preview

Magical Realism: The Old Man With Enormous Wings, By Gabriel Marquez

Decent Essays
Open Document

Nick Rollins Mrs.Asplund Adv. 10 Hr. 7 6 Nov. 2015 Magical realism Magical realism is one of the most beloved forms of literature today many people enjoy analyzing and discussing it. There are many entertaining and interesting themes found in magical realism this is one of the things that helps to draw people in. Magic realism turns the ordinary into the absolutely extraordinary by combining dreams with reality. Magical realism first began in Latin culture and it is now known throughout the world. Short stories that use magical realism aren't as well known as some of today's novels that incorporate magical realism into their stories. Magical realism is interesting because it uses mythical and imaginary elements to make an ordinary idea …show more content…

Magical realism uses plenty of sensory details to describe mythical and imaginative things. In the story The Old Man with Enormous wings by Gabriel Marquez, an example of sensory details would be "He spent his time trying to get comfortable in his borrowed nest, befuddled by the hellish heat of the oil lamps and sacramental candles that had been placed along the wire"(Marquez 1). If sensory details were not included you wouldn't be able to tell how the old man is feeling and you also wouldn't be able to envision that the oil lamps and sacramental candles are extremely hot. This shows that sensory details help to make the story better by including subtle details that help you to enjoy the story …show more content…

Since magical realism has a large amount of symbolism people have varying ideas of what the author is trying to convey. For instance in the story Young Goodman Brown written by Nathaniel Hawthorne an example of this would be "But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent"(Hawthorne 2). In this example the symbolism would be the staff in mythology snakes are typically looked at as being evil so by using this knowledge you could infer that the man is the devil or just someone who is evil. This is just one example of how symbolism can be used in magical realism and help to make a story more

Get Access