Behind the Works of Magical Realism

Magical Realism is a broad and all encompassing sub-genre of Science Fiction. Magical Realism captures both the bitter,  harsh reality of life and the boring repetitiveness of the everyday. Combining the ideas of both reality and fantasy, allows the author to explore the more risqué aspects of real life through the shield of the pen. Using fantasy as a 'cover', the author can deliver severe criticisms of the current culture or even their political situation. Using the protective veil of fantasy becomes especially important when considering the root of Magical Realism. 

                  Charley Toorop

Magical Realism first started in South America, where many authors faced political issues and an endless struggle of upheaval.The readers can find traces of political unrest in the genre, many themes of the stories include revolution and prominent authoritarian megalomaniacs. Authors of Magical Realism created hopeless, sad characters. The characters usually lacked achievement and were trapped in the situations society places them, "Characters rarely, if ever, realize the promise of a better life. As a result, irony and paradox stay rooted in recurring social and political aspirations [of Magical Realism]" (Post-Colonial Studies at Emory). 

                  Paul Christiaan Bos 

Authors of Magical Realism wrote stories that questioned the idea of gender, an especially interesting angle coming from the traditional society in Latin America. In Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, the main character Tita developed from a quiet and submissive girl to a defiant, independent woman. Tita, as the youngest daughter and the one 'responsible' for her father's death, is supposed to stay unmarried and childless until her mother's death; using her youth to become her mother's caretaker. 

Esquivel also looks at the sexuality of women. The unmarried women of the house are expected to stay pure and chaste. Even the married sister has sex through a hole in a sheet. But despite Tita's restrictive life, Tita cooks with her emotion and her cooking  captures the deep intensity for Pedro, her sister's husband. Her emotional cooking prompts an awakening in the house, rousing the 
sister, Gertrudis, into fleeing the ranch in a sexual fury. 

Another Magical Realist book, House of Spirits by Isabel Allende also reenforces the idea of a woman coming into her own, after being trapped by her parent's expectations. In the book, the characters are also ruined by a political revolution, as the rebels in Chilé overtake the main characters hacienda, and capture and torture the daughter. 

Magical Realism question politics and the effects that it has on the characters. Whether the characters are impacted negatively or not, the author sets the story in places of turmoil and uses fantasy as a  solution maker and as a coping mechanism. Magical Realism ask the question, 'can the common man can control powerful outer forces, despite their place in life.' By giving the common man literal power, magical realism allows the characters to change the circumstances of their life.  Whether political turmoil or gender construction, characters can use magic to control situations that, in a real world, would be overbearing. 

Works Cited

The House of the Spirits. Dir. Bille August. By Bille August. Perf. Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder. Miramax, 1993. YouTube. 

Like Water for Chocolate. Prod. Alfonso Arau. Dir. Alfonso Arau. Miramax, 1992. Youtube. 

Moore, Lindsey. "Postcolonial Studies - Magical Realism." Scholarblogs Emory. Emory University, 1998. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <https%3A%2F%2Fscholarblogs.emory.edu%2Fpostcolonialstudies%2F2014%2F06%2F21%2Fmagical-realism%2F>.