The Definition of Magical Realism There are varying opinions as to what qualifies a literary piece to be magical realism. Asking different people the definition would almost certainly result in differing answers. The best interpretation is the one that states magical realism is a style used to “depict the mundane, everyday world we know all too well—but then they inject it with some fantasy as if fantasy were the most normal thing in the world.” (Shmoop Editorial Team) This definition overlooks a common trait that is present in all magical realism though. This component is the hidden mockery of human nature. These overall realistic stories include a magical element that is presented as normal and that derides an aspect of human nature. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” the story was mostly realistic until we were introduced to an angel that was stuck in the mud. Obviously this isn’t something that would actually happen, but the characters don’t act surprised or amazed that there is an angel, it’s just accepted. In fact, a neighborhood full of people end up “tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal.” (Marquez 1) They locked an angel in a chicken coop, burned him with a branding iron, and turned him into a public attraction without thinking twice. Honestly, the only time they saw him as anything more than animal is when they were worried he might die. That’s when they began to wonder what they would do with a dead angel. The whole scenario with the angel demonstrates people's tendency to be uncaring until the consequences will affect them personally. The family was content to leave the angel to rot their chicken coop, until they realized they wouldn’t know what to do with him afterwards. This story, through the realistic and the fantastical, manages to reveal a major human weakness. In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, a body washes up on the shore of a coastal village.
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The scene is certainly believable as well as most of the details in the story. However, the body happens to be one of giant stature and such beauty that the entire village in consumed by it’s presence. “They noticed too that he bore his death with pride, for he did not have the lonely look of other drowned men who came out of the sea or that haggard, needy look of men who drowned in rivers.” (Marquez 90) The women note that he looks different from other drowned people, but they were referring to his facial expression, rather than his lack of decomposition. His clothes were torn to shreds, yet his skin was unscathed. The characters view this impossible event just as they would any other typical one. It’s like when they first grasp just how tall he is and they think, “that maybe the ability to keep on growing after death was part of the nature of certain drowned men.” (Marquez 90) The preposterous situations are nothing but nature to them. Again, like in all magical realism pieces, the unrealistic is paired with a lesson. For the women to make assumptions of the man, like that he died with pride, was wrong and based purely on his looks. Unfortunately, people do tend to jump to conclusions; they judge a book by it’s cover. The attributes
The scene is certainly believable as well as most of the details in the story. However, the body happens to be one of giant stature and such beauty that the entire village in consumed by it’s presence. “They noticed too that he bore his death with pride, for he did not have the lonely look of other drowned men who came out of the sea or that haggard, needy look of men who drowned in rivers.” (Marquez 90) The women note that he looks different from other drowned people, but they were referring to his facial expression, rather than his lack of decomposition. His clothes were torn to shreds, yet his skin was unscathed. The characters view this impossible event just as they would any other typical one. It’s like when they first grasp just how tall he is and they think, “that maybe the ability to keep on growing after death was part of the nature of certain drowned men.” (Marquez 90) The preposterous situations are nothing but nature to them. Again, like in all magical realism pieces, the unrealistic is paired with a lesson. For the women to make assumptions of the man, like that he died with pride, was wrong and based purely on his looks. Unfortunately, people do tend to jump to conclusions; they judge a book by it’s cover. The attributes