One Question on 100 Years of Solitude

Don't ask me why, but I decided to answer one of the questions written in a reader's guide to 100 Years of Solitude. I've finished my first reading of the book and will probably take another swing at it in about two months or so.

1. What kinds of solitude occur in the novel (for example, solitude of pride, grief, power, love, or death), and with whom are they associated? What circumstances produce them? What similarities and differences are there among the various kinds of solitude?

Perhaps the most intense form of solitude is felt by Colonel Aureliano Buendia. As the leader of a rebellion against the conservatives, he feels the most intense form of solitude--that of power. He is forced to draw a circle around himself to protect himself from assassinations. His solitude is reinforced by different forms of alienation --for example, when he becomes alienated from his own sense of purpose and admits, “So, we are just fighting for power now.”

Pride leads him to fight endless battles, but in the end, he finds himself alone making little gold fish. He takes refuge in his solitude, uncertain that if he was ever to break his habit of making the little goldfish he might not just start another rebellion again.