Outside Reading - Week 3, Post B

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Dear Jose Arcadio Buendia,

What interests you so much in all of your inventions? When you hear something about a new phenomenon, you do all that it takes to experience it. Is it that you are easily swayed, or have a high interest in it, or are you trying to prove yourself? Or is it simply your niche and just what you do out of habit? And why do you not care at all about what your wife and family think? You know your son is running off with a hooker and it upsets your wife, yet you do nothing to stop him or comfort her. And you also know that your wife does not want to do some of the things that you ask her to do, but you still make her do them. I guess maybe it was just the times? But you seem selfish. You do not accept that your younger son isn't interested in alchemy as you are, and you force him to be. He wants to make his own name, like you want to make yours. At least your first born wants to help in the family business. And about that business and your wife, you carelessly spent her entire fortune trying to double the gold, and you didn't apologize for it. Are you really that selfish? Or is she just being to understanding and not hard enough on you? I guess I will have to find out.
Monika