On The Allegorical Quality Of One Hundred Years Of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude, the world-famous Latin-American masterpiece, has absorbed as comprehensive as possible attentions around the world. Although there are numberless works and articles study the novel from different perspectives, there is still lack a systematic interpretation in the light of allegory theory. That is this article's assignment. Allegory theory has developed rapidly from the early 1900s. The concept of "allegory" now becomes an important category and plays an inneglectable role in western literary theory. It becomes a mode of writing and criticism, not only be a genre. Through close reading, and from a perspective of modern allegory theory and social-cultural criticism, this article tries to exhaust the inimitable quality of allegory of One Hundred Years of Solitude.This article is divided into four sections. The first section discusses the cause of One Hundred Years of Solitude's quality of allegory. It defines the concept of "allegory" and its connotation in this article through the differentiating and analyzing the different meanings in the development of western allegory theory. Then this section discusses how the allegorical writing tradition influences Marquez, and the interaction between the tradition and Marquez's life experience. The second section discusses the essential characteristic of allegory in One Hundred Years of Solitude. That is, the state of diversity, fragments and relics presents it self in the novel. In the light of modern allegory theory, this section attempts to elicit the deep speciality of the novel's allegory. The third section analyses the two modes how the novel's allegory to take on: allegorical structure and allegorical image. By analyzing the two modes, this section tries to keep up with the implied meaning of the novel as close as possible. On the base of the third section, the last section interprets the transcendental meaning of allegory, the comprehensive and philosophical topic: the question of solitude, struggle, and salvation. Besides, it discusses the value and significance of the allegorical writing.