The narrator of One Hundred Years of Solitude Who is this narrator of One Hundred Years of Solitude? He or she knows the entire history of the Buendias better than anyone. But the narrator is not entirely omniscient. For example, the opening sentence (quoted earlier) and Pilar's insight into the "axis" of time are two of the very few places where the narrator claims to be able to read a character's thoughts. Generally, we get to know characters by closely observing what they say and do, and we have to infer what they might be thinking. The narrator's knowledge also disappoints us regarding the one great unsolved mystery: José Arcadio, the founder's eldest son, is murdered in his bed, but we never know by whom. The narrator is also unaware of who killed all of the colonel's illegitimate children and, in fact, seems as surprised as we are when the last survivor of these children appears in Macondo and is also killed. There are two likely candidates for the role of narrator. One is Melquiades, the gypsy magician and wise man...