Example research essay topic: Jose Arcadio Buendia One Hundred Years - 1,602 words

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, lived and experienced one of the most intriguing cultures in the world, Latin American. These experiences play a dominant role in the development of the characters, specifically Jose Arcadio Buendia. Resulting from this vast culture is the profound psychological makeup interwoven with Jose Arcadio Buendia, which Freudian interpretation proves to be a useful tool in evaluating. With the conscious and subconscious decisions that Jose Arcadio Buendia makes, the distortion of reality becomes an issue. Because of the determination, or better called an illusional interest, he utilizes all his time to his current curiosity, thus causing him to forget his duties as a leader and a father. Through these convictions or oppositions, Marquez consequently led to the growth of a complex, in-depth psychological makeup of his characters, based on the elements of Latin American cultural values of family, honor, and dedication.

However, by understanding the Latin American culture, a psychological interpretation can provide the reader with the reasons why Jose Arcadio Buendia complies or diverges from tradition and the characteristics that leads him to his downfall. Jose Arcadio Buendia? s psychological construction can be seen from the beginning of the book. Marquez implements his successes and failures to portray to the reader the inner psychological build-up of Jose Arcadio Buendia. This inner psyche effects every decision of Jose Arcadio Buendia throughout the book and are all related to the Latin American society in which Marquez lived in. Throughout Latin American history, we can see the dominating male role in social life, from common day-to-day decisions to marital life.

For example, we see Latin American males commonly have mistresses without consequences from the government or the wife, thus demonstrating male power. This male leadership can be observed in the beginning of One Hundred Years of Solitude when Jose Arcadio Buendia was fascinated by the inventions of the gypsies. Without asking, Jose Arcadio Buendia took the money from Ursula to purchase the magnifying glass that he wanted. ? That money was from a chest of gold coins that her (Ursula) father had put together over an entire life of privation and that she had buried underneath her bed in hopes of a proper occasion to make use of it. ? (Pg. 3) Later in the book, Ursula was afraid of having deformed children therefore causing her to wear a rudimentary chastity belt. Jose Arcadio Buendia, after the killing of Prudencio for taunting him about not having sex with Ursula, returns home and? pointing the spear at her he ordered: Take them off.

Ursula had no doubt about her husband? s decision? If you bear iguanas, we? ll raise iguanas. ? (Pg. 22) As the Marquez continues, we can see major flaws appear in Jose Arcadio Buendia? s progression of thought. Marquez first amazes the reader with Jose Arcadio Buendia?

s dedication to advancing Macondo? s technology and social life, but the constant failures and shifting of interests presents to the reader the opportunity to question Jose Arcadio Buendia? s capabilities. The sanity of Jose Arcadio Buendia is even questioned by Ursula, ? If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself! ? (Pg. 5) Thus the foreshadowing of Jose Arcadio Buendia? s downfall is established and proven when he loses all sanity and speaks a?

devilish? language. ? Ten men were needed to get him down, fourteen to tie him up, twenty to drag him to the chestnut tree in the courtyard, where they left him tied up, barking in the strange language. ? (Pg. 81) This suggests the reader to believe that Jose Arcadio Buendia? s psychological makeup, although extremely, maybe overly, dedicated, has numerous flowing ideas to improve society, but his inability to sort out reality from magic hinders him from any success at all. This is further supported when Jose Arcadio Buendia, although possessing a compass, sextant, and map and fully knowledgeable on their functions, gets lost in nature.

Marquez is revealing Jose Arcadio Buendia? s psyche as having an imagination too far ahead of his current business and unable to concentrate his talents to form a purposeful outcome. This scattering of concentration results in an effect and distortion of reality in a manner that the reader can interpret this distortion as Marquez? s magical realism or just a figment of the character?

s imaginations. ? The pot was firmly placed in the center of the table, but just as soon as the child made his announcement, it began an unmistakable movement toward the edge, as if impelled by some inner dynamism, and it fell and broke on the floor. ? (pg. 15) This, to the reader, obviously is a representation of one of the magical realism evident throughout the whole book. Nevertheless, Ursula? s perception of the incident caused her fright however, Jose Arcadio Buendia merely deduced it as a natural phenomenon. ? Ursula, alarmed, told her husband about the episode, but he interpreted it as a natural phenomenon. ? (Pg. 15) We can see here how the different perspective of each character in One Hundred Years of Solitude can affect the interpretation of an event. ? That was the way he always was, alien to the existence of his sons, partly because he considered childhood as a period of mental insufficiency, and partly because he was always too absorbed in his fantastic speculations. ? (Pg. 15 - 16) This further provides us evidence on how the psychological makeup of Jose Arcadio Buendia of over dedication allows him to overlook concerns for his own family and duties.

As Marquez progresses to exploit Jose Arcadio Buendia? s weakness of divided attention and the disappointment of failure throughout all his ventures, the reader can witness more and more his distortion of reality, until finally his complete downfall to insanity. ? but suddenly I realized that it? s still Monday, like yesterday. Look at the sky, look at the walls, look at the begonias. Today is Monday too. ? (Pg. 80)?

Then he grabbed the bar from a door and with the savage violence of his uncommon strength he smashed to dust the equipment in the alchemy laboratory, the daguerreotype room, the silver workshop, shouting like a man possessed in some high-sounding and fluent but completely incomprehensible language. ? (Pg. 81) Although this decline from a dedicated genius to a? crazy man? might unmistakably seem like only a tragedy, however, we can consider these ventures, that Jose Arcadio Buendia pursues, a process of self-discovery. We can consider Jose Arcadio Buendia?

s engagement in alchemy, military weapons, and astronomy as trying to discover his true self; an active portray of a confused psychological mind attempting to discover its identity, but ultimately failing because of the instability and the divergence of his concentrations. We can also apply the Freudian theory to analyze the actions of Jose Arcadio Buendia. An apparent example occurs during the confrontation between Jose Arcadio Buendia and Prudencio. Jose Arcadio Buendia? s id, suffering from the lack of sex, is urging for the immediate satisfaction, but because of Ursula? s fear of abnormal child production, this urge was suppressed.

This suppression finally explodes when Prudencio taunts Jose Arcadio Buendia, causing him to kill Prudencio. ? And then to Prudencio Aguilar: You go home and get a weapon, because I? m going to kill you? There was no time to defend himself. Jose Arcadio Buendia? s spear, thrown with the strength of a bull?

pierced his throat. ? (Pg. 22) Jose Arcadio Buendia returns home demanding the sex he has been deprived of, thus satisfying his libido. The unwanted consequences were repressed, not surfacing until the superego initiates. This guilt from the superego ultimately causes Jose Arcadio Buendia and all of his people to move to Macondo. ? It?

s all right, Prudencio, we? re going to leave this town, just as far away as we can go, and we? ll never come back. Go in peace now. ? (Pg. 23)? Jose Arcadio Buendia buried the spear in the courtyard and, one after the other, he cut the throats of his magnificent fighting cocks, trusting that in that way he could give some measure of peace to Prudencio Aguilar. ? (Pg. 23) Another representation of libido is embedded in Jose Arcadio. Jose Arcadio?

s sex drive is strong throughout the novel from the beginning with Pilar, ? I want to be alone with you. One of these days I? m going to tell everybody and we can stop all of this sneaking around. ? (Pg. 29 - 30) to when he returns with Rebeca, ? She managed to thank God for having been born before she lost herself in the inconceivable pleasure of that unbearable pain, splashing in the steaming marsh of the hammock which absorbed the explosion of blood like a blotter. ? (Pg. 95) As we can see, One Hundred Years of Solitude can be interpreted numerous ways, which provides us different perspectives on the book.

Through analyzing the psychological development of Jose Arcadio Buendia, the reader can have insights on the complex motives, which Marquez provides. These motives can help the reader understand Marquez? s magical realism's or even the Hispanic background. Also, these actions serve as a process for Jose Arcadio Buendia?

s recognition of his true identity. In combination, Marquez not only is developing an intricate character, but also creating opportunities for him to interweave his own opinions, such as religion, science, or war. Whether one chooses a Freudian analysis or not, each unique perspective plays an important role in the comprehension of the novel.

Research essay sample on Jose Arcadio Buendia One Hundred Years