This essay explores ideas relating to the nature of language, literacy and communication as presented in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), and expounds on how these ideas contribute to the novel’s more central theme of personal isolation. The analysis suggests García Márquez engages with theories of language ranging from the Biblical account of Babel to more contemporary concerns
such as the nature of reference and the influence of language and literacy on thought; of particular interest is the conflict that García Márquez identifies between the communicative and cognitive functions of language. In developing these themes, García Márquez effortlessly shifts from philosophical enquiry and reflection to humour and derision, but underlying each of these concerns is a
profound appreciation of the interaction between a sense of isolation and the many forms of communicative breakdown.