In the magic realism genre, unrealistic elements appear in a seemingly realistic story. People respond to these unexpected elements in various ways. Readers may feel startled, uncomfortable or may find these elements fascinating. The characters of the story go through the similar process as the readers do. As the authors of the magic realism genre aim to make the story seem real, the characters inside the story encounter unbelievable, magical events during their realistic lives. Thus, by examining how the characters in the story react to unreality, we can learn about ourselves in our practical lives. The characters in the two stories by Gabriel Marquez, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, show very different reactions to magical incidences in their ordinary lives. This distinction displays two opposite attitudes people could have toward magical elements and imaginations.
Unexpectedly, a large body appears on the small village in the story “The
Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.” The villagers soon realize that the body
weighed more than any dead man they had ever known, and he’d been taller than
all other men. The stature and the appearance of the body simply amaze the
villagers. The magical element is now introduced to their lives. Soon the body
makes them think that their lives are little and insignificant. They think that
they are incapable of doing what he could do in one night, and they end up
dismissing them deep in their hearts as the weakest, meanest and most useless
creatures on earth. They also become aware for the first time of the desolation
of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their
dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man. However, as
the story draws to the end, this sense of deficiency serves as vitality that
changes and renovates the stagnant village. The body brought change to the
ordinary village and the attitude of the people. The villagers “knew that
everything would be different from then on”, and they would plant flowers and
make their village more beautiful and lively.
The
characters in this story could be seen and understood as people who value
fantasies and imaginations. And when they let the body go, the magical element,
they let him go without an anchor so that he could come back if he wished and
whenever he wished. This course of action resembles our own experience of
reading magical stories. After we encounter stories with magical, unrealistic
elements through books, films, and plays, our life may seem dull and normal.
For instance, after watching “Avatar”, many people fell into depression and
suicidal thoughts failing to cope with the dream of Pandora (beautiful alien world
where the movie is set) being intangible (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html)
But eventually, we
transform these discrepancy and yearning into a motivation and try to make our
lives better and more fantastic. That may be the reason people love stories
with magical features.
In
contrast, the story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” presents quite
different reaction. Although the old man possesses the magical quality, he is
not treated special in the story. The story also incorporates very dark mood,
in which the characters don’t appreciate the magical qualities. It seems as if
the life is too bleak, and people are not accepting the fantasy and consider it
as a luxury to them. They use and exploit heavenly creature, an angel for very
earthly and realistic purpose which is money. The old man eventually becomes
the burden, the uselessness that brings no real interest or profit to them. And
when the old man with enormous wings leaves the town Elisenda, the female
protagonist, seems to be freed from something annoying and unnecessary.
People show contrasting reactions to magical elements in a story. Sometimes these
elements serve as stimulation to change people’s lives and sometimes they seem
like mere luxury with no practical worth. To every people, reality is
unsatisfactory to a certain degree. Fantasies and magical stories offer us
alternative, more interesting reality to this unsatisfactory and mundane
reality. To accept and appreciate these magical qualities in the story or to
deny it and consider it unrealistic and unnecessary is entire up to the
reader’s choice.
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Wow, I love this part of the journal:
답글삭제"The characters in this story could be seen and understood as people who value fantasies and imaginations.~ suicidal thoughts failing to cope with the dream of Pandora (beautiful alien world where the movie is set) being intangible" . This part not only is beautifully written, but it shows a very unique characteristic of stories with magic realism (in my perspective). "we transform discrepancy and yearning into a motivation and try to make our lives better and more fantastic" and that was what the villagers in the story of the handsome man did - they took what they fantasized ( the handsome man) and used it as a motivation to change themselves and the village. I generally agree with what you wrote in the journal - in a lot of parts we share similar thoughts! I enjoyed reading this:)
Very good. Well written, succinct, with a nice comparison to Avatar. In a sense, we could probably identify elements of magic realism in Avatar, which "the suspension of disbelief" (verisimilitude) asks us to accept. Reading your comparisons, I wonder how the angel would have been perceived had it been Esteban (alive) with wings. Or, if the angel had been the washed up dead body instead of Esteban. What would have changed? While I like your interpretation of how Esteban transformed the village by forcing them to dream big, I feel you stumble past the essence of the story in terms of "savior." I think Esteban is a representation of Jesus, as I've written in many comments thus far.
답글삭제All in all, good work.