Magical Realism
I have
seen magical realism prominent in many of Isabel Allende's novels
such as House of the Spirits and Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's
short stories and novels such as In the Time of Cholera. I
have also seen it in American novels too, such as Sarah Addison
Allen's Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen. It is a
genre I love because it brings the fantastical inside the reality of
the novel. Magical realism has the power to grasp the reader into
the story or novel and get a dose of reality mixed with fantasy.
What exactly is magical realism and how does it fit in with Garcia-Marquez's story? According to Postcolonialstudies.emory.edu, magical realism is a literary device that brings out two perspectives: “one based on a so-called rational view of reality and the other on the acceptance of the supernatural as prosaic reality”. In other words it is the merging of the supernatural with the actual existence in the story. The reader can see this firsthand in the story of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. The man with the wings, or the angel, is the first clue as he has wings attached to him. The couple that find the man stare at him and “found him familiar” to them, like he has been sent from heaven. Although this man-angel has the appearance and smell of being human, the people in the town are afraid of him and treat him like filth. Also, the ending of the story when the man's wings grow new feathers so he is able to fly once again, is also a supernatural element that marks this a magical realism story.
Garcia-Marquez uses descriptions of feelings and smells in the story, another element that has been found in magical realism. Though it is not mentioned in the essay of the use of smells and colors, the essay did mention that “magical realism is illustrated in the inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural and Western and indigenous”. We can see how filthy and ugly the man-angel is, feel the chicken pox that he gets, see and smell the rain and sun, feel the sea nearby, see the worn-down chicken coop the man-angel is kept in and see his natural wings, all by the narration of the author. This is similar to The House of the Spirits, where we are awed and fearful of Clara's innate clairvoyance and feel the spirits around the story, such as Ferula's ghost, just like we feel awed over the angel but fearful in what to do.
I am confused why Garcia-Marquez calls this story, “a tale for children”. Could children understand this story without feeling fearful or confused. It could be he sees the reader as a child, one who is not used to magical elements inside such a realistic story or who are unfamiliar with the idea of magical realism. What if the adult reader himself is the child, and Garcia-Marquez wishes to tell us a story that uses both reality and fantasy combined, unlike other genres? The fantastical element makes it seem like this story could be for children, but are these really for young children or adults who need to reach inside and become children again to understand stories? I get swept away with novels such as these because it is like telling a fairy-tale but instead it for an adult rather than a child. Magical elements of a story combined with reality or fictioned reality can help a reader feel there is a supernatural presence around—like there is more beyond just the physical and understand the metaphysical plain. It is like a mythology—telling the story of something that happened long ago but is fiction yet stems our belief in the unknown. What better way to find it than in stories such as Garcia-Marquez's “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?”
What exactly is magical realism and how does it fit in with Garcia-Marquez's story? According to Postcolonialstudies.emory.edu, magical realism is a literary device that brings out two perspectives: “one based on a so-called rational view of reality and the other on the acceptance of the supernatural as prosaic reality”. In other words it is the merging of the supernatural with the actual existence in the story. The reader can see this firsthand in the story of “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. The man with the wings, or the angel, is the first clue as he has wings attached to him. The couple that find the man stare at him and “found him familiar” to them, like he has been sent from heaven. Although this man-angel has the appearance and smell of being human, the people in the town are afraid of him and treat him like filth. Also, the ending of the story when the man's wings grow new feathers so he is able to fly once again, is also a supernatural element that marks this a magical realism story.
Garcia-Marquez uses descriptions of feelings and smells in the story, another element that has been found in magical realism. Though it is not mentioned in the essay of the use of smells and colors, the essay did mention that “magical realism is illustrated in the inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural and Western and indigenous”. We can see how filthy and ugly the man-angel is, feel the chicken pox that he gets, see and smell the rain and sun, feel the sea nearby, see the worn-down chicken coop the man-angel is kept in and see his natural wings, all by the narration of the author. This is similar to The House of the Spirits, where we are awed and fearful of Clara's innate clairvoyance and feel the spirits around the story, such as Ferula's ghost, just like we feel awed over the angel but fearful in what to do.
I am confused why Garcia-Marquez calls this story, “a tale for children”. Could children understand this story without feeling fearful or confused. It could be he sees the reader as a child, one who is not used to magical elements inside such a realistic story or who are unfamiliar with the idea of magical realism. What if the adult reader himself is the child, and Garcia-Marquez wishes to tell us a story that uses both reality and fantasy combined, unlike other genres? The fantastical element makes it seem like this story could be for children, but are these really for young children or adults who need to reach inside and become children again to understand stories? I get swept away with novels such as these because it is like telling a fairy-tale but instead it for an adult rather than a child. Magical elements of a story combined with reality or fictioned reality can help a reader feel there is a supernatural presence around—like there is more beyond just the physical and understand the metaphysical plain. It is like a mythology—telling the story of something that happened long ago but is fiction yet stems our belief in the unknown. What better way to find it than in stories such as Garcia-Marquez's “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?”
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