Gabriel García Márquez’s prolific novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has been brought to life by Netflix, and the adaptation takes several significant creative liberties in depicting his story. Adaptation of classic literature always walks a tricky line, and Márquez’s century-spanning family epic was long thought to be impossible to portray on screen. The book keeps its dialogue minimal, and the constant passing of time makes keeping a cohesive-looking cast challenging. With that being said, One Hundred Years of Solitude’s reviews have praised it as a magnificent work of art that honors the original.
With that being said, even the best book adaptations have their creative liberties and adjustments made to translate ideas properly. The Netflix series uses voice-over narration to deliver direct quotations and explanations from the text, but no matter what, it’s impossible to be entirely the same. One Hundred Years of Solitude’s cast does a phenomenal job of portraying the Buendía family across its first three generations, and they’re about as close to accurate to their characters as any adaptation can offer.
8 One Hundred Years Of Solitude Begins With The Book’s Ending
The Show’s Opening Scene Is The Book’s Ending
“Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” To anyone who’s familiar with One Hundred Years of Solitude, these words have likely lingered in the mind long after finishing Márquez’s work. It’s one of the most fascinating opening lines ever written, and the TV series notably uses this as the first line of narration. However, it’s not the first imagery shown.
Netflix’s adaptation begins with the book’s ending, showing the final scene from the novel. In this scene, Aureliano, a sixth-generation member of the Buendía family, visits his family’s ruined home, where he discovers a manuscript written by Melquíades that had prophetically predicted the family’s most meaningful events over the past century. The book has a drawing of a snake eating itself to demonstrate the cyclical nature of the show’s events. Choosing to begin with this sequence is interesting, especially as One Hundred Years of Solitude’s season 1 ending only reaches the midway point of the book.
7 The Insomnia Plague Allowed The Buendías To See Each Other’s Dreams In The Book
A Fascinating Book Moment Is Left Out Of The Insomnia Plague
The insomnia plague hits the town of Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude, devastating the Buendías and the rest of the population for a time. For the most part, the happenings of the insomnia plague are straight from the book, though there are some things omitted from the novel and some brief moments added to the series. In the TV show, José Arcadio Buendía has a dream of Prudencio Aguilar, the man he killed in episode 1. This scene doesn’t exist in the book.
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In Márquez’s novel, the insomnia plague not only causes the Buendía’s to have vivid, lucid dreams but also enables them to see into each other’s dreams. This is an important moment, as it allows Úrsula to confirm who the newly-arrived Rebeca’s parents are, and she realizes they’re strangers to her. This was a mystery before, as Rebeca’s parents were dead, and all that remained were their skeletons, which Rebeca kept in a bag.
6 José Arcadio’s Corpse Smells Like Gunpowder In The Book
The Smell Of Gunpowder Adds To The Mystery Of José Arcadio’s Death
José Arcadio, son of José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula, is one of the major deaths in season 1, just shortly after saving Colonel Aureliano Buendía from the firing squad. His death is one of the more mysterious aspects of the story, as there are different theories as to what exactly happened to him, as his corpse is found with no wound. One crucial detail, however, is that he smells of gunpowder, and despite Úrsula’s best efforts, it can’t be washed out.
Of course, television doesn’t have the level of immersion to where they can integrate something for the audience to smell, but the characters still could have noticed this oddity. Even after he’s buried, José Arcadio’s grave continues to have this scent until later in the novel when the banana company covers it in concrete. The smell of gunpowder offers important symbolic material regarding José Arcadio’s mysterious death, and it’s a detail that was shockingly left out of the show.
5 The TV Series Skips Over Aureliano’s Attempt To Marry The Girl At Catarino’s Store
Aureliano Just Gives Her Money In The TV Adaptation
One Hundred Years of Solitude episode 4 has a sequence where Aureliano meets some of his friends at Catarino’s store. There, he’s brought into a room with a young prostitute. First, the book explains that Aureliano is nervous in this scene because he can’t compare to how well-endowed his brother José Arcadio is. The story she tells Aureliano about owing her grandmother is essentially the same, but the TV show sees Aureliano gift her a large tip without having sex with her.
The TV show likely left this out to make Aureliano appear more noble
In the book, Aureliano leaves without giving her the extra money and then feels a profound sense of guilt thinking about her story. Then, “he made the calm decision to marry her in order to free her from the despotism of her grandmother and to enjoy all the nights of satisfaction that she would give the seventy men.” When he goes to offer her marriage, however, he finds that she’s already left town. The TV show likely left this out to make Aureliano appear more noble and to have one less instance of attraction between an adult and a minor.
4 Francisco The Man Is Left Out Of The TV Series
A Folklore Legend Is Left Out Of The Adaptation
Francisco the Man (or Francisco el Hombre) may only be a minor character in the One Hundred Years of Solitude, but he’s a legendary character in Colombian folklore. Given that the novel is deeply rooted in Colombian culture, it makes sense that this figure would appear in Macondo. He shows up at Catarino’s store and is described as an “ancient vagabond who was almost two hundred years old and who frequently passed through Macondo distributing songs that he composed himself.”
The scene to have him appear would have been at Catarino’s store before Aureliano entered the room with the young girl. Francisco has less than a dozen mentions in One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it’s important to Márquez’s text that he exists, as Aureliano II begins to play his music later on in the story. Úrsula also learns about her mother’s death from him, as he brings Macondo news from other towns in his travels.
3 Rebeca Eventually Buries Her Parents’ Bones In The Book
Her Parents’ Bones Are Placed In The Buendía House Walls
Rebeca arrives in Macondo in episode 3 carrying the bones of her parents in a bag. Eventually, Úrsula decides to expand the Buendía house, and the bones are left out in the middle of a room when men are doing construction. In the series, one of the masons gets annoyed by the bones and buries them inside one of the building’s walls. In Márquez’s book, this later becomes a problem for Rebeca, who’s told by Pilar Ternera that she won’t be happy until her parents bones are buried.
This leads to her and José Arcadio Buendía searching for the bones, with her wanting to finally bury her parents. José Arcadio Buendía tracks down one of the masons, who reveals their location. They retrieve the bones and bury them next to Melquíades. It’s an important moment of resolution for Rebeca, and it gets Pilar Ternera welcome back into the home due to her friendship with Rebeca.
2 Arcadio & The Doctor Work Together In The TV Show
Netflix’s Adaptation Introduces A New Dynamic
Arcadio is the son of José Arcadio and Pilar Ternera given to Úrsula to raise at the end of episode 2. Throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude, Arcadio never learns who his true parents are, and he becomes the sort of black sheep of the family. In both the TV series and the novel, Arcadio gets involved with the liberal group taking root in Macondo, even using his students as part of his army as he takes on a dictator role in the town. The TV adaptation demonstrates his involvement more deliberately than the book.
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The show sees Arcadio and Dr. Alirio Noguera, a character who isn’t really a doctor but actually a “a terrorist who with his short legged boots covered the scars that five years in the stocks had left on his legs.” Notably, the doctor’s influence is important in the book, though it doesn’t get into the specifics of these two characters having much of a relationship. It makes for an interesting dynamic in the Netflix series, expanding on this situation and arguably placing more impact on the doctor’s eventual death.
1 Melquíades’ Snake Drawing
The Snake Symbolism Is Original To The Series
One Hundred Years of Solitude’s opening scene, as mentioned, shows Aureliano flipping through Melquíades’ manuscript, and the first image is a vivid illustration of a snake biting its own tail. Later in the show, after Melquíades returns from the dead, he can be seen in the Buendía house drawing this. The illustration isn’t mentioned in the book, but it’s deeply rooted in the symbolism of Márquez’s novel and the cyclical nature of the Buendía family.
Each member of the family is doomed to repeat the same mistakes over the span of the six generations explored in the books. From José Arcadio Buendía all the way down to Aureliano, the Buendía’s subject themselves to isolation and self-destructive behavior. The snake perfectly represents the cyclical pattern these characters are undergo, and it’s a fascinating addition to Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
In the town of Macondo, several generations of the Buendía family grapple with love, war, madness, and an inescapable curse that haunts their lineage. As they navigate the trials of fate, the epic tale of magical realism unfolds, exploring the intersection of history, myth, and human experience.
- Release Date
- December 11, 2024
- Cast
- Eduardo De Los Reyes , Claudio Cataño , Jerónimo Barón , Marco González , Leonardo Soto , Susana Morales , Ella Becerra , Moreno Borja , Carlos Suárez , Santiago Vasquez
- Character(s)
- Aureliano Buendía , Colonel Aureliano Buendía , José Arcadio Buendía , José Arcadio , Úrsula Iguarán , Petronila , Melquiades , Aureliano Iguarán