Of Trauma In Jose Garcia Márquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude

2588 Words6 Pages

One Hundred Years of Trauma Trauma is a deeply disturbing and stressful life experience that many people face every day. It effects have been experienced millions of of people. Everyday, stories of people who feel the effects of past traumatic events in their present day life are published online, on television, on the radio, and even in movies. It is a hot topic in today 's society, because of how extremely tragic the effects are. Many scientist and social workers are trying to figure out how to lessen the effects of trauma in people who experience them. One of the huge problems with trying to reverse the effects of trauma is the almost endless list of causes for it. People are affected by a variety of different events, such as fighting in …show more content…

Both José Arcadio Segundo and Colonel Aureliano Buendía experience trauma in direct link with death. For José Arcadio Segundo, it was the brutal slaughter of around three thousand banana company workers. For the Colonel, it was years of war and countless traumatic experiences while fighting. Both of them felt at least partially responsible for the deaths that made them the way they are. García Márquez writes about the massacre in a way that makes the reader really consider what took place in the square, and makes them feel a part of what José Arcadio Segundo feels. García Márquez also writes about the trauma they feel in an accurate and intriguing way. He writes about how both characters’ deal with their post traumatic stress disorder in a way that people do in the real world. Trauma is a prevalent and serious topic in magical realist texts, and the way it is written about needs to be accurate and relatable to show how real and painful it is to those who experience it in the real …show more content…

He uses accurate descriptions of what they feel after they witness the atrocities they have. He is able to get into his character 's head and really bring out the confusion they are experiencing every day. Both the Colonel and José Arcadio Segundo are experiencing something that people are still trying to figure out today. The fact that people still don’t know how to deal with the post traumatic stress now makes it even more amazing how García Márquez was able to write about it in such a profound way when he did. He writes in a way that makes the reader feel a little bit of what characters such as José Arcadio Segundo and Colonel Aureliano Buendía experience everyday since the horrors they witnessed. José Arcadio Segundo with the banana company massacre and the Colonel with the many years of war he was a part of. Both of them suffered greatly, and what they had to live through changed how they functioned as people for the remainder of their days. Trauma is a life changing experience, and it is something that García Márquez captures well in One Hundred Years of

Open Document