The Symbolism Of Magic In The Cliff By Charles Baxter

Magic is the belief in supernaturalism, the belief that there is something beyond the ordinary. Magic is often portrayed as power and knowledge, and thus awarded to those who are worthy. In “The Cliff” by Charles Baxter, magic is portrayed as tradition. In the short story, a young boy and an old man, not distinguishable by name, drive to an unidentified spot along the coastline of California where the old man would teach the boy magic. More specifically, how to fly. Flying would give the boy a chance to witness the world from a different perspective, and because of that the boy is anxious and seemingly excited to learn from the old man. However once the old man taught the boy the magic, the boy wanted it for darker reasons than the light. Transcendentalism …show more content…
However, while the young boy denies any history with women and rejects the offer of alcohol, the old man is skeptical, “You could be hiding something out on me. The magic's no damn good if you're hiding something out on me.” (Baxter 1). The old man believes that if the young boy is hiding from him, then the magic wouldn’t work. However, the old man prompts the boy perform a sort of ritual, by removing his shoes, and the act of the boy drawing “a magic circle around himself.” (Baxter 2), made it seem like the boy stood on holy ground.Perhaps the need for purity was for other purposes other than to be innocent. Purity could have been seen as believing, and the old man said, “just hate to see a fresh kid like you crash on the rocks on account of you don't believe in them."(Baxter 2), showing that magic doesn't work without belief or faith. Next the old man asks the boy to “look out at the horizon” (Baxter, 2). Which is the horizon of human knowledge, and looking beyond it. The young boy is quick to follow these instructions and soon finds himself swooping down the cliff and flying above the water. The boy thinks to himself as he flies that, “he was grateful to the old man for teaching him the spells. But this –the cliffs, the sea, the blue sky, and the sweet wine– this was the old man's style, not his.” (Baxter, 3), showing that maybe society has changed his view on magic. …show more content…
The old man is portrayed as drunk and mysterious, and the young was innocent and new, two classic uses of dark and light to distinguish characters from each other. However it turned out to be the opposite. The young boy, “wanted to fly low to the ground … late at night,” (Baxter 3), and the old man felt young once more and feeling truly liberated from his initial state had, “ forgotten the dirty purposes of flight.” proving that the old man viewed magic as light and the boy view magic as something he could use in the darkness. Light seems literal in the piece while darkness takes a figurative meaning of the unknown, or of change. This could be because magic is not yet seen as darkness, or rather that no one before the boy had this view of