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Magical Realism In Catch Of A Death Foretold By Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez

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Magical Realism is, by definition, a story composed of primarily realistic events which are enhanced by supernatural or magical events. Catch of a Death Foretold, a novel by Gabriel García Márquez, holds several occurrences that would classify the book as magical realism. The realistic points of the book are easy to point out of course, a small town, two angry brothers, a devastated fiancee etc… However, the magical realism lays in the details of the book. In the crevices of his storyline, Marquez hides multiple magical components that he uses to remind the reader of the magic within reality. For example, Bayardo San Roman returning to Angela after not opening a single letter from her, Santiago dreaming of the rain that falls at the moment of his death, and most protruding, everyone in the town knowing of Santiago’s fate, besides himself. The idea of anything like this happening is so unrealistic, that it blends seamlessly together to form an interesting and wildly intriguing novel. When Bayardo leaves Angela because of her “treason” to him, Angela picks up the habit of writing a letter a week to Bayardo, and continues to do so over a period of 17 years. Angela must have written Bayardo over 850 letters over this period of time, yet Bayardo claims to have never opened even one. Despite this, he somehow decides to return to Angela and forgive her. You may ask yourself, “how could this be?”, and the answer lies within one word: magic. Magic that is inserted so fluidly into

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