In the novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of Spirits, we see how Allende and Garcia Marquez use genealogy to develop Esteban Trueba and José Arcadio Buendia. The authors both use character genealogy to influence the characters in a different way. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Garcia Marquez used José Arcadio Buendia's genealogy to influence his development as a character. The same can be said with How Allende uses Trueba's genealogy to greatly affect his development in The House of the Spirits. In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, we can see that the Buendia genealogy had a great influence on their current lifestyle. Ursula's great-great-grandmother still had nightmares about Sir Frances Drakes attack, and this is the beginning of the Buendia-Iguaran genealogy. It was his nightmares that led the family to settle in Macondo, an isolated place “marked on no map” (Garcia Marquez 13). It is also the beginning of their isolationist lifestyle. The Buendias' past also affected the way Ursula lived due to their isolationist lifestyle. She was afraid of having a child with a deformity who "wore a system of leather straps and was closed in the front by a thick iron buckle" (Garcia Marquez 21) and never consummated her marriage to her husband, which made him look ridiculous. The chastity pants that Ursula wears also symbolize the isolation into which the Buendias have placed themselves. Garcia Marquez uses the Buendia genealogy to stem the family's isolationist lifestyle. This will also have a great impact on the education of José Arcadio Buendia because it will be the foundation of his personality and character. The lonely years Buendia spent because of the decision...... middle of paper ... prevents this from happening to Alba, but because of her actions she must suffer. This brings out some of Trueba's less attractive traits in the novel. Both Allende and Garcia Marquez use genealogy to develop the characters and their novel, but they use it in different aspects. Garcia Marquez uses the Buendia-Iguaran genealogy to lay the groundwork for the isolationist lifestyle the family describes and how it affected Esteban Arcadio Trueba. On the other hand, Allende uses genealogy to show the impact that Esteban Trueba creates by placing too much importance on genealogy and the treatment of his family.Works CitedAllende, Isabel. The House of Spirits. Trans. Magda Bogin. New York: BantamBooks, 1993 Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. A hundred years of solitude. Trans. Grégory Rabassa. Ed.3rd ed.New York: Harper Perennial, 2006 Print.