Elements of Magical Realism and Sublime in Toad's Mouth Essay

Have you ever been in a family problem when you don't get along with any of your family members. In the short story," The Horned Toad," by Gerald Haslem, it talks about a kid who doesn't get along with his grandmother. Gerald Haslem, the main character, finds a horned toad and shows it to his grandmother and she says," expectoran su sangre... de los ojos," but then she says to put it back where it came from. Later on in the book the toad was like a symbol of peace which helped Gerald Haslem get along with his grandmother. Gerald Haslem figured out when you are in a relationship, sometimes it doesn't begin well, but when events positively change

Fairy tales are timeless entities that will always be relevant in people’s lives. Fairy tales and stories offer entertainment, advice, and moral examples. The creation of fairy tales is important in the development of social norms. Children everywhere would read fairy tales and learn from them. As a result, these fairy tales are translated into multiple languages and allows people with different backgrounds to understand and relate to the story. People take these stories and adapt them to life around them. Within these adaptations of the same story, it is normal to observe slight differences that contribute as evidence in identifying the culture or societies in which these stories come from. Whether it is the slang of the dialogue or the change of location, modern producers and writers are known to take these classic stories and adding a significant twist to adjust to their cultural agenda. The movie, The Princess and the Frog, is a modern example of writers and directors creating a modern twist to the popular story of the Brother Grimm’s The Frog King. The Princess and the Frog and The Frog King both encode the mores, values, and beliefs of the cultures of the societies from which they come because, even though they both have similar plot ideas, the differences of the location and the differences of the overall specific plotlines attribute to understanding how their own specific cultures influence the adaptation and the actual story.

Throughout the story there is much detail about what is happening without telling the readers everything which leaves all the details that were left out up to the reader’s imagination. It is a masterpiece that plays on the emotions and never-ending imagination of its readers. Because not all the small details were given by the author, readers are obligated to dissect the story and try to understand exactly what Joyce Carol Oates meant by what she wrote and the meaning behind this story. What makes this story beautiful even though it is full of evil is the way it was written, how every action, and dialogue within the story is carefully thought through, making every part of the text essential to the overall

The elements were used well in this story, but because the story was set in such a different culture, it was hard to recognize those elements being used. For example, one of the elements of fantasy is that there is a death involved or the storyline includes a threat or danger, which are both true about this book. In the middle, Annabella dies (133). Kira is very surprised at this death and wonders if it wasn’t an accident (141). This book also includes a threat or danger- physically and futuristically. Kira fears the alleged beasts that could physically hurt her and towards the end, Kira fears her Jamison- the power he has and what he is doing with it which could harm her future (123). During the parts describing Kira’s weaving talent and how it just comes to her, the reader may wonder if that is just her imagination, when it is really in her brain the whole time (45). This is another important element used wisely for this story because the reader can understand Kira’s confusion at her weaving talent, the reader can understand why she doesn’t even believe it herself because they have a hard time believing it. Although, it really did come to her magically, and the reader’s skepticality mirrors Kira’s own, in a way so that the reader understands her feelings (29). Another element that was used greatly throughout the story, was symbolism. For example, the Fen symbolized poverty, and the

Memories of the night before became a vivid memory in the recesses of his dimly lit mind, underneath the sunlight's intruding yet blissful gaze and the sensation of silk against his bare skin felt like a euphoria, a river of midnight encased his slender figure and with the scrunch of his refined nose and furrowed knit of his thin eyebrows, he rose from his slumber. Delicate fingertips leisurely danced across the silken sheets which lost its assuaging warmth only to discern that he was gone, Padding through the spacious house far too big for two alone to fill, and too much of a burden for one to find comfort in. To see his lover, clad in a suit that managed to take his breath away immediately

Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American that documents her Hispanic experience in her novels, essays, and poems. Alvarez rose to fame with her most prominent semi-autobiographical novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, along with the sequel Yo and In The Time of The Butterflies for their importance to postcolonial literature because of their exploration of the Caribbean diaspora in terms of the presence the United States had in the Dominican Republic. She is best known for her novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, which redefines the U.S. Latino identity with a mix of fiction, fact, and autobiography related through the perspectives of multiple narrators. She is awarded with the Pura Belpré award for writing for her portrayal

Magical realism is clearly present throughout Gabriel-Garcia Marquez's novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold.  Magical realism is the juxtaposition of realism with fantastic, mythic, and magical elements. A secondary trait was the characteristic attitude of narrators toward the subject matter: they frequently appeared to accept events contrary to the usual operating laws of the universe as natural, even unremarkable. Though the tellers of astonishing tales, they themselves expressed little or no surprise.

After living a difficult childhood life, Julia Alvarez wrote a book to represent and explain her strenuous childhood. Since In the Time of Butterflies was a representation of Alvarez’s life, she incorporated themes that she felt were attached to her childhood. In her life, family was a major

A novelist and a poet, Julia Alvarez is considered to be one of the greats when talking about American literature. At her current age of 64, she has a numerous amount of writings and has won many awards. Personal life experiences from her youth to the Civil War to now have highly influenced her works (Heredia). Descriptive and influential, it is clear why Alvarez’s publications have influenced society the way they have today.

Julia Alvarez is a contemporary Dominican writer, whose work ranges from poetry, short stories, essays, and novels. Alvarez’s work touches upon issues of migration, history, stereotypes, empowerment of Latin women, and the differing ideology of American and Dominican culture. She provides a strong voice and perspective for Latin women, and teaches other ethnicities in America about Latin culture. She uses a variety of words and phrases in her native language Spanish, as well as Spanglish and English. In 1991, Alvarez published a novel, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent.” The novel captures the struggle of four sisters who leave their home in the Dominican Republic and reside in the U.S. as refugees. Similarly, in 1994, Alvarez published another novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies.” The novel captures the hardships the Mirabel sisters succumb to. The Mirabel sisters found the underground movement in opposition to the dictator Trujillo. In 2000, Alvarez published another novel, “In the Name of Salome.” The novel captures the oppression of an older woman and her daughter. Many of Alvarez’s novels and poems resemble her life and the history of her beloved country, Dominican Republic.

Alvarez was born in New York in 1950 but lived the first ten years of her life in the Dominican Republic. At the time, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, a ruthless tyrant, held a dictatorship over the Dominican Republic (Barth). How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents takes place at the time of this dictatorship. Alvarez’s father was involved in a plot to overthrow Rafael Trujillo and moved his family back to New York when it failed (Barth). This abrupt uprooting was a culture shock to Alvarez who was used to the traditional Dominican culture (Shuman). In her novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Alvarez describes the struggles that result when children are uprooted from their Dominican culture.

During the time that this story was written, realism was a trending topic. Realism is a style and type

Imagine, every morning you wake up to the sound of the rooster singing. Not to the normal crow a rooster makes, but to a beautiful sonata that wakes your soul up from a deep slumber. It may not sound too realistic in our real word, but to a writer, this can bring special emphases to the story’s meaning. This literary practice is called magical realism. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines magical realism, or magic realism as they put it; 1) painting in a meticulously realistic style of imaginary or fantastic scenes or images; and 2) a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. It is the second definition that author Laura Esquivel, incorporates magical realism into her book, Like Water for Chocolate. Many of the themes and emotions in the book are emphasized with the use of Magical realism.

Since the main character is said to have come from the South "where the Zend tongue is not contaminated with Greek and where leprosy is infrequent," then his origin seems to be quite real (Borges 45). Another real element is the setting, which is not in some other realm but instead at a temple in the jungle. However, the magical element of the dreams hints to the reader that the main character is not from a normal background and that the story is probably just in an imaginary jungle. Yet, both the reader and the characters in the story accept these unreal elements as being real. Because of the cross between the real and the unreal, Magical Realism, like the Sublime, causes transcendence.

Another way in which the story may correspond with the sublime is Sierva's long red hair that had not been cut from the day she was born until the end of her excorcism. Wordsworth says, about the sublime, "Even in the scenes drawn from ordinary life, [the authors] would throw over them a certain coloring of the imagination" (qtd. in Sander 60). This effect is exactly what Marquez does with Sierva's hair. He alluded that there may be something supernatural about it. "The sublime affirm[s] a spiritual dimension to fantasy and explores, through fantastic images, the meaning and existence of spirit" (Sandner 145). Transformation, another sublime characteristic, is used to show how one's perception of something changes (qtd in Sandner 51). Instead of being just hair, it was a promise to Dominga's god. Defamiliarization, which is a characteristic of both the sublime and magical realism (Simpkins 150), is used in Of Love and Other Demons. It focuses one's attention on something, such as hair, that he or she would normally think nothing