The philosophy of language studies the correlation between language and reality. For centuries it is has been debated if a name holds dominance over our personality. Plato’s Cratylus, a dialogue about the correctness of names, ponders the criteria that determines the correct name for a given object and the relationship between each other. Often in writing, authors make the same illusions to subconsciously influence the reader's perspective of a character. Although authors often use names as subliminal messages for the reader to decipher on their own merit, some authors delve even further when it comes to naming characters. In One Hundred Years of Solitude the author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, blatantly states that the most common names in his book Arcadio and Aureliano stick to the same tendencies as their similarly named ancestors. However, that does not explain …show more content…
Marquez initially describes Macondo, the town in which the novel is based, as “so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point” (1). Since the beginning of the novel Marquez has put an emphasis on names above all objects especially during the insomnia outbreak where people would label objects but continue to remember people's names. The two protagonists whose names have already written their destiny are the Arcadios and the Aurelianos. The Arcadios exhibit “impulsive and enterprising qualities”(181), eager to leave Macondo and explore the world while simultaneously exhibiting their brute strength and sexual readiness. Aurelianos illustrated the mental state of being “lucid and withdrawn” (181) engulfed in their own niche, for example, tinkering with metal objects or deciphering Sanskrit. Throughout the text both the Arcadios and the Aurelianos remain consistent with the guidelines Marquez placed in the novel, aside from the