One Hundred Years of Solitude - Magic Realism
One Hundred Years of Solitude Magic realism is a literary form in which odd, eerie, and dreamlike tales are related as if the events were commonplace. Magic realism is the opposite of the "once-upon-a-time" style of story telling in which the author emphasizes the fantastic quality of imaginary events. In the world of magic realism, the narrator speaks of the surreal so naturally it becomes real.
Magic realism can be traced back to Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote during the 1920s,according to noted critic Franco (309). In fact, Jean Franco notes that "the techniques utilized by García Márquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude are frequently compared to those of Jorge Luis Borges" Franco (309). However, it was not until the 1940s that Latin American writers began to experiment widely with new techniques and introduced stream of consciousness narration, unusual time sequences and other devices into the novel.
In the 1940s, a group of Latin American writers published works which incorporated new techniques. The writers included Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala); Alejo Carpentier (Cuba); Juan Rulfo, Agustin Yanez, Carlos Fuentes, and Jose Revueltas (Mexico); Lepoldo Marechal, Eduardo Mallea, and Ernesto Sabato (Argentina); and Juan Carlos Onetti (Urugay). According to one critic, "Their work differed greatly from that of their predecessors of the 1920s for there is a wealth of formal experiment, a display of imaginative powers and a command of language hitherto unprecedented in Spanish America" (Franco 310). Dos Passos, Faulkner and other modern North American writers were also very important to the development of the technique of stream of consciousness.
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, García Márquez perfectly integrates unusual incidents into everyday life. As observed by one critic, "The magic realism in García Márquez's novel forms a broad and diverse spectrum ranging from the literally extraordinary though nonetheless possible, to the farthest extremes of the physically fabulous and unlikely" (Bell-Villada 108). For example, Colonel Aureliano Buendía tries to commit suicide and shoots himself in the chest, but the bullet exits out his back without injuring a single organ. This phenomenon has been known to occur, although it does not happen very often.
García Márquez illustrates the technique of magic realism within the description of his characters. In describing Melquíades, García Márquez says, "He is a fugitive from all plagues and catastrophes that had ever lashed mankind" (6). This a very difficult statement to believe, but García Márquez continues: "He had survived pellagra in Persia, scurvy in the Malaysian archipelago, leprosy in Alexandria, beriberi in Japan, bubonic plague in Madagascar, an earthquake in Sicily, and a disastrous shipwreck in the Strait of Magellan" (6). Once again, García Márquez is able to make unbelievable ideas seem possible.
Throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude, García Márquez exaggerates events to gain fantasy. However, the exaggeration is almost always numerically specific and gives each occurrence a sense of reality, notes critic Bell-Villada (109). Examples of this are Colonel Buendía's thirty-two defeated uprisings; the rainstorm that lasts four years, eleven months, and two days; and Fernanda's crisscrossed calendar of sex, containing exactly forty-two "available" days.
Magic realism as a technique of transforming the fantastic into reality is represented by García Márquez. He has the ability to turn the unbelievable into the believable, as demonstrated in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
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