What if our world was filled with magical beings such as dragons, trolls, and vampires? All that one could ever dream of, right in front of us? This thought is what built magical realism as a genre. It has grown into not only a type of read that pulls you into a world with magic but also a gateway for authors to give political commentary while being subtle and allowing for more flexibility. An example of a novel that uses Magical Realism for political commentary is Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchet. Pratchet uses the setting of a seemingly medieval world at war to comment on toxic masculinity, misogyny and unnecessary violence in a world filled with trolls, vampires, werewolves, and the unknown. We follow Polly and her adventures dealing with the
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In Monstrous Regiment the reader sees Polly’s thoughts as she travels though a warzone. Polly is setting up to enlist in her country’s military, however in her world women are not allowed to do so. In her bathroom at The Duchess, the bar her father owns and where she’d worked since she was young, she cuts her hair and puts on pants. She claims this is the only thing she has to do to pass as male besides having a spare pair of socks “And a woman by herself is missing a man, while a man by himself is his own master. Trousers. That's the secret. Trousers and a pair of socks. I never dreamed it was like this. Put on trousers and the world changes. We walk different. We act different. I see these girls and I think: Idiot's Get yourself some trousers!”(p.267). She enlists in order to find her lost brother, Paul, who enlisted but never returned. As time goes on Polly eventually learns that every single person in her regiment is female as well as some being magical. Even Sergeant Jackrum, the one character besides
In Monstrous Regiment the reader sees Polly’s thoughts as she travels though a warzone. Polly is setting up to enlist in her country’s military, however in her world women are not allowed to do so. In her bathroom at The Duchess, the bar her father owns and where she’d worked since she was young, she cuts her hair and puts on pants. She claims this is the only thing she has to do to pass as male besides having a spare pair of socks “And a woman by herself is missing a man, while a man by himself is his own master. Trousers. That's the secret. Trousers and a pair of socks. I never dreamed it was like this. Put on trousers and the world changes. We walk different. We act different. I see these girls and I think: Idiot's Get yourself some trousers!”(p.267). She enlists in order to find her lost brother, Paul, who enlisted but never returned. As time goes on Polly eventually learns that every single person in her regiment is female as well as some being magical. Even Sergeant Jackrum, the one character besides