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Chapters
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Chapters
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One Hundred Years of Solitude has 20 chapters.
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Chapters20 items
Chapter 1
The novel opens by jumping between two time periods: José Arcadio Buendía standing before a firing squad and his memories of founding the village of Macondo.
Chapter 2
Macondo grows from a small settlement into a functioning village. José Arcadio Buendía becomes obsessed with alchemy and science, neglecting his family while trying to turn metal…
Chapter 3
The Buendía sons grow up and their personalities split along a pattern the novel will repeat: José Arcadio (the eldest son) is physically massive, impulsive, and sexually driven,…
Chapter 4
José Arcadio Buendía, the patriarch, descends into madness. He becomes convinced that the same day keeps repeating and that time has stopped.
Chapter 5
Civil war breaks out across the country. Aureliano declares himself a Liberal and becomes Colonel Aureliano Buendía, leading a series of military campaigns.
Chapter 6
Colonel Aureliano Buendía launches a series of armed uprisings across the country, fighting on behalf of the Liberal cause.
Chapter 7
The civil wars grind on, and Colonel Aureliano Buendía leads thirty-two armed uprisings, losing every single one. The novel makes clear that the Liberal and Conservative causes ar…
Chapter 8
Colonel Aureliano Buendía signs a peace treaty that ends the civil war, a decision his own side sees as a betrayal. Immediately after, he attempts suicide by shooting himself in t…
Chapter 9
The focus shifts to the second generation and the next wave of Buendías. Aureliano Segundo and José Arcadio Segundo are twins who are so alike that even their mother cannot reliab…
Chapter 10
Aureliano Segundo's household splits between his wife Fernanda and his mistress Petra Cotes, and he manages both with cheerful irresponsibility.
Chapter 11
Aureliano Segundo's household splits further as his wife Fernanda del Carpio tightens her grip on the house with rigid Catholic routine while he retreats to Petra Cotes and her mi…
Chapter 12
The banana company's presence transforms Macondo from a sleepy town into a chaotic boomtown. American managers arrive, a separate enclave is built for them, and the town's social…
Chapter 13
Meme falls in love with Mauricio Babilonia, a mechanic who works for the banana company and who is always surrounded by yellow butterflies.
Chapter 14
Meme's son, Aureliano, is born in secret and brought to the Buendía house, where Fernanda hides him in shame. He grows up isolated, educated only by Melquíades's old manuscripts a…
Chapter 15
Macondo enters a long decline after the banana company leaves following a labor dispute and a prolonged, almost mythical rainstorm that lasts for years.
Chapter 16
Fernanda del Carpio tightens her grip on the Buendía household, enforcing rigid Catholic routines that clash with the family's older, wilder habits.
Chapter 17
Meme's son, Aureliano (the second), is born in the convent and secretly brought back to Macondo by Fernanda, who raises him hidden from the rest of the family.
Chapter 18
Macondo is now deep in decline. The banana company is gone, the great Buendía house is crumbling, and most of the family members who once filled it are dead or absent.
Chapter 19
Aureliano II and Amaranta Úrsula begin an affair, both apparently unaware that they are aunt and nephew rather than distant cousins.
Chapter 20
Amaranta Úrsula dies giving birth to a boy with a pig's tail, the sign the family has feared for generations. Aureliano II, alone with the child, finally reads the full manuscript…
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