In “Chac Mool”, Carlos Fuentes uses magical realism to express the relationship between the past and the present. The short story begins with the narrator, a co-worker of Filbert, who learns about Filbert’s tragic death and goes to pick up the man’s possessions. However, the narrator soon discovers Filbert’s journal, which depicts his struggle with the sculpture of Chac Mool. The form in which the story is presented emphasizes a collision between the past and present. This is because the journal entries tell the tale of Filbert’s encounter with the Chac Mool before his death, thus the reader’s conscious is constantly being divided between the past and the present. As a result, the very structure of the short story serves as a way to emphasize the surreal flow of the past into the present. …show more content…
This depicts Filbert’s relationship with the past, as he appears to be in “anguish” when remembering the past and realizing the way in which modernity has taken over the Mexican lifestyle. Thus, it can be interpreted that Filbert is holding onto the past similarly to how a child would hold onto an old toy. Nevertheless, just as a toy, or in this case “tin soldiers, wooden swords, or helmets” the trinket will eventually become insignificant to the vast majority, leaving it to become nothing but a simple memory especially when presented with new playthings. In addition the statue of Chac Mool appears to be experiencing similar sentiments with regards to the past and present. The Chac Mool is able to transform to a living being and uses Filbert as his personal
What would you do for love? Would you break up a marriage or assassinate an Archduke? In the short story “IND AFF” by Fay Weldon the narrator must make a choice on whether or not to continue her love affair while examining the Princip’s murder of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. The story is set in Sarajevo in Bosnia, Yugoslavia where the assassination took place. Through irony, symbolism and setting, Weldon uses the parallel between the narrator and Pincip to show that seemingly inconsequential actions of an individual can have great consequences.
Faris, Wendy B. "Scherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995.
...story telling traditions. All storytellers are children of the ones, which came before them and stand on the shoulders of those who have told the tales in the past. Marquez and Anaya did not hesitate to make liberal use of magical realism, both as a way to create tension in their stories and to contact the deeper hearing of their audience. Magical realism was just another tool in their literary boxes, to be used with skill and discretion for the greater benefit of the tale being told. It worked well for the cantadora, sitting in the doorway weaving her basket as she wove her tale and it works equally well today as we pause from our lives, quiet our souls, and prepare to listen as the story unfolds.
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” is a short psychological thriller. The murder of Fortunato haunts Montresor so greatly that he feels the compulsion to tell the story some fifty years after the fact. He appears to be in the late stages of life desperately attempting to remove the stain of murder from his mind. That it is still so fresh and rich in specifics is proof that it has plagued him, “Perhaps the most chilling aspect of reading Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ for the first time is not the gruesome tale that Montresor relates, but the sudden, unpredictable, understated revelation that the murder, recounted in its every lurid detail, occurred not yesterday or last week, but a full fifty years prior to the telling” (DiSanza).
...ty grounded in a largely invented Mexica past, which they attempt to live in the present, that is that of the main body of the Concheros” (Rostas 15). People are always looking to find their identity, and where they fit in, in their communities.
“An action-occurs which proceeds from the supernatural (from the pseudo-supernatural); this action then provokes a reaction in the implicit reader (and generally in the hero of the story). It is this reaction which we describe as ‘hesitation,’ and the texts which generate it, as fantastic” (Todorov 195). The fantastic is the moment of hesitation that is experienced by the reader who is confronted by a supernatural event in the story or novel and thus understands the laws of nature are put into question. Todorov uses three conditions that constitute the fantastic, in the first, the reader enters the character’s world and considers it a natural world and so the reader hesitates between determining whether there is a natural or supernatural explanation of the events that occur in the story. The second condition is when the reader identifies himself with the character in the novel and by doing so interprets the events by the characters in the novel. Lastly, the reader must obtain an attitude in relation to the text, and decide what levels or modes of reading he or she will hold. The fantastic can be divided into two genres, the uncanny and the marvelous. The marvelous occurs when a reader must create new laws of nature for the particular event to occur, whereas the uncanny is when reality remains intact and there is an explanation for the event. Todorov argues that the ambiguity persists even after the reader is finished with The Turn of the Screw which is interesting but there are stronger textual clues that support the governess was in a state of hysteria.
it is unmistakable that life situations inspired Juan Rulfo to write this story. He like no other person had a greater understanding of how to portray the theme of family especially missing a father as a role model, death, survival and revenge. Moreover, through the use of local Mexican language it furthermore developed the society in which peasants had to live during the post-revolution. Additionally Juan Rulfo tries to add all five senses in the story forming magical realism and a vivid picture that the readers can understand. Overall, the readers learn a lot about peasant’s approach to life after revolution that the main drive was
These juxtaposing elements are never revealed under a glaring light, however. Davies uses prose that is nothing short of elegant, and weaves a mythical tale that is imbued with much realism. Real-life incidents are transfused with many amazing "coincidences," paving the path to surrealism.
Giants and Angels roam the pages of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, and “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World”, creating the perfect scene for magical realism. Many of the elements within these stories coincide with each other; this has everything to do with the overall component of magical realism, which binds together similarities and sets apart differences. The theme of each story can be found within the other and can stand by itself to represent the story it belongs to, the settings are similar in location and the ability to change but different in their downsides and the writing style is so similar it is complicated to find any differences. Marquez is a master story-teller whose works of art can only be compared with each other.
Gabriel García Márquez, 1982 Nobel Laureate, is well known for using el realismo magical, magical realism, in his novels and short stories. In García Márquez’s cuento “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” García Márquez tactfully conflates fairytale and folklore with el realismo magical. García Márquez couples his mastery of magical realism with satire to construct a comprehensive narrative that unites the supernatural with the mundane. García Márquez’s not only criticizes the Catholic Church and the fickleness of human nature, but he also subliminally relates his themes—suffering is impartial, religion is faulty by practice, and filial piety—through the third-person omniscient narration of “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes.” In addition to García Márquez’s narrative style, the author employs the use of literary devices such as irony, anthropomorphism, and a melancholic tone to condense his narrative into a common plane. García Márquez’s narrative style and techniques combine to create a linear plot that connects holy with homely.
Faris, Wendy B. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 2004. 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. 21
...book. These symbols and recurrences are not coincidental or superficial, but upon investigation, give deeper insight into how deeply the mindset of our main character was affected. We now know that Felipe had almost no choice and was lulled into this household. Then there is a plausible explanation about the true relationship between Aura and Senora Consuelo. This book turns out to be a very strange life/death cycle that still leaves questions that need to be answered.
Flores, Angel. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 109-116.
Several months prior to the opening of the story, the Colonel’s son, Agustín, had been killed at a cockfight for distributing secret political literature. The Colonel is torn between his desire to keep his son’s prizefighting cock in order to enter it into the cockfights in January and his need to sell it to provide food for himself and his wife. The story focuses primarily on the Colonel’s pride in trying to conceal his poverty-stricken state and his ironic and humorous outlook to his situation. The central metaphors in the story are the pension, which never arrives, but for which the colonel never ceases to hope, and the fighting cock, which also represents hope, as well as his son’s, and therefore the whole village’s, political rebellion. Although at the time, he was under political oppression he keeps his pride and dignity.
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.