blog 9: One Hundred Years of Solitude part 3

“The captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once” (Marquez 305).

The entirety of the banana massacre scene still surprises me. Upon reading this section of One Hundred Years of Solitude, I assumed that this massacre was simply Marquez writing about unrealistic events as we have seen throughout the novel. I mean who would get killed over bananas essentially? However, when using the internet and utilizing Shmoop in order to clarify the text I found out that this did indeed happen. From what I’ve gathered from researching the event, Marquez’ writing is not too far off from what actually happened. In 1928 Colombian banana plantation workers went on strike for unfair treatment in terms of wages, compensation, health benefits, etc. The government then sent in an army to deal with these strikers. In the novel Marquez states that there were around 3,000 fatalities, however, the actual number is unknown. All of this makes me question how Marquez was personally affected by the massacre. Was it so significant to him personally that he felt it had to be mentioned? But also, he was a toddler at the time of the horrific event, so maybe it is just a vital part of Colombian history. Maybe it’s also possible that he had family involved the tragedy. Either way I believe that incorporating this piece of history into the story puts things into perspective for readers that although Marquez uses a ton of magical realism, the points he is making about society and war are not made up. I have found that when reading this book, it is important to not view everything as “magic.”