Irony, symbolism and images reveal the emptiness of war in a hundred years of solitude While most scholars agree that war is a real and significant part of human history, these same scholars have not yet reached a consensus on the characteristics of war. History books often tend to glorify war with stories of soldiers dying for their honor and their country; novels, however, tend to underline the emptiness of war with stories of soldiers who lose their youth and contact with the world. The passage chosen from the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez adds to the debate on the characteristics of the war. Through the literary techniques of irony, symbolism and imagery, this text reveals the main theme that, in reality, war is not glorious but empty. By having Colonel Gerineldo Márquez end his telegraph with the slogan "Long live the liberal party," the author successfully creates a sense of irony in the reader at the end of the second paragraph. While the first two sentences of the song present Colonel Márquez as the civil and military leader of Macondo who realized the hollowness of war, this party slogan presents words that carry no weight when written by a man who believes that his commander is a total unknown. High in the military chain of command, Colonel Márquez had the opportunity to witness the progression of the war from an isolated conflict of clear definition and predictable course, to a widespread conflict of increasing intensity and uncertainty. Therefore his words "I understand, Aureliano,...Long live the liberal party" become ironic. Colonel Aureliano Buendia will consider these words as a patriotic statement of orders, when the ... middle of paper ... magic and irony combine to create a successful introduction of one of the main themes of the novel. - the emptiness of war. By making Colonel Gerineldo Márquez understand the true nature of the war and referring to him as the first to carry it out, the author offers the reader a series of other witnesses, whose testimonies should make the statement relating to the characteristic emptiness of war even more evident . valid. Later in the novel, Colonel Aureliano Buendia discovers the true nature of the war only after twenty years of struggle and the sad realization that the conservative regime he had been trying to overthrow all this time is good and compliant with the wishes of the people. Colonel Buendia then recognizes that the war is not a conflict of ideologies, but an ugly and empty struggle for power, concluding a thematic thread started by Colonel Gerineldo Márquez.