Gushing Over the Set: The Birdcages
Why I'm focused on birdcages in the Netflix adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude
The treatment of birdcages in Netflix’s adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude perfectly straddles the line between truthfully depicting a detail from the book while also adding new depth to it for the show.
IN EP1: MACONDO, WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BOOK REGARDING BIRDCAGES…
CHAPTER 1, PAGE 9: “Since the time of its founding, José Arcadio Buendía had built traps and cages. In a short time he filled not only his own house but all of those in the village with troupials, canaries, bee eaters, and redbreasts. The concert of so many different birds became so disturbing that Úrsula would plug her ears with beeswax so as not to lose her sense of reality. The first time that Melquíades’ tribe arrived, selling glass balls for headaches, everyone was surprised that they had been able to find that village lost in the drowsiness of the swamp, and the gypsies confessed that they had found their way by the song of the birds.”
….IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EPISODE.
TIME STAMP -27:59: José Arcadio Buendía builds birdcages for the whole town.
TIME STAMP -27:38: The cacophony of birdsong annoys Úrsula so much she plugs her ears.
TIME STAMP -25:00: Melquíades and his band of travelers locate Macondo by following the sound of the town’s massive captive bird population.
IN EP2: IT’S LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE, BIRDCAGE DETAILS ARE NOT FROM THE BOOK.
Birdcage symbolism pairs with Úrsula’s character arc in EP2: It’s Like An Earthquake. This is an innovation. You won’t find this symbolism in the book, though its inspiration clearly comes from the text.
One morning, early in EP2, Úrsula can’t find her sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, who are out hunting. A seemingly empty birdcage sways in the foreground as she runs through the house looking for them. But when she leaves the scene completely and José Arcadio enters the shot, the two birds in the birdcage (symbolizing her sons, I think) suddenly emerge.
Later in the episode, Úrsula leaves Macondo for five months searching for José Arcadio Jr. who has run away. At -17:13 left in the episode, the camera cuts to an empty birdcage with the door left open. This birdcage speaks to Úrsula’s particular type of captivity in marriage and in Macondo, which she has now escaped. It also speaks to her powerlessness in stopping her sons fledging the nest. José Arcadio Jr. fledges, leaving Macondo with the gypsies. Years later, Aureliano fledges Macondo to go fight in Colombia’s War of a Thousand Days.
THE BIRD-RELATED PLOT DETAILS TO EXPECT IN LATER EPISODES
As long as the adaptation stays true to the book, toward the end of this series (and over a hundred years after EP1 and EP2 take place), Úrsula will die at the estimated of age 115-122. The day she’s buried, there’s an apocalyptic die off of birds in Macondo (Chapter 17, p 350).
Since birds and birdcages have been so important to the first two episodes, I’m very curious how the adaptation will depict Úrsula’s death and the extinction of Macondo’s birds. I’m staying tuned.