Magical Realism In House Of The Spirits

Magic realism is a style where magical happenings intrude a realistic surrounding. It’s what occurs when an extremely detailed, realistic plot is being interfered by something too unusual to believe. Mythology is a source of magical realism. It’s more like illusion, bordering the absurd. It always has a well-rounded down-to-earth base, where the author fuses her imaginable symbolism. Magical realism is a perspective towards reality that can be expressed in famous or cultured form, in perfected or natural styles, in open or closed structures. Magical realism is a paradox: it is the unity of contrast – life and death, the rational and supernatural, the precolonial past where magic plays an important role and the rational postcolonial present,

That’s what we call “magical realism”. Magical realism twists the reality way beyond imagination. Magical realism combines realism with the fantastic in such a manner that magical elements grow organically out of the reality that is being shown. Because the book the House of the Spirits is a novel based on magical realism itself, all the happenings will be connected with everything else in the book, meaning that basically everything has to do with magical realism. Therefore I will only explain the most outstanding and most important signs of magical realism explained in the fragment quoted above. "The first sentence of the fragment “Los poderes mentales de Clara no molestaban a nadie y no producían mayor desorden; se manifestaban casi siempre en asuntos de poca importancia y en la estricta intimidad del hogar” is a form of magical realism. Clara has mental powers that she uses in minor situations, but secretly. How can one have mental powers? Normally, mankind is unable to possess such power, thus it’s supernatural. Secondly, "...el salero comenzaba a vibrar y de pronto se desplazaba por la mesa entre las copas y platos, sin que mediara ninguna fuente de energía conocida ni truco de ilusionista" is also a form of magical realism. In this part of the fragment salt is capable of vibrating and moving between

This is a supernatural spectacle, which in some cases is the capability to predict the future or do something out impossible. It is symbolized as a gift of nature at times and has to do with the main characters in their daily life. This is exactly what happened with Clara. She had mental powers and could’ve predicted the future. The type of style of magical realism used in a book depends on the author herself. Each style is unique and really connected to the background of the author as well as the environment and surroundings of which the author came from and used as inspiration to write a book about it. Allende brought a completely different perspective in this story. She represents the female in the story as the leading force in the narrative, placing her in a very sufficient social position regardless her struggle for integrity. Her work is a reflection of a broad Latin American way of thinking, culture and behavior. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, she had to evacuate her country to live in exile for numerous years in Venezuela where she struggled to survive emotionally especially without her bond to her family in Chile. In Venezuela, Isabel was able to write this book, her first novel The House of the Spirits. What really is important about this book is her participation in the