and gods. Though Hinduism is polytheistic and Catholicism is monotheistic, Catholicism has the presence of saints who have individual abilities, which is similar to Hinduism multiple gods. Hinduism is also pantheistic, which is the belief that God is with the universe. In “100 years of Solitude,” the author’s style of writing encompasses a very natural, botanical, and fluid, one that reflects the author’s comfort with Earth, and isn’t afraid of it either. José, one of the main characters from the novel, isn't afraid of the unknown truths of the universe and is in fact quite curious of it. He explores his numerous questions of the world through extensive projects, complex inventions, and even goes as far as to want a photograph of god.
I believe that gender plays a big responsibility in both "100 Years of Solitude" and "Midnight's Children." Men are seen as the patriarchs and organizers of their individual families, and numerous of the important discussions in both novels are linking men. The men seek their sense solitude, a common motif, by leaving their town of Macondo and seeking adventure elsewhere distracting themselves from their state of loneliness and confinement. Marquez focuses on the concept of women and their influence such as Ursula holding such a prominent role within the Buendia family. Her role was overseen by all of the incidents that took precedences such as the wars and the magical elements within Macondo. The one women were not portrayed as strong and sought their “liberation” by attempting to mend the families incidents and occurrences together attempting to create unity or a sense of peace. The men overtook this novel, a patriarchal society indeed. Marquez portrayed the women to be the backbone of the family, holding the family together. Ursula always being there in time of need for all of her children providing moral support and advice to the family. The men in this novel were the center of attention, but without the women, these men would fall apart. In Midnight's Children, the “inheritability” of power within men is placed on a higher pedestal than women. The power is passed down based on patriarchal lines and fixated on a caste system that oppresses people of dark pigmentation. Hispanic and Indian culture tends to present the role of the man and superior to the role of the woman. Deciphering the subtle importance, yet when analyzed major importance women are key to the cycle of life and struggle that is conveyed throughout both novels. In equally Columbian as well as Indian culture, are seen as somewhat inferior. As a result, I consider we as readers certainly see this partition linking two genders.
Time and space are both disrupted in “100 Years of Solitude” and “Midnight's Children”. The storyline in both novels are non-linear and lack a chronological order as opposed to the traditionalistic approach. Time seems to be apart of Saleem's hazy memory through his supernatural means of telepathy, recounting past events in a questionable manner–his memory falling apart as he is. Constantly recounting the past and telling the story in a non-chronological manner only makes the tale more unreliable–even though that’s how human memory recall works. Often memories are not remembered chronologically; we remember the most impressionable memories first and then recall the blank space in-between. Continuing on, however, recounting the past takes away from the validity and truth of the events. When emotion comes into play it alters the perception often forgetting the minute details that can flip the story around. Hopping from scene to scene and different time period to time period adds to the fragmented memories and uncontrollable turn of events that occur within acquiring independence or the upbringing of a civilization. The repetition of names and events throughout “100 years of Solitude” comes together as the life of the Buendias are set in stone.