Magical Realism Magical realism is a mixture of culture and oral tradition, made to seem a reality. Magical realism is when the story is in a real world setting, but has magical factors and unexplainable events that attempt to make the reader a believer of something. Magical realism is composed of, historical and cultural realities, magical elements, and a metamorphosis occurring with someone.
Historical and cultural realities help to convince the reader that there was a real event that took place. In the short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” there is mention of the Catholic religion, priests and the Pope. Also, one of the main characters is a fallen angel, from the Celestial conspiracy, where angels that followed Satan were …show more content…
In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, the angel is, “dressed like a ragpicker...very few teeth in his mouth...huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked”, yet the people there had no problem accepting him, people even came from all over the place to see the man. Also, there is a girl who has the body of a spider, because she disobeyed her parents, and she was accepted among the people. “She was a frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden.” In the book, Bless Me Ultima, Ultima uses special herbs that have magical powers, along with her soul/spirit owl, who she is able to control, and is connected to her lifeline. Throughout the story there are curses put on people, but Ultima is easily able to cure them with her special herbs and knowledge of the earth. Ultima also uses her dolls to remove curses from people, by making the dolls come to life. “She lifted the three dolls, and held them to my sick uncle’s mouth, and when he breathed on them, they seemed to squirm in her hands...I shuddered to see those clay dolls take life.” These dolls are later used to defeat the other witches. In addition to, Esteban, in the short story, “The Handsomest Drowned Man” is a man of huge size, almost like an immortal being due to his unusually perfect characteristics, yet the people almost worship him, and try to make everything in his image. All these elements are necessary to make the “magical” part in the magical
Historical and cultural realities help to convince the reader that there was a real event that took place. In the short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” there is mention of the Catholic religion, priests and the Pope. Also, one of the main characters is a fallen angel, from the Celestial conspiracy, where angels that followed Satan were …show more content…
In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, the angel is, “dressed like a ragpicker...very few teeth in his mouth...huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked”, yet the people there had no problem accepting him, people even came from all over the place to see the man. Also, there is a girl who has the body of a spider, because she disobeyed her parents, and she was accepted among the people. “She was a frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden.” In the book, Bless Me Ultima, Ultima uses special herbs that have magical powers, along with her soul/spirit owl, who she is able to control, and is connected to her lifeline. Throughout the story there are curses put on people, but Ultima is easily able to cure them with her special herbs and knowledge of the earth. Ultima also uses her dolls to remove curses from people, by making the dolls come to life. “She lifted the three dolls, and held them to my sick uncle’s mouth, and when he breathed on them, they seemed to squirm in her hands...I shuddered to see those clay dolls take life.” These dolls are later used to defeat the other witches. In addition to, Esteban, in the short story, “The Handsomest Drowned Man” is a man of huge size, almost like an immortal being due to his unusually perfect characteristics, yet the people almost worship him, and try to make everything in his image. All these elements are necessary to make the “magical” part in the magical