Page 68: "Jose Arcadio Buendía grew red with indignation. 'Love is a disease,' he thundered. 'With so many pretty and decent girls around, the only thing that occurs to you is to get married to the daughter of our enemy.'"
I found this statement to be very interesting because it focuses on how political a marriage can be. Jose Arcadio Buendia has been wanting Aureliano to find a wife for a decent bit of time at this point, but once it is the daughter of his "enemy" it is off limits. With a marriage, then the two families would be linked and have an alliance (if we're looking at how marriage has historically been constructed). For Jose Arcadio Buendia, he cannot have that. He wants to (or believes he needs to) keep control over Macondo. By his son marrying into the magistrate's family, it could be seen as a peace offering that Jose does not want to offer. Then there is the whole "Love is a disease" part. He calls love a disease, but he has been pushing for his son to find a woman and wouldn't he rather have his son love his wife? Not to mention, Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula wanted to get married despite their families not supporting (cause they are cousins) (pg. 20). If Jose allowed love to influence his life in that way, he should not be stopping his own son from pursuing that same goal. It just seems like there is no need for Jose to criticize his own son, unless deep down he is criticizing himself too.
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