Essay About Jose Arcadio Buendia And First Chapter

Jose Arcadio Buendia in one Hundred Years of SolitudeJose Arcadio Buendia in one Hundred Years of SolitudeJose Arcadio Buendia in One hundred Years of Solitude:Ashwin Anil UtturkarWord Count: 1343Jose Arcadio Buendia is an unusual character with bizarre and crazy methods of understanding the natural world. It is through Garcia Marquez’s free reign to imagination that results in this remarkably inventive fictional character who exhibits extremely exaggerated personality traits. Jose Arcadio is an introspective, inquisitive man of massive strength and energy who spends more time on his scientific pursuits than with his family. He flirts with alchemy and astronomy and becomes increasingly withdrawn from his family and community. Marquez uses carefully chosen diction, imagery and biblical references to portray this wonderfully unique character to the reader.

The first chapter clearly illustrates Jose Arcadio Buendia’s enthusiasm for new ideas and technologies which is shown through his dealings with magnets, the magnifying glass, the telescope, and the sextant. He is a visionary, whose ‘unbridled imagination always went beyond the genius of nature and even beyond miracles and magic..’, but is out of touch with the real world, “having completely abandoned his domestic obligations”. He is constantly wrapped up in his own imagination and “he conceived a notion of space that allowed him to navigate across known seas, to visit inhabited territories, and to establish relations with splendid beings without having to leave his study”, which was his form of solitude. As readers, we slowly see him being neglected by the rest of society as he seems to delve deeper into delusion. He becomes too preoccupied with the exploration of the world, rather than dealing with the problems his family are faced with. Jose Arcadio’s efforts lead to the climax of his great piece of deductive reasoning, “the world is round like an orange”. The practical minded Ursula shows little patience with his scientific speculation. At this point she totally loses her patience and informs him that if he goes crazy he would have to do it alone. This shows that Ursula, unlike Jose Arcadio Buendia, is only concerned with the immediate future of the family and not with grand schemes.

Through the friendship of Melquiades, Jose Arcadio Buendia becomes exposed and even more enthralled with the nature of the world. Jose Arcadio’s grand schemes of solar warfare with the magnifying glass and his first forays into alchemy; wherein he turns Ursula’s precious inheritance into ‘a large piece of burnt hog cracklings’, is soon replaced with interest into another one of Melquiades’ items- false teeth, discovered by the Naciancenes, which is the final proof of the gypsy’s supernatural power. Jose Arcadio Buendia believed that Melquiades’ knowledge had reached unbearable extremes and his interest soon makes him aware of the backward state of Macondo-“Incredible things are happening in the world…while we keep living as donkeys.”

Jose Arcadio Buendia’s obsession with progress affects the whole village. “A kind of youthful patriarch”, he leads the people, giving instructions for planting and advice for raising the children. It is here that Macondo is like a perfect society and is reflected by the descriptions of the house, ‘well lighted’, ‘gaily coloured’, ‘gigantic chestnut tree’, ‘well kept garden’ and ‘peaceful communion’. It is through this description that reader’s can associate Macondo with the Garden of Eden from biblical times. However, Jose Arcadio Buendia’s obsession with “knowledge” and “progress,” are the very same desires that caused Adam and Eve to be expelled from Eden. Jose Arcadio Buendia believes that Macondo must establish outside contact and he leads an expedition in an attempt to ‘open a way that would put Macondo in contact with great inventions’. From a reader’s point of view we feel great respect for Jose Arcadio’s heroism and determination due to the epic nature of the enterprise, but we do feel he has become irrational.

In chapter 2 the reader is introduced to the founding of Macondo. It is here that we are exposed to the more physical side of Jose Arcadio Buendia. It is here that he gives Ursula a complete demonstration of his machismo, which results in the birth of their first son. He kills Prudencio Aguilar in order to defend his pride. However, this death haunts him and Ursula and they are forced to flea. With a band of men, they establish the town, Macondo. Again, Marquez makes another biblical reference, this time to the story of Moses and the Jews searching for the Promised Land. Here, Jose Arcadio is compared to Moses- both Jose Arcadio and Moses is leaders of men and founders of society. It is in this chapter that the reader feels even more respect

The reader is sent back to The Book of Mormon, of which the book is a little more than 20. This book was authored by Marquez and was translated by Ernesto, who was also a missionary and a businessman. In part due to this, I feel that the Book of Mormon is an excellent resource, especially for individuals interested in learning more about the church and about those who have studied in this sacred part of our world, through the lens of a family who has been through the early days of Joseph Smith, and through some of its other aspects, such as its characters and mission statement, and its theology.

In a recent interview, Jose Arcadio has said that the Book of Mormon is “the second” history of the church. This does not mean that it is the first book of the church, I am quite certain that this does not mean that it is the very last, and that any one who has studied the Book of Mormon, and not just the first two, can conclude that it is a historical work. It is important to know that the Book of Mormon contains various, often complex historical moments, but there are certain historical details to which the reader must not take this as a given.

Jose Arcadio’s account of Nephilim, who lived during Joseph’s campaign against the Hebrews to save the kingdom of Jerusalem, contains no such detail, despite the large part that was contained in the chapter concerning the translation that had taken place in his office, while the author writes, “There is no doubt whatsoever that [the translation of the Book of Mormon] translated some of the revelations of Joseph and the Prophets, made into sound and correct works, in his own mind, and in the hands of those who may follow them.”

I find that the book is more readable in its text, as if there is some other kind of book that appears in it, and the chapter describing the Nephilim is the first in that series. It seems to me that the author’s original intent was to provide a fuller and coherent introduction to the Book of Mormon, not only for the reader, but also for the reader’s parents, for those who are reading and interested in the history of the early church history.

Jose Arcadio’s book contains many books of ancient civilizations, but I think several will help to create a more complete history for more people. I would recommend reading some of his books at your own risk; they are not all complete and often have many inaccuracies, so they are usually incomplete. For now I would advise you to focus on the first two books of the book, but in future we will see if the following four chapters can become a significant part of other history books and, in the process, I’d urge you to buy a book on his history of the history of the first