One Hundred Years of Solitude 473The identification and punishment of a scapegoat
is a symbolic reminder of who exercises power and
who yields to it. The sentence for Jefferson serves
as a warning for his kinfolk that it is white people
who make the laws and that anyone who tries to
undermine such an order will be punished most
relentlessly. The sacrifice of a scapegoat has symbolic
significance for the oppressed group. It not only
forces them to admit their powerlessness, but also
strengthens their solidarity in the face of external
hostility.
The inability to think outside racial stereotypes
has a dehumanizing effect on both blacks and
whites. African Americans tend to look at them-
selves through the prism of white people’s contemp-
tuous view of them; this is why Jefferson begins to
think of himself as an animal-like being after he
has been called a “hog.” When Grant resumes the
“lessons” with Jefferson, the young prisoner, in the
beginning, keeps saying that he behaves in certain
ways because this is how animals behave. In a
sense, albeit profoundly disturbed by having been
compared to an animal, Jefferson apparently tries
to confirm that the white man in court was right.
While the dehumanization of blacks is caused by
the overwhelming impact of white people’s nega-
tive perceptions of them, the whites also become
dehumanized as a consequence of their inability to
renounce racial prejudices. Essentially, they cease
to experience certain human emotions, most of all
empathy. They become inconsiderate and heartless;
for instance, several prominent white men, who talk
to Wiggins at Pichot’s place, make bets whether the
teacher will manage to elicit any positive change in
Jefferson.
The fact that African Americans assess their
personal value and collective potential in the light of
white people’s prejudices accounts for the psycho-
logical mechanism of self-hatred. Individual self-
hatred is inseparable from the hatred a person feels
for his ethnic group. In A Lesson, Jefferson experi-
ences powerful negative emotions toward himself,
because he has been deprived of his personal dignity.
With Wiggins’s support, he eventually recovers his
sense of selfhood and accepts his ethnic identity.
However, Wiggins himself is not completely free
from the feeling of self-hatred, as he lives with a
painful awareness of how little he will ever achieve
as a black man in spite of his education. There is also
Matthew Antoine, Grant’s former Creole teacher,
a very embittered man, for whom the very sight of
black people on the plantation exacerbates his sense
of downright failure.
White people and black people are neighbors,
but in fact they inhabit separate worlds. However,
although the racial divide runs deep, goodwill helps
to overcome it. During his visits to the prison,
Wiggins becomes acquainted with a young deputy
named Paul, who supports the African-American
cause. Paul sympathizes with Jefferson and offers
assistance to Grant. Individuals may discover in
themselves the power to remove racial barriers,
but in the universe of Gaines’s novel it is a rather
uncommon gift.
Marek ParyzgarCía márquEz, gabriEL One
Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in Spanish
in 1967 and written by Colombian Nobel Prize win-
ner Gabriel García Márquez, recounts the history
of the Buendías who establish an imaginary Latin
American community, Macondo. While Macondo
is initially a utopia, it devolves until its annihilation,
just as the last of the Buendía line is discovering the
true nature of his origins. In between, generations
of Buendías experience challenges that offer a pes-
simistic critique of Latin American civilization.
The plot’s circular structure is complicated by
the recycling of characters’ names, the confusion
of incestuous relationships, and the blending of
magic and reality, which portray Latin America
as self-destructive and insular. The tale also refer-
ences historical events affecting the region. From
the questionable influence of technology, seen in
the inventions introduced by Melquíades and the
Gypsies, to the arrival of the banana company, which
mimics the scandal of the United Fruit Company, it
is clear that contact with the outside world contrib-
utes to Macondo’s problems and, by extension, those
of Latin America.
This masterpiece shares themes of other boom
novels, avant-garde works written during Latin