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Turning the Tides
While One Hundred Years of Solitude may be a story riddled with disconnection on many levels, it also offers hope.
The novel owns its fair share of figures who strive for connection, like the under-appreciated Úrsula who keeps the social structure together because she understands that it's the glue of humanity, and Pilar Ternera who combats solitude by giving birth to endless numbers of illegitimate children over her equally endless existence as a means of populating the community.
And while sexual morals are a troubling and ongoing part of the story, it might be said that there's at least one facet to the unrestricted sexuality that's positive for the people of Macondo: It's the act of bringing human beings together in the most intimate way. All these romantic liaisons, incestuous or not, may have been the only tools the Buendías had for combating their generational curse of solitude. It's a poor replacement for real human relationships, but in desperate times, people tend to seek desperate measures.
