Old Man with Enormous Wings

Magical Realism

Magical realism, according to author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "…expands the categories of the real so as to encompass myth, magic, and other extraordinary phenomena in Nature…" (Marquez, Creighton.edu). Marquez has used magical realism very effectively in his short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings; he blends realism and fantasy so well that there does not seem to ever be a movement in the narrative from realism to fantasy. The English Department at Emory University takes the definition to a deeper level, suggestion that magical realism "…aims to seize the paradox of the union of opposites (emory.edu). Magical realism takes two very different (or "conflicting") perspectives and places them side-by-side for the sake of drama in a fictional narrative, according to the Emory University explanation.

One of the perspectives in magical realism is based on "a rational view of reality," but the...
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