Magical Realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude

Through this technique, a captivating believable story has been created by combining what is only imagined with what is the actual reality in a form of fantasy. This has managed to captivate the reader and draw his or her interest to this form of realism expressed throughout the story that the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude has expressed. Magic realism in his novel of One Hundred Years of Solitude has been used to exemplify the extraordinary out of the ordinary life as the narration talks of what is surreal in such a natural way that it becomes real. The use of new techniques, unusual time sequences, and narration given under a state of consciousness are among the devices revolving around this story that have been applied to make this magical realism achievable, where eerie, dreamlike tales and odds relate as commonplace to the events they link to.

This expression of art has been actualized throughout a mystical village known as Macondo,1and on how it has represented the strong influence of the Columbian culture on the culture of its people where key traits of expressing magic realism have been used, which is through the rejection of emotionalism and subjection, defamiliarisation, and the simultaneity of the future, present and past even as magic realism cannot be subjected to physical or natural laws. This way of life and cause of death was because he was born with a pig tail as a result of the incestuous union of his parents, growing up and living with a tail described to have hair that had grown together on its tip and cartilaginous shaped as a corkscrew.

This form of “curse” manifestation is what filled Ursula with fear giving her a strong affirmation that the same will result as an outcome if she would give in to the marriage to her cousin that was incestuous. Gabriel Marquez through Ursula’s conviction gives the reader realism to the possibility of this outcome of incest actually happening and there being an existence of a child born having the tail just as of a pig even though it seems unrealistic. The unrealistic and magical happenings to the people of Macondo were treated as a normal way of life and in that time a flying carpet was brought together with other forms of chicaneries and in cooperated into their way of life too.

To them, the flying carpet was viewed as a recreational object rather than a form of transport that had emerged to their society that would contribute fundamentally to their development. Absurdity is perceived by the Western culture on such an occurrence through its expressed logic and possibility. Though as the reader goes through t in the text, its religious logic way of explanation is acceptable since it’s a method that has been used widely to justify what is beyond human ability by the intervention of a nature that is higher and divine, giving a normalcy view to it and its magic realism embedded. His approach to the realistic form of magic, Gabriel Marquez goes further to include facts that are numerical in his novel for its adaptation in a more realistic and authentic form of events that are only imaginary.

In this pursuit, however, it’s undeniable that the events presented in a way of fantasy kindle questions on one’s view of them being as a form of a norm in everyday life, since what is portrayed by Marquez in his text through magical occurrences seems to be our daily life experiences in an exaggerated form. Such as in relation to an occurrence in his story, where rain was experienced continually, in a period of four years, eleven months, and two days. The numerical facts of these occurrences bring a realism aspect to it and at the same time an absurdity but then Gabriel Marquez uses both to relate to the reader in a way that the elements of fantasy are easily adaptable.

Further into the aspect of magic into the story unveiled in the novel, Marquez twisted dates and exaggerated them too as seen where he tells of Fernanda’s experience who would carry a calendar perceived to be delicate that had golden keys that were small and delicate attached to it. It was on this calendar that dates of abstinence of venereal acts had been marked using ink purple in color by her adviser based on spiritual divination. Her days of restriction were spread out in the markings including Sundays, sacrifices, menstrual cycle days, first Fridays, retreats, obligation holy days, bringing down her effective days to forty- two annually. The number of days that are put under her days of restriction seems absurd and unrealistic only giving it a sense of realism through the fact that calendars are actually used to track on days that are holy though hers deriving a concept of an exaggeration to restriction used on holy days in the usual manner.