In the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, the author has discussed several themes all with the intention of showing their impact on society. One major theme that has cut across the novel is the theme of love. Love and lust are seen to be entangled in each other and can only be differentiated after an in-depth analysis of the book. Familial love, especially between siblings and parents has been confused with sexual love. The novel shows how husbands and wives have developed almost no sexual chemistry with each other as they strive to satisfy their sexual needs with other partners. In the same note, the parentage of many characters is kept a secret and thus creating a question on whether real love is existent. Incest has been recorded in the novel owing to the many secrets about parentage that have not been discussed (Summaries, 2016). The complicated situations touching on love have been caused by lack of dedication by the characters to building strong love and adhering to the social norms. “time was not passing…it was turning in a circle…” Many mistakes have been made in the arena of love, and this could only be prevented if the characters were open about love and on who they have a relationship with (Summaries, 2016).

The Buendia family is entangled in a complicated situation as for them they are afraid of promoting love between close family members. It is a huge struggle as their ancestors had experienced these (Summaries, 2016). The greatest undoing is that the fear is not as strong as compared to love. Familial love leading to sexual attraction is seen in Jose Arcadio who goes ahead to marry his first cousin Ursula. Although the family had been against this, Jose cares less and alleges that there is a strong love that cannot be quenched, “and both of them remained floating in an empty universe where the only every day & eternal reality was love…”  For him, he is not afraid of having a child with a deformity. This scenario proves in no small extent that love has blinded most of the characters to a position that they can’t see the worst case scenarios that can happen if they love each other. The situation seems to favor Jose and his wife Ursula, and this is seen as love conquering against all the odds. However, Jose kills Prudencio for mocking him because of his acts. Love, in this case, is seen to have contributed to Jose killing Prudencio. The desire of the two to leave their home for Macondo is proof of strong love and attraction to each other (Summaries, 2016).

Despite the fear of getting kids with a pigtail, it has been seen that none of the individuals is interested in foregoing love because of the dangers that are associated with incest. Most of them are so ready to deal with the social and psychological effects that it brings. The novel has depicted a strong love despite the Buendia’s being unable to grow their families beyond the original bloodline. It is true their love, but again this love has not been proved in a strong way (Summaries, 2016). , although not accepted within the community, has been proved to be a strong foundation of love for many characters. Jose Arcadio himself goes ahead and develops a romantic relationship with his adopted sister Rebeca. To Jose, losing family ties is not as important as compared to being in love with the sister. The two develop a deep and serious love for each other and fortunately this time around they are not afraid of a child with a pigtail. He says “It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.” Jose and Rebeca sacrifice the closeness they have with their families all in the name of the romantic love between them (Summaries, 2016). According to Summaries (2016), love is the only theme that cuts across the whole novel despite there being many other open themes.

The numerous cases of incestuous developments in the novel show a community that has chosen to ignore the social and moral cues for the sake of their love. However, in some individuals like Aureliano, he decides to forgo love and marry an outsider rather than be a despot from his people. Despite there being a lack of respect between Fernanda and Aureliano, the two have not divorced citing their religion (Summaries, 2016). Love is seen between Aureliano Segundo and Petra Cotes that even affects positively the fertility of the livestock they own together “Cease, cows, life is short.” The scenario proves a real love that is passionate to each other and goes beyond mutual satisfaction. The most intriguing part of this relationship is that they thrived despite having the community being against them. At this point the words “there is always something left to love”  make so much sense. Meme who happens to be the daughter of Aureliano and Fernanda have a passionate, romantic relationship with Mauricio Babilonia (Summaries, 2016). Fernanda believes that the only way to save his family and the closeness is by hiding the identity of the baby. The case proves that although the individuals are not mindful of their actions, they are worried about the familial love that exists.

More scenarios of romantic love are seen between Aurelio and Amaranta who also happen to be a relative. A strong relationship is seen between Remedios Moscote and Colonel Aureliano Buendia. Marquez in the novel has been keen to develop themes of love although most of them have been based on familial love that later on grew to romantic love (Summaries, 2016). In fact, for them, they “made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it.” Love is seen to play a very crucial part of the whole book. It is through love that most other themes have been built upon.

References

Summaries, B. (2016). One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis, and Reading Guide. BrightSummaries. Com.

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