Color is certainly one of the most memorable things in our lives. In many cases, when we think about past experiences we've had, the colors are the first things that come to mind. It is not surprising, then, that we find many references to color is a descriptive novel such as One Hundred Years of Solitude. Color, while subtle, can be used in many cases to allude to some higher motif or theme. The color yellow is used specifically to allude to death, change, and destruction, throughout the novel. By analyzing several of the instances where color appears, we can gain insight into underlying motifs in the novel.

Early on in the book, for example, José Arcadio Buendía "succeed[s] in penetrating the metallic debris, and separates Úrsula's gold.... [a] dry and yellowish mass" (31). Using the secrets of alchemy he succeeds in recovering some of the family's...