Group A Post 4: Magical Realism and Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Bailey West

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is well known for incorporating magical realism into his work. Magical realism is present in stories that are anchored in reality but have elements of fantasy. According to Caroline Lee Schwenz in her article "Magical Realism", it "differs from pure fantasy primarily because it is set in a normal, modern world with authentic descriptions of humans and society". Marquez is known for using this in his stories; "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is no exception. In this short story, Marquez uses magical realism to incorporate a supernatural creature into reality. How they treat this creature says a lot about the "othering" effect and how we treat people that are different from us. We tend to exaggerate differences between each other as an excuse to ostracize the new person.

In many ways this story makes a statement about how we treat people that are new or different to us. Marquez uses magical realism to do this by introducing a supernatural creature. This creature is unique because it's mostly man. Although he startles Pelayo and Elisenda at first, they "very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar". This shows that we are able to recognize humanity in each other. However, the old man is stuck in a constant middleground. He is not a person, but the priest doubts that he's an angel either. Instead of focusing on the human parts they did see of the old man, they couldn't get over his huge wings. People gathered around him and threw food at him "as if he weren't a supernatural creature but a circus animal". According to the story, "even the most merciful threw stones at him". Even if we are able to see some humanity in people that are different from us, it is often derailed by the differences.



A closer look at the man exposes even more of his humanity. When Pelayo got close to the man "he noticed that seen up close he was much too human". This quote alone says a lot about humanity. Once we see each other up close- once we really take the time to look and relate to each other- we can see the similarities. It becomes much harder to ignore. This begins to have an impact on the family as the crowd dwindles and the old man remains in the chicken coop until it collapses. They keep him at a distance but they allow him to stay. This leaves us with some hope about humanity; maybe we can notice more similarities than differences.

We often focus on the differences and exaggerate them; we marvel at or make fun of these differences. We make a show of it. Marquez shows this by inventing a supernatural creature to bring out these traits of humanity and expose how we treat something that is so similar to us but also different. However, the ending implies tentative hope. In the end maybe the similarities can outweigh the differences. Maybe we can learn to accept each other and live in peace.

Scholarly Article: https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/21/magical-realism/