Teen Ink

The picture represents how One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, symbolizes conformity in society by giving the characters with more power less individuality. The men in the background...(more »)

The picture represents how One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, symbolizes conformity in society by giving the characters with more power less individuality. The men in the background have very similar features in order to show a lack of unique identity. They resemble a mob to symbolize the idea of mob mentality and blindly following the majority. The story also became confusing, making it difficult to tell one man from another, which is portrayed in the way all of the men are blended together. The woman in the picture, Ursula, is larger and brighter than all of the other people to show how she was the most important character and the voice of reason amid all of the insanity. However, she is surrounded by the mob of darkness because she was hardly listened to by the rest of her family. Marquez deprived his characters of their individuality so that he could show the consequences of conformity, and how those who are not unique become unimportant and forgotten.« read less