The controversy surrounding Magical Realism makes the classification of what is and what is not Magical Realism very difficult. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a famous Latin American author, has written many pieces of what is generally conceived to be Magical Realism. Marqez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” fulfills every characteristic of Magical Realism..
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” includes many aspects, which may be described as magical. In the story, an old man with a very poor set of wings is found and kept as a pet for several years. These wings were described by the doctor in the story as “…so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them, too” (528). The fact that the old man had wings in the first place seems very acceptable to the characters, and this nonchalance is conveyed to the reader. Marquez also adds to the story the tale of the lady spider. The lady spider has the body of a tarantula and the head of a young girl. She was transformed to this state after sneaking out of her parents home to attend a dance. Witches, wizards, and spells are not used to transform her, simply lightning. The lady spider takes away the old man’s mobs of spectators leaving him more ordinary in that he is still around even after his fifteen minutes of fame are over.
Another example of magic is the overabundance of crabs. An infestation one can accept easily enough. However, an infestation of crabs so severe the stench alone makes the infant very ill is much more nonrealistic. The use of numbers also seems magical in a sense. The story takes place on the third day of r…
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…sailor who remembers his past as a human and is adjusting to his fate as a angel.
The angel makes many mistakes with his miracles. However, the family that houses him, though they treat him as inferior, does have a turn of fate because of his existence. The angel brings them wealth when they charge admission to view him. For this family of three, life takes a better turn after giving the old man a chicken coop in which to sleep.
Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” fulfills every characteristic of Magical Realism. His short story contains magic that exists in a realistic background. One can easily see why Marquez is such a forerunner in the field of Magical Realism.
Works Cited
Garcia Marqez, Gabriel: “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.” The Norton Introduction of Literature. Ed. Jerome Beaty. N.Y.: W.W.Norton and Company, 1996. 525-529.
Linking Magical Realism and the Sublime in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Linking Magical Realism and the Sublime in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” links Magical Realism and Sublime literature to one another in such a way that Magical Realism seems to be a genre of the Sublime. This short story was published with a collection of other stories entitled Leaf Storm and Other Stories in 1955. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a native Columbian, has accomplished a great deal in the field of Magical Realism. This particular short story fulfills the requirements for Magical Realism and, at the same time, the Sublime. This fact leads one to believe that Magical Realism is, in fact, a genre of the Sublime instead of the Fantastic. The characteristics of Magical Realism match those of the Sublime much more extensively than those of Fantastical literature.
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” includes many aspects, which may be described as magical. In the story, an old man with a very poor set of wings is found and kept as a pet for several years. These wings were described by the doctor in the story as “…so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn’t understand why other men didn’t have them, too” (528).
The fact that the old man had wings in the first place seems very acceptable to the characters, and this nonchalance is conveyed to the reader. To take an idea or an object that one is familiar with and distorting that image into something unfamiliar is called defamiliarization (Simkins 150). This use of defamiliarization is a very important characteristic of both Magical Realism as well as the Sublime. An angel is something with which most are somewhat familiar; however, Marquez’s angel is a completely different type of angel. One e…
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…between Magical Realism and Sublime literature seems very obvious when one examines the criteria for each. Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” links Magical Realism and Sublime literature to one another in such a way that Magical Realism seems to be a genre of the Sublime. This short story fulfills the requirements of each. However, the requirements are the very same ideas and principles. Thus Magical Realism should be classified as a type of the Sublime.
Works Cited
Loginus. On the Sublime. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995.
Sandner, David. The Fantastic Sublime. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. 51-55.
Simpkins, Scott. “Sources of Magical Realism/ Supplements to Realism in Contemporary Latin American Literature.” Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 145-159.