Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude‘ follows the multigenerational story of the Buendia family. The second season opens a new chapter as the story shifts to the third generation, with Macondo remaining the center of their ever-changing lives. Over the course of many decades, it becomes clear that the Buendias are cursed in one way or another. They either go mad or are killed. Those who live longer are resigned to a form of generational loneliness. Still, each Buendia is different in their own right, and the one that stands out the most is Remedios. Her life is much different from the rest of her family, and even her death sets her apart from the rest of the world. While the others tend to die in their own pool of blood and loneliness, Remedios ascends into the sky like an angel. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Remedios was Too Pure for Macondo
When Jose Arcadio Buendia founded the town of Macondo, it was meant to be a clean slate for him and everyone who followed him on a trying journey to find a place they could call their own. A character in its own right, the town had the goodness and innocence of a child at its inception. It was molded in the image of the people who crossed into the town, shaping its character and leaving an indelible mark. This is also why there was more wonder and magic in its early days. At the time, it was also somewhat cut off from the rest of the world, and in itself, whatever its flaws and follies, it was still untouched by the evils of the world. But over the years, as the Buendia family expanded, so did Macondo.
New people crossed into it, bringing new things and inventions. In its youth, Macondo experienced a war that permanently changed it. The more time passed, the more bloodshed, deceit, murder, and heartbreak it saw. Time completely stripped it of the innocence from its early days, leaving it as a war-hardened general who has seen too much. Notably, the magic and wonder that seemed a regular part of its days slowly morph into raw realism, leading to a darker, more realistically believable turn of events in the second season, particularly its second half. A similar turn is reflected in the Buendias as well. Their lives, loves, and heartbreaks mirror what Macondo is going through.
In all of this, Remedios is the only one who is so involved in her own world that everything else feels entirely alien to her. The daughter of Arcadio and Sofia de la Piedad, she is called “the Beauty” for her beauty. She is so ethereal that any man who looks at her falls for her, and many men get themselves killed in an attempt to get a fraction of her affection. The Buendias know the effect she has on people, so they try to keep her locked in the house. But Remedios remains entirely unfazed and, to some level, unaware of her own effect on others. She is not bound by the general norms of society. This is why wearing clothes doesn’t feel as natural to her, and even when she is clothed, she doesn’t care what she is wearing.
Her choice of attire, or lack of it, is seen by some as a sign of her mental immaturity. They think something must be wrong with her to not understand basic things like clothes. But with time, this turns out to be a false belief. In fact, Colonel Aureliano Buendia is the only one who believes she is among the more lucid people around. He thinks she is wiser than people give her credit for, and at one point, he even comments that her eyes make her look as if she has seen years of war. As the years pass, it becomes clear that Remedios is unlike anyone who has ever existed in Macondo. The only person she comes closest to, perhaps, is her namesake, Remedios Moscote, the young wife of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who died in pregnancy, poisoned by her own blood.
Remedios’ Ascension Marks The End of Macondo’s Innocence
Remedios the Beauty never shows any form of malice towards anyone. She never falls in love, never experiences jealousy, lust, or heartbreak. While she is lusted after and the men’s lust leads them towards violent acts and ends, it never changes her view of the world. She remains entirely unblemished, pure of mind and soul. Meanwhile, Macondo keeps getting worse. The Buendia household had had enough of blood and violence on their hands. They had a history of falling in love with the wrong person, of having children they couldn’t give their names to, of choosing the paths that led to their own deaths, if not that of their loved ones. In the same vein, Macondo also goes through a war where changing regimes leads its streets to be bathed with blood.
Over the decades, it also loses touch with the values with which it was conceived. With the arrival of the fruit company, it steps into a capitalistic spiral that paves the way for even more violent and brutal things. In all of this, Remedios remains the only magical thing in Macondo. She acts as a link between what the town and its people used to be and what they have lost in the quest to connect with the rest of the world in the name of progress. Thus, almost being attacked at the plantation feels like another push, an event that establishes that Remedios’s purity is no longer for this world. The Macondo of now is not deserving of someone as pure and magical as her. So, in the end, she ascends to heaven on a seemingly normal afternoon.
One can also interpret it as her passing. She has left her mortal coil, and in human terms, she is dead. However, this death is not violent or sad like the other Buendias. For her, it is not the end of life but a literal ascension to a better place, which is why it appears as such to her family. Her passing also marks the point at which Macondo is truly pushed into its worst time since its inception. So, heaven called Remedios to itself, pulling her out of the hell that her hometown was going to turn into. Thus, her departure means that Macondo has truly lost its last shred of innocence and magic and is beyond saving.
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