Solitude is brought up SO many times throughout this whole book. Throughout the book however the family is always together yet they are all individually so alone. Especially in Rebecca's case, she is left alone for so many years and the family just forgot she even existed. Solitude to them is of course being alone, but also being without love or purpose. In Colonel Aureliano Buendia's case, he needs to be in solitude because his purpose was to fight in a war for power, and then he turned back to making fishes but is still in solitude because he is home without a lover. That is also why I believe they all sleep with each other, because they are afraid of being alone. Yet with every "reincarnation" of the children named after their father, brother, uncle, sister, it seems like the curse of solitude is put onto them. I see this especially with Rebecca (even though she isn't really in the family), and Remedios the Beauty. Remidios is the beauty of the town yet she can't even conceive the idea of men really at all. In her mind she isn't cursed, but she is solitary her whole life then is just taken away. This video really helped me grasp what was actually happening in this book (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNcCs__vQg)

This is brought up so often, and is the first line of the book! It's crazy to start off a book with this random connection to the future. Because it tells us at the beginning that he is going to be a colonel, and that he is going to die. Severe foreshadowing! As well as him discovering ice . . .then talking about the origin of his family and village. But when I first read this i just went right over it! Then it brings it up again after is is already Colonel Aureliano Buendia. Aslo really connects to your husbands presentation about fighting for the left or right in Columbia and he just goes after it and is the face for the left. Then he has to be killed for it along with all of his children (with several wives it seems like). The jist I have gotten from this novel is doing things just based on instinct. This family doesn't really seem to have control of themselves and just does things on a whim. It's especially prevalent with Rebecca because she eats dirt! Then if I am remembering correctly dumbs her husband for hr brother!