"Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose." (Orwell)

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"Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose." (Orwell) The impulse for journalists to expose the evils of society is often paralleled in novels.  Through One Hundred Years of Solitude and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Garcia Marquez and Solzhenitsyn become a part of this prevalent literary trend of social criticism.  In both works, the society portrayed experiences a period of political turmoil.  Garcia Marquez uses Colonel Aureliano Buendia to illustrate an effect of the Liberal revolution against the Conservative regime in Macondo, criticizing the personality defects suffered as a result of involvement in this situation of political instability.  Solzhenitsyn’s characters exist in mid-twentieth century Russia under Josef Stalin’s totalitarianist regime in a Siberian labour camp. Ivan Denisovich experiences loss of individuality, changes in character and his time in the camp eliminates any prospect of an ordinary life after his release.  Social criticism in literature looks at how a situation affects characters and how it changes them.  While Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s demise conveys the vices of revolution and war and Ivan Denisovich is used to address the effects of placement in a labour camp under a dictatorial rule, such as under Stalin, the novels do contain a common thread.  Both Garcia Marquez and Solzhenitsyn criticize how politically unstable societies cause character transformation through the development of their respective characters, Colonel Aureliano Buendia and Ivan Denisovich.

Neither Colonel Aureliano Buendia nor Ivan Denisovich had major political involvement until unexpected circumstances plunged them into the realm of politics.  The first of Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s political sentiments expressed is a condemnation of fighting over an ideology:  “…he could not understand how people arrived at the extreme of waging war over things that could not be touched.” (Garcia Marquez 104)  Colonel Aureliano Buendia was not developed as a revolutionary, yet upon exposure to political surroundings he became enveloped in politics and revolution.  He was playing chess with his Conservative father-in-law, Don Apolinar Moscote, and witnessed the Conservative party arrange an election in their favour.  Garcia Marquez placed him in this situation to accelerate the transformation of a man who could not even grasp the concept of civil war to a man who concludes, “’If I have to be something I’ll be Liberal…because Conservatives are tricky,’” (Garcia Marquez 106).  Garcia Marquez uses him to show how politics involve even the most improbable subjects.  Similarly, Solzhenitsyn’s character Ivan Denisovich lived a secluded life before his imprisonment.  He didn’t even own a radio.  In reference to the beginning of the war he recalls, “They’d heard about it at the Polomyna postoffice, but in Temgenyovd—the village he lived in—no one had a radio before the war.” (Solzhenitsyn 44).  Without any knowledge of the war it’s unconceivable that Ivan Denisovich had any affiliation with the Germans.  However, under Stalin’s regime, the very reason that Ivan was imprisoned was because of supposed communications with the Germans:  “In his record it said Shukov was in for treason…But just what he was supposed to do for the Germans neither Shukov nor the interrogator could say.” (Solzhenitsyn 76)  Ivan Denisovich was above suspicion, imprisoned as a result of the politics around him.  Solzhenitsyn criticizes Stalin’s tyranny through his protagonist.  Both characters are employed to make pointed social criticisms about the effect that political instability has on the people under its authority.  These effects include changes in thought processes, and therefore personality as Garcia Marquez and Solzhenitsyn also demonstrate through their characters.

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Circumstances are definitive of what a person thinks, feels and believes.  Involvement in a politically unstable situation doesn’t allow for the possibility of retaining an unchanged character.  While certain aspects of character are maintained, such as how Ivan Denisovich retains a great deal of dignity while in the labour camp, other aspects of personality are altered.  In One Hundred Years of Solitude the alterations to Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s personality caused by participation in a politically rooted war are evident.  For example, one of his colleagues, General Moncada, said to the Colonel, “’What worries me…is that out of so much hatred for ...

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