Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Melquíades

This is the one role that's clearly cast in this novel. What else is Melquíades if not a teacher to each successive generation of Buendía men? When he's alive, he brings them technology; after he dies, he teaches many of them to read and write. His writings even turn out to be a long prophesy/history of the Buendías, containing all the wisdom he didn't have time to impart.