Fantastic Elements of Saint George and The Dragon

1093 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theory about magical realism

Fantastic Elements of Saint George and The Dragon

Margaret Hodges adapted "Saint George and The Dragon" from its original work that was written by Edmund Spencer. "Saint George and The Dragon" is a short story that was published in 1984. Margaret Hodges, who adapted this fantastic literature, is from North America. " Saint George and The Dragon" shows many characteristic of Magical Realism; however, it is Fantastic Literature.

"Saint George and The Dragon" is similar to Magical Realism because the characters within the story treat the events as a normal occurrence. The way in which reality is mixed with a touch of non-reality supports that the story is one of Magical Realism. Another essential part of Magical Realism is the normality of the characters. The lead character within "Saint George and The Dragon" is ordinary or mundane. Unlike fantastic literature with its Hercules and many unreal heroes, Saint George is just a normal human being. Finally, the one element that carries the largest weight is no limitations are set through out the entire story. The way that the story sets no boundaries is extremely important. It is for that reason that "Saint George and The Dragon" is probably teetering on the balance of being listed under Magical Realism.

"Saint George and The Dragon" does have its differences from Magical Realism, though. For instance, many things within the short story could never happen or even exist. Dragons, Fairies, and Dwarfs are all unrealistic. What is even more unrealistic is the fact that Saint George battles the dragon and defeats it.

Biblical allusions are sewn throughout the short story. The biblical allusions seemed as if they where almost subliminally encoded. Perhaps the simplest clue is in the title, Saint George. However, if one reads closely one can begin to pick up on the biblical allusions:

But the old hermit said, "The Fairy Queen has sent you to

do brave deeds in this world. That High City that you see is

in another world. Before you climb the path to it and hang

your shield on its wall, go down into the valley and fight

the dragon that you were sent to fight. It is time for me to

tell you that you were not born of fairy folk, but of English

earth. The fairies stole you away as a baby while you slept

Show More
Related

  • Identifying The Day We Were Dogs

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    In magical realism, "the text contains something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as we know them" (Faris 167) and the "descriptions detail a stong presence of the phenomenal world" (Faris 169). These quotes explain why one might think that this story is magical realism due to the two different worlds that are going on at the same time. Also, one "experience[s] the closeness or near-merging of two realms, two worlds" (Fari...

    Read More

  • Thoreaus Elements of American Romanticism

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ing Henry David Thoreau into a prominent American Romantic writer. Such elements include his writings about life in Nature having great solitude; he became friends with the surrounding plants and animals. Secondly, he wrote about what was occurring day to day at Walden’s Pond which showed him as being individualistic. Moreover, there was the idea that God can only be found in nature, and pantheism was constant idea in his book. Finally, Thoreau wrote about intuition as a means of obtaining knowledge, and his use of senses as a tool for building intuition. These ideas time and time again show the various aspects of Thoreau being portrayed as an American Romantic which has lead to a great historical achievement as a writer that he well deserves.

    Read More

  • Relationship between Sublime and Magical Realism Explored in The Monkey

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    For these reasons, based on the examination of these two works, one cannot assume that Sublime literature and Magical Realist literature are the same, nor can one assume that they are genres of one another. They seem to have many characteristics in common, and therefore one would assume that they maintain a close relationship, although independently. By comparing and contrasting another genre of literature with Magical Realism, the defining boundaries that make up Magical Realism are narrowed.

    Read More

  • Magical Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marqez's A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    The controversy surrounding Magical Realism makes the classification of what is and what is not Magical Realism very difficult. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a famous Latin American author, has written many pieces of what is generally conceived to be Magical Realism. Marqez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" fulfills every characteristic of Magical Realism..

    Read More

  • The Influence of Byzantine Culture on the Renaissance

    1070 Words  | 3 Pages

    Reiley, Stephanie. “Issue 10 – Why a Tiny Home?” 27 July 2009. Web. 2 Mar. 2013

    Read More

  • Thoreau as Natural Scientist

    1622 Words  | 4 Pages

    McGregor, Robert Kuhn. A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau’s Study of Nature. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

    Read More

  • Thoreau’s Journey: Problem, Need, Lifestyle, and Revelation

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through this account of his spiritual experiment and journey, Thoreau demonstrates key transcendentalist themes. Beginning by pointing out the problem of self-alienation, Thoreau expresses the need for spiritual re-awakening. Through the pursuit of solitude, simplicity, and introspection, his journey leads him to discovery of the divine in himself and the world around him. While his ultimate solution must be rejected by Christians, his candid observations of the human condition are chilling. Walden stands as a beautiful but tragic monument to the phenomenon of American transcendentalism.

    Read More

  • Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Walden

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.

    Read More

  • Sandra Cisneros's “Never Marry a Mexican”

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2004. 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 21

    Read More

  • The Use of Magical Realism in Regard to Homosexuality

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    Magical realism, by definition, is a literary style that addresses social concerns, but masks the...

    Read More

  • The Millennials and Politics

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Critics of this generation have some pretty negative things to say about the Millennials, which are being interpreted in a way that is casting a shadow on their future in politics. Joel Stein, writer for Time magazine, calls them “lazy, entitled, selfish, and shallow” and defends that claim with “the incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older” (Stein 28). Those critics then take that idea and assume that they will not get up and vote. They then take it even further and...

    Read More

  • Magical Realism and Man's Search For Meaning

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    Magical realism was first coined by Franz Roh when he was writing about paintings. Artaro Ulsar Pietri was the first to use the term when talking about literature. Magical realism is also related to other academic fields such as philosophy, psychology, mathmatics, physics, and theology. Im magical realism, "the writer confronts reality and tries to untangle it, to discover what is mysterious in things, in life, in human acts" (Leal 121). Viktor E. Frankl uses this concept in his book Man's Search For Meaning.

    Read More

  • The Political Process

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    I feel that, for the most part, mine along with others in my age group’s concerns are not addressed by the political process. To answer this, I took a look at political socialization and how I was socialized politically. Some of my concerns include: minimum wage, social security, pollution and global warming, school loans, and legal ages. There are many reasons why, that I understand, that my generation’s opinions of these issues are not addressed, which I will talk about throughout this paper. Overall, the political process does not address our concerns and voices.

    Read More

  • Use of Magical Realism in Chronicle of a Death Foretold

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Subculture Of The Grunge Cultures

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ted Halstead’s article for the Atlantic “A Politics for Generation X” says “Xers are less politically or civically engaged, exhibit less social trust of confidence in the government” (Halstead, 2).

    Read More

More about Fantastic Elements of Saint George and The Dragon

Open Document