Garcia Marquez's Labyrinth

I found the most recent discussion that we had in class on One Hundred Years being like a labyrinth to be most provocative. I was, however, annerved by the different defininition of labyrinth that was being used while in class. My experience with labyrinths has not been a scary one, nor has it been a confusing one. Instead, I have come to see the exercise of walking a labyrinth as being a calming and at times frusturating one.

On retreats that I work, we have the teens walk the labyrinth. They come to see that walking a labyrinth as a journey. There is only one entrance and one exit to the labyrinth. At times, you are closer to the center of the labyrinth and other times you are further away from it. Though other people are in the labyrinth, the journey that you take is solitary and uniquely your own. We help these candidates make the bridge from this being a journey to this being like the relationship that we all share with God. At times we feel close to Him, and other times we feel further away. As Genesis said, from dust we are made and to dust we shall return (one entrance/exit). Finally, though there are other people around in the labyrinth, the journey and relationship that we have with God is unique.

This is the kind of Labyrinth that I see when reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. Ursula says on p. 193 "I know all of this by heart! It's as if time had turned around and we were back at the beginning!" Because each of the family members chooses to live their lives in a solitary fashion, they are doomed to repeat the same cycle of their forebearers. It was also commented in class that it seems that the family members are born in Mancondo and come back to die in Mancondo (one entrance/one exit). At times the family members have a close-knit relationship and at other times they are far away from one another. Time gives Ursula a unique perspective. She can see that her family is operating in cycles, with only one entrance and one exit. Yet, despite the support of other family members, decisions that are made from one generation to another are made over and over again. "Colonel Aureliano Buendia could understand only that the secret to a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude" (p. 199).

The family all lives in one house, all in the game of life together, yet the reader finds them operating in solitary journeys which have only one beginning and one ending. This seems kind of nihilistic now. Do we not have any control over what we do? Despite witnessing history, are we doomed to repeat its mistakes through our stubborn solitary existences? If we are in solitary journeys, why is human contact so important for most? These questions that my labyrinth theory brings up I'm unable to answer right now. This theory seems kind of bleak in appearance, but maybe it's being aware of the labyrinth of life that gives an edge. I guess I'll have to keep reading to get some of these questions answered...