Obsession is one of the greatest obstacles for humanity to overcome. In Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the motif of obsession contributes to both characterizing and even prefiguring the destiny of the characters. Both novels illustrate that obsessions with an object or person lead to demise, but the novels differ in how they depict the effects of these obsessions on humanity. Before continuing this analysis, the obsession will be clearly defined. For the purposes of this essay, obsession will be characterized by three concepts: the character is shown constantly contemplating the desired object or person, most of a character's actions or goals are directed toward the object or person, and the character is shown ready to go. to extreme measures in order to reach the object or person. In this context, obsession differs from desire because desire can be short-lived and easily satiated, but obsession takes desire to the level of a destructive means because the character focuses only on the goal and means to achieve that goal. aim. Obsession will be defined more as an addiction than a desire. In the first novel, Midaq Alley, the characters are characterized by an obsession with love or money. Hamida, a woman who grew up in an unfavorable financial environment, is often depicted as thinking about money and willing to go against tradition and religion in order to achieve financial success. Hamida, as she walks the streets and looks at store windows, is described as having a "lust for power [that] was centered around her love of money." [Hamida] was convinced that it was the magic key to the whole world” (Midaq Alley, P40). This mindset earlier in his life affects him later...... middle of article ...... and both novels suggest that addictions lead to a degradation of humanity. In Midaq Alley, the author offers a way to resolve this degradation through the introduction of a pious and honest man named Radwan Hussainy, offering a solution to this scourge of obsessions. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, however, the author destroys the town and almost all of the inhabitants of Macondo, a town filled with the Seven Deadly Sins and the obsessions the characters possess towards those sins. By including the destruction of the city, the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude offers no alternative to this sinful nature of man, illustrating that whatever sin or obsession he is possessed by, everything will be destroyed.Works citedMahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley. New York: Anchor Press, 1992. Márquez, Gabriel García. A hundred years of solitude. Perennial, 1998.