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Characteristics And Realism In 'Axolotl' By Julio Cort�zar

Decent Essays

In Julio Cortázar’s “Axolotl”, the magical realism characteristics of hybrid environments and supernatural and natural helps readers acquire a deeper understanding of reality.

First and foremost, the magical realism characteristics of a hybrid environment are demonstrated in the story when the narrator alternates locations. In the commencement of the story, the narrator describes what seems to be the growth of an obsession about going to an aquarium and staring at creatures known as axolotls. This obsession quickly escalated when the narrator would spend hours just looking at the animals and not being able to be focused on anything else. While the narrator would stare into the tank, others began to notice and tried to interfere. Cortázar …show more content…

This overall central idea of life is indirectly hidden throughout the story, while it portrays a narrator that is not psychologically balanced, the obsession later transforms to a generalization of life once it is taken out of just a human staring into an aquarium tank. Using magic realism impacts the readers because it endeavours a reality that is different from what is to be considered normal in society. Cortázar also used other characteristics of magic realism to fully explain reality and how it impacts readers on a deeper level. Furthermore, the magical realism characteristic of supernatural and natural is displayed in the story when the narrator fully experiences what it is like to be an axolotl living in the tank. In the beginning of the plot, the narrator introduces the setting of a botanical garden located in Paris, France; however, the narrator took a grand interest in going to the aquarium rather than the zoo. Cortázar’s opening line states, “I went to see them in the aquarium at the Jardin des Plantes and stayed for hours watching them, observing their immobility, their faint movements. Now I am an axolotl” (Cortázar 1218). The fact that the narrator becoming an axolotl was treated normal throughout the story proves that Cortázar's method of displaying reality uses magical elements that helps

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