One Hundred Years of Solitude written by Gabriel Garcia Márquez was published in 1967. The novel tells the story of the Buendía family. The second novel chosen for the purposes of this essay is The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende published in 1982. The novel tells the story of the Trueba family over four generations. The two authors use elements of magical realism in their writing styles. Both novels have many continuing themes throughout. Two themes that will be highlighted in this essay are the importance of death and family. Death Since One Hundred Years of Solitude takes place over the course of seven generations within the family, death is a very important theme throughout the novel. Many quotes in the novel show how many deaths took place and the meaning those deaths had. In the third chapter of the novel there is this quote about death: “The gypsy was inclined to stay in the city. He had truly experienced death, but he had returned because he could not stand loneliness (Garcia Márquez)”. This quote is significant, not only because it shows death, but also because it demonstrates the magical realism used in the novel, the characters are able to come back to life after death. Throughout the novel, many characters long to be alone and desire solitude, so this quote is ironic because solitude is the outcome after death. In the fourth chapter there is this quote: “You have come from very far away! After so many years of death, the desire for the living was so intense, the need for company so pressing, the closeness of that other death that exists in death was so terrifying... He asked the dead of Riohacha about him, the dead who came from valley of Upar, to those who came from the swamp, and... in the middle of the paper......his daughter (Allende) .” Alba decides at this very moment to forgive the men who tortured her in the past. She is pregnant with a child that is most likely the result of rape. This forgiveness is necessary for her because she wants to break the cycle of violence she has experienced throughout her life. This quote can also be interpreted to mean that she wants to forgive the man who raped her and the men who hurt her and simply feel love for her son. In both One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of the Spirits, many different themes are expressed. Two common themes in both novels are death and family. Allende and Garcia Márquez vividly portray the details that happen in the lives of these different families. Both authors write in a magical realism style that combines real-life and fictional events.