Solitude is referred to as the state of being alone. In Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, the term “solitude” is twisted into a whole new array of meanings. Rather than loneliness, Gabriel García Márquez defines solitude as a seclusion of space and a glorified idealistic obsession that every character yearns to obtain. The effects and portrayal of solitude are evident in José Buendía, Aureliano Buendía, and the Buendía family as a whole in the midst of the apparent timeless society of Macondo and inevitably leads to the downfall of the Buendía family in its entirety.
As the novel progresses, the only connection to the outside world comes from mystifying gypsies who bring technological advancements to Macondo, which drives José Buendía mad. José inhales technology and exhales practically nothing due to his lack of resources, and he eventually becomes tortured by his thoughts of solitude. After discovering that Macondo is surrounded by water on all sides, he begs Úrsula to leave. Úrsula stands up for her beliefs and responds, “If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die,” (García Márquez 14). Since he was tied to a tree before, José Buendía knows the torment of solitude even when it appears to be glorified in his surroundings. He is the one of the only individual’s who tries to escape the wrath of solitude as if he is aware that it will reach out and grab his family by the throats and press firmly. Because he never convinces Úrsula to leave, his family is doomed to numerous decades of solitude and the backwards progressing of society that inescapably came about in Macondo.
José Buendía’s son, Aureliano, single handedly defines the effects of solitude on humanity. In his youth, Aureliano is fortunate enough to touch ice, which he interprets as, “It’s boiling, he exclaimed, started…” (García Márquez 17). His interpretation exemplifies how Aureliano is sheltered in solitude for all his life and is suffering from a lack of knowledge of the outside world. Aureliano eventually gets roped into the effects of war. He insists on being called Colonel Aureliano Buendía when he returns to Macondo, even though he lost all the rebellions that he orchestrated. In Macondo, Colonel Aureliano Buendía insists on having a ten-foot chalk circle drawn around him to prevent human contact, thus removing him from humanity. He glorifies solitude in this instance, yet the solitude he was yearning for was not the solitude he receives:
He was weary of the uncertainty, of the vicious circle of that eternal war that always found him in the same place, but always older, wearier, even more in the position of not knowing why, or how, or even when. There was always someone outside of the chalk circle, (García Márquez 167).
Aureliano is one of the many individuals in Macondo that decides to withdraw into idealistic solitude. After the fact that war never is able to escape him, Aureliano yearns for the simplicity that he believes solitude would bring him. He was born and raised in Macondo, experienced the lack of outside knowledge in aspects such as inventions, and was confined to himself as a Colonel in war. Aureliano was living in solitude for every aspect of his life, yet his obsession blinded him from knowing that he in fact was living in it, thus eventually leading to his downfall and attempted suicide.

The Buendía’s confine themselves to complete solitude in the sense of incest. Solitude in the form of incest starts when Úrsula is afraid to have sex with her cousin and husband, José, for fear their offspring will have pigtails. The two individuals refused to consummate their marriage until José declared, “I don’t care if I have piglets as long as they can talk,” (García Márquez 23), which emphasized the start of a very close-knit relationship between a plethora of the Buendía’s. For example, Pilar and José Arcadio have a son named Arcadio, who wants to be in a physical relationship with his mother, Pilar. José Arcadio also falls for his sister, Rebecca. The theme of isolation is put to a whole new level when Aureliano Segundo and Fernanda del Carpio has a daughter, Meme, who likes a boy, Babionia. Babionia is not related in any manner to the family, and Fernanda ends up having him shot. Again, idolization of solitude is common belief among all of the Buendía’s and was evident through the entire family for numerous generations. The Buendía’s did not want to stray too far from their family, even when urges of pleasure and love got the best of them.

Gabriel García Márquez emphasizes that everybody has a predetermined fate, especially as a Buendía. The Buendía’s will never be able to flourish in any given society because of their overarching desire to withdraw, which inevitably failed the Buendía’s for numerous generations. In the end of the novel, Macondo is destroyed and memory of the family and events that occurred there failed to be remembered because, “races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth,” (García Márquez 458), which signifies that the human race cannot thrive in isolation.