100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marques is a novel that revolves around the establishment, development and eventual destruction of the village of Macondo. The novel also focuses on Macondo's founding family, the Buendias, who came to these lands after their patriarch, José Arcadio, felt forced to leave his native village. The novel serves as a representation of post-colonialist Colombia, which is the author's native country. Among other literary elements such as magical realism and contrasting tragic and comic effects, Marquez seamlessly integrates the use of linear and circular time perspectives in a binary approach in order to produce both a sense of stasis and inertia in the award-winning novel, which is essential in creating its allegorical epic and in delivering the polemic that underpins its entire narrative. Throughout the novel, the author uses two facets of historical time, linear and circular. The interweaving of these elements brings to life some of the most significant events in the novel. Starting with the first element – ​​the use of a linear plot progression, the narrative follows the chronological growth of the town of Macondo. Marquez depicts events from its creation by the Buendias to its slowly blossoming prosperity, followed by its predestined decadence and eventual obliteration. The city's history can be broken down into four sections. First, the birth of Macondo as a colony surrounded by Eden-like innocence and virginity, where no soul has ever perished and many objects have yet to be named. Second, there follows an era of military conflict and political instability in which foreign governments constantly strive to take over the medium of paper and the advancements that the outside world brings through the use of paper. of a linear timeline. Thus, this reinforces the contrast between the static Macondo and the inertia imposed on him by the natural advancement of life. The destruction of Macondo is therefore conditioned by these opposing factors; while destiny forces him to change and evolve, his essence remains fixed and immobile due to the singular force that anchors him: the Buendia family. Thus, Macondo and the Buendias are erased, because their internal unadaptability is erased by an ever-changing external landscape. In the end, it is exactly as the Melquiades manuscripts ominously reveal, "that everything written there [is] irreplaceable from time immemorial and forever, because the races condemned to a hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth. » Works Cited 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez