Outsiders

Blog Post 3

            In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez makes it clear that outsiders only bring trouble to the small town.  When Rebeca arrives, under the guise that she is a distant cousin, her unnatural appearance and demeanor is glaring.  She does not speak Spanish and “only liked to eat the damp earth of the courtyard and the cake of whitewash that she picked off the walls with her nails” (Marquez 42).  This behavior, paired with her strange baggage of her parents’ bones, makes her a clear outsider that will only be trouble.  Eventually, it seems like she has assimilated to the family.  It is only revealed later that she was not able to banish her outsider nature, when she marries her “brother” and family outcast José.

            She had been engaged to Pietro Crespi, another foreigner.  The Italian seems to be blending well with the society in Macondo, but once he offends Amaranta by choosing Rebeca, he incited something disturbing.  She planned to kill Rebeca, but the wedding was called off before she had to go to that extreme.  It then seems like Crespi will marry Amaranta, but she responds to his proposal by saying “I wouldn’t marry you even if I were dead” (Márquez 109).  He is overwhelmed by frustration and longing, he ultimately kills himself, which proves that he was another unsuccessful outsider.

            The arrival of Don Apolinar Mascote and his family was another obvious display of outsiders who do not belong.  They want rules in a town that has been working efficiently, though they are behind possible technology, and invade a simple way of life.  Luckily, José Arcadio Buendía is there to teach them how things work in the town he founded.  Remedios, the youngest Mascote daughter, marries Aureliano Buendía and becomes the perfect wife despite her extreme youth.  She marries right after reaching puberty but had managed to become a successful home maker.  She cared for José Arcadio Buendía, even bringing him a slice of cake on her wedding day while he is tied to a chestnut tree.  While she is alive she remembers to care for him while others tried to abandon and forget about him.  Her death is the first of many blows against the Mascote family.  The intruders pay heavily for their conservative and religious views.