According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of the word solitude is, "the quality or state of being alone or remote from society." In the novel, 100 Years of Solitude, the Buendia family fits the definition of the word solitude. By including themes such as incest and social seclusion, the author clearly illustrates the reasons how the Buendia family is solitary.
Incest is mentioned in the beginning of the novel, starting with Ursula and Jose Arcadio Buendia. Ursula is afraid to reproduce with Jose, for fear of her children being born with the tail of a pig. In the following quotation, the reason for Ursula’s unease is explained. “An aunt of Ursula’s, married to an uncle of Jose Arcardio Buendia, had a son… he had been born and had grown up with a cartilaginous tail in the shape of a corkscrew and with a small tuft of hair on the tip” (Marquez 22). Despite Ursula and Jose Arcadio’s close proximity on their family tree, they decide to have a child. The baby is born without any deformities, and thus starts the long line of incest within the Buendia family. Another case of incest that takes place within the novel is between Jose Aurlieno and Pilar Ternera. The following quotation illustrates how the son and mother couple not only commits incest, but is solitary as well. “More than mother and son, they were accomplices in solitude” (166). By this point, incest is becoming more predominant in the book. By having these relationships and reproducing, the Buendias are causing their family to intertwine within itself, thus making their family more isolated from the world around them. These relationships only increase throughout the novel, which in turn only makes the family more alienated.

Besides having incest-based relationships within the family, there are some examples of Buendias cutting themselves off from society, or socially secluding themselves. One instance of this occurs when connection to civilization is discovered in Macando. When the connection is discovered, technology advances and the town becomes modernized. However, despite the progress the town is making, the Buendia’s respond by isolating themselves. “That drawing closer together of two solitary people of the same blood was far from friendship, but it did allow them both to bear up better under the unfathomable solitude that separated and united them at the same time” (402). This excerpt from the novel explains how the father and son pair, Aureliano Buendia and Jose Arcadio, both isolated themselves from society by preoccupying themselves with crafts. It then goes on to say that this relationship was not friendship, but was a connection they shared through being solitary together. “In the workshop, which he shared with Melquiades’ mad laboratory, he could barely be heard breathing. He seemed to be taking refuge in some other time” (55). This quotation further shows that in response to the village rapidly changing, Aureliano Buendia responded by isolating himself. These two quotations are occurances of how the Buendia family makes great attempts to be solitary, and how they purposely detach themselves from the outside world.

The last chapter of the book contains examples of both incest and social isolation. Two examples of social isolation are presented through character descriptions. When the author describes Rebeca, he illustrates her solitary personality. “Although she seemed expansive and cordia, she had a solitary character and an impenetrable heart” (69). The author also describes Jose Aurlieno as solitary. “But no one had dared include him in the plans…because of his solitary and elusive character” (104). These two quotations show that members of the Buendia family are socially secluded because of their solitary personalities. Besides social isolation, the final incest relationship that occurs within the Buendia family is between Aureliano II and Amaranta Ursula. The two lovers have a child, but the child is born with the tail of a pig, just what Ursula had feared in the beginning of the novel. After both mother and child die, Aureliano II realizes that the family line of Buendia’s has come to an end. He then boards himself up into a shed. This event of both incest and social isolation greatly represents how the Buendia family is solitary. By continually reproducing within their own family, the Buendia’s eventually intertwine themselves so close that they cease to exist. Aureliano II accepts the fact that the Buendia’s have reached their downfall, and cuts himself off from the village by boarding himself up in a shed. The village, which was founded by a Buendia, also ceases to exist.

The novel bears the name 100 Years of Solitude because the Buendia family, which the novel is centered around, isolates itself from things outside its own realm. To illustrate its solitariness, the author uses incest and social isolation. By using incest the author shows that the family is compacted within itself. Marquez uses social isolation to represent how some members of the family cut themselves off from the world around them, because of their longing of simplicity. By using these two themes the author clearly represents how the Buendia family is solitary.