final response... until 3 more months- gabriella

Why do Marquez and Allende choose to create an alternate universe where the elements of magic are acceptable, or unremarkable? What is their intention in this design?

I think that both authors create this alternate universe to remain the Latin American culture in their stories. in Latin American writing magical realism is seen a lot and is used to create a sense of native roots and gives you more of a sense of who the characters are in the stories. i think to them it is unremarkable and "normal" because this way of telling stories is actually used in real life situations in latin american culture. since both authors are from latin american backgrounds they have grown up around this culture and magical realism has actually become their "reality". i think their intentions is to create a different experience for the reader, by making the reader accept this magic and feel more connected to the characters almost in a way initializing the reader into becoming one of the natives.

Final Blog Response - Toby

Why do Marquez and Allende choose to create an alternate universe where the elements of magic are acceptable, or unremarkable? What is their intention in this design?

Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez create an environment in which the elements of magic are not considered out of the ordinary in their respective novels House of the Spirits and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In HOS, the magical elements of the story are present in Clara's involvement with the spirit world, for example her encounter with the spirit of Ferula, as well as Pedro Garcia's method of dealing with the infestation of ants at Tres Marias. In CODF, magic can be seen in the way that Santiago Nasar manages to walk several hundred feet, desperately trying to keep his guts from falling out of his open wounds. In each of the stories, the author presents the events in a calm tone that causes the reader to accept them as truth, despite the unreasonable nature of some of them. Allende and Marquez do this in order to make other, more important parts of the novels, seem reasonable in comparison. By doing this, the authors allow readers to be more comfortable accepting the validity of the rest of the novel.

The authors of these novels present concepts that are foreign to readers unfamiliar with the setting of the novel. If readers were to question some of these essential aspects of the novels, it may take away from the overall meaning of the novel. HOS, for example, takes place in Chile in the throes of political revolution. The setting has such a large influence on the rest of the novel that if a reader were to question the legitimacy of it, the political statement being made by Allende would be weakened. A reader unfamiliar with Chilean history might be reluctant to believe many of the details about the military coup given by Allende. However, in relation to the clairvoyant nature of Clara that is present throughout the novel before the military coup, the retelling of the events of the revolution is easily accepted by the average reader. A similar method is used by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in CODF. The social commentary that Marquez makes within the novel is reliant on the role of characters. As Marquez describes events such as a man walking several hundred feet immediately after being repeatedly stabbed before collapsing, other events become more believable in comparison. Specific to CODF, it is believable that a town full of people would neglect to inform Santiago Nasar that he is about to be killed when this sort of magical realism plays such a prominent role in the novel. Thus, by creating this sort of setting, the authors of these novels highlight their own beliefs.

Final Blog-Emily

I believe Allende is creating an alternative reality through magical realism to show the juxtaposition between the more "magical" South American society and the orderly European society. In The House of The Spirits Clara symbolizes the spiritual/magical aspect of Chile while Esteban Trueba represents the orderly European influence on the country. This is shown when Esteban builds the big house on the corner according to European standards. Clara then proceeds to transform the house into a labyrinth of passageways and disorder. The house soon fills with magical spirits after Clara moves in. The transformation of the house exemplifies how in the Chilean society , the order of the European influence can never stand on its own and will always be influenced by Chilean culture.

In Chronicle of a Death Foretold , Marquez uses an alternate reality of magical realism to exemplify the how the whole book is a collection of memories. Marquez uses magical realism to switch various details of the same event to portray the passing of time.

final blog question

There are several reasons that Marquez and Allende choose to write outside of this tangible, "real" realm that we live in. In these made up worlds they can make something that is thought to be nonsensical to be a real, almost normal occurrence. It is possible to compare this to children, they are in their own worlds that they create. Children believe in magic and fantastical things that we used to dream of when we were younger and may still dream of. This belief is taken away from us by the world in which we live, by the rules we must abide by and the hard times we must withstand. magic almost makes it disappear and the reader gets sucked into this realm and can live there believing it. This magic that is created by the words of Marquez and Allende opens the readers brain to a new level of creativity while at the same time showing the truth of what was going on in Chile at the time. Not only are these novels to shed light into an unseen world they are to show a dark history and how it slowly changes into something better. A more straight forward answer would be to say that they write like that to hide the true meanings of their words. Hiding the fact that these are commentaries on the dictators and the patriarchal society.

Estrella's Response

I disagree that Allende creates an alternative universe to express elements of magic.  I think that Allende uses the universe we live in and expresses magical elements through magical realism, but makes them seem like real magical events. Allende describes events in which they seem like it is simply magic and it is true. She does that by creating the magic in our universe.  It is easier for us to believe because we believe things when we experience it. The thing we share is the universe so the way she describes magic is believable and can possibly be true.  She does this because she wants us to feel the magic. Her intention is for us to experience a three-legged table or a dog as big as camel.  I think Allende is successful in making us believe.

 On the other hand, I do believe that Marquez creates an alternative universe. This is accepted because I think the idea of magic is widely accepted in Latin American culture, and can be seen as a way of life. I think more than on what he intended, magic sub--consciously happened. It is just so common and expected that magic is something that comes natural in Latin America. Just like Allende, Marquez wanted us to accept or feel just as comfortable with magic.

Isabelle Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez create an alternate universe with magical realism as a means to casually foreshadow or foretell events in the plot and to maintain a steady plot structure. Clare in House of the Spirits is clairvoyant; numerous times through out the novel Clare will have premonitions enabling her to make proper decisions. One of the first times we see Clare's clairvoyancy is when she decides, after seeing her own destiny, to "marry without love". Also, once again Clare uses her clairvoyant ability to foresee, and announce the occurrence of an earthquake. Ferula setting a curse on Esteban, stating that he will shrivel and die alone like a dog, is also an example of magical elements casually happening unquestioningly. These three examples all use magical realism to foreshadow a later event or occurrence in the novel.
Chronicle of a Death foretold also use magically realistic elements which correlate with some sort of foreshadow, or premonition to a later occurrence. An example of this is Santiago Nasar's mother who is a dream reader. She first interprets Santiago's dream of timber trees, gentle drizzle, and bird shit not as anything to be worried about. Later she understands this dream to be an omen. Santiago later leaves his house after the dream dressed in his white satin which gives off the ghostly visage of an already dead man. This foreshadows Santiago's near death.

Final Blog

I believe that Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Isabel Allende use "magical realism" to create an alternative universe, due to the fact that religion is so strong in Latin American literature. Magic is acceptable because many Latin Americans believe that they can reach a sense of spiraturlaity through praying and magic. This then leads them to a better feeling of hope through prayer, and guide them through their hard times. For one of the main characters Clara she exsperences magic at first hand. "It was then that she began her first serious attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial beings... (Allende 210). Clara also exsprences later on in this page that magic is not always in her head, but in objects such as a three legged chair or pendulum. I believe that the authors add magical realism to their novels because magical realism can have a steady movement through a fiction novel that has so much religion involved. I also think that the authors add magical realism to make a point about how religion can open new doors and later on lead to a better decisions for some people. With magic the characters can exsprence warning before it happens for instance when Clara can sense the earthquake about to occur. Without magic in these novels, it would destory a sense of thought that a fiction novel should have, it keeps the reader thinking about what is gong to happen, and educates Latin American society.

Magical Realism

Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez use magical realism to express that real life can often be surreal to the point of seeming magical. Both of these stories chronicle bizarre stories that are based on real life events. The House of the Spirits follows a family through a huge earthquake, torture, and an uprising of a new political group. These real life events are so unusual that they themselves can seem magical. Allende is commenting on the oddness of these events by having magic and spirits be normal occurrences. To create the wonder of these real-life events more obvious Allende even has characters conquering their “fear of the ghosts Clara would invoke…but earthquakes [shake them] to the bones” (Allende 131). She is pointing out the oddness of the “real” events by making them seem abnormal in comparison to magic. Marquez also uses some magical realism for a similar effect. The death of Santiago in A Chronicle of a Death Foretold seems extremely foreign and unreal to many other cultures that do not view murder, society, and honor in this way. The addition of magic, such as reading dreams, helps the reader to notice the oddity of the events. The reader sees magical events and than notices that the event that happened is just as odd. Allende and Marquez are using magical realism to point out the strangeness and magic that happens in the world we live in.

Final Response - Elliot

In Allende's "The House of the Spirits" and Marquez's "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" the use of magical realism serves multiple purposes. The two main results, that I saw, from magical realism was acting as a dividing characteristic and create an environment for the reader in which magic is accepted as normal. In "The House of the Spirits" most characters believe in Clara's clairvoyant abilities and other magical aspects. Esteban Trueban, and Clara's parents did not support Clara's psychic abilities. This created a division amongst the characters. Since Clara's parents die early on it is difficult to see the results of this division, but I believe that it causes Esteban to lose his mind. Since magical realism allows the possibility for people to shrink, the reader accepts this, but Esteban searches for a scientific explanation. This rejection of magic contributes to Esteban's discontent. Also the magical realism allows for a completely different reading experience where Barrabas is able to be the size of a camel and where people can talk to spirits and see the future. Not only does it make the reading more "fantastical," it allows for a larger literary license. This license results in easier opportunities to foreshadow using Clara's abilities or having character diversity with Rosa's beauty and mermaid like qualities. Overall the use of magical realism creates an entirely different experience for the reader because the novel and the reader begin to accept magic as reality.

final reflection

Marquez and Allende choose to integrate magic into the mundane societies of their novels in order to further plot development as well as imitate Latin-American society and tradition. Neither "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"'s society nor that of "The House of the Spirits" allows for any form of "atheistic, practical, functional doctrine" (Allende 307), and both novels reveal the strong hold that the surreal maintains on Latin-American society. Catholicism as a reflection of culture is prevalent in both novels, making a magical influence inevitable. In Allende's "House of the Spirits", Clara conducts the energy and magic of both the house on the corner and the town. Allende manipulates her character to develop the novel's plot, instilling in Clara a mirror that reflects the mood and stability of Chile. When Clara dies, the magic dies with her and the town and country fall to turmoil, undergoing a coup and dictatorship. Allende creates ghosts to replace "the spirits...[and] luminous gaiety that had always been present because [Clara] did not believe that the world was a vale of tears" (Allende 295), establishing a sentiment of loss in both her novel and readers. The magic becomes a means for measuring the nation's stability. Marquez, meanwhile, chooses to emphasize the importance of honor and emotion over practicality in a Latin American community. His novel, set in a colorful yet tradition-ruled society, traces a murder commited for the sake of honor. Fate controls the course of both the plot and Santiago's life. Marquez's use of symbolism surrounding death, from dying from a broken heart to death by moral pain, culminates in Santiago Nasar's symbolic passing.

Final Reflection

Isabel Allende and Gabriel Marquez both use magical realism in their respective novels to achieve different goals. Allende creates an alternate universe where magic is accepted as normal as a technique to empower women. She gives nearly all of the female characters some link to the supernatural world and magical ability to exaggerate their power over men. The women are the only characters who have the ability to communicate with this other world. Gabriel Marquez uses magical realism as a means to create a supernatural realm that separates Latin American society from all other parts of the world.

Final Reflection

In one of her interviews, Isabelle Allende asks, "What's truer than truth? Answer: The story." Marquez and Allende choose to create an alternate universe where elements of magic are acceptable in order to create a stronger emotional truth. Creating a new universe where magic is accepted makes the magic true. Like Tim O'Brien, these authors are creating their own emotional truth, where the story is the truth, past actual fact.

However, culturally, they may not even be creating a "alternate" universe. In both books, magic seems to be accepted by the society and the authors really don't need to create anything. As opposed to making the new universe in their writing, they're just making the settings of their books based on that of Latin American society. Allende even addresses the fact that supernatural characteristics, such as Clara's clairvoyance, Rosa's mermaid appearance, and Barrabas's size, are valued in Latin America when she writes why Marxism won't succeed saying, "Don't you know it doesn't allow for the magical side of things?" (306). In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Marquez doesn't the same thing. He makes Nasar's mother able to see the future in her dreams, and puts value you on that by making her popular for this. Instead of creating an alternate universe, Allende and Marquez seem to be merely stating the value of magical elements in different Latin American societies.

Marquez and Allende's Intentions

Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende both create an alternate universe where magical elements exist. Their intentions of creating this factor in the novel is to deepen the readers connection into their books. Chronicle of a Death Foretold uses magical realism elements as a way to connect the reader on an emotional level that one could never have without the use of these elements. For example, the widower who owned the house that Bayardo San Roman was buying, ended up dying after he won the house from him. It was specified that he died of a broken heart, when in reality, people never physically "die" of a broken heart. Although it was a subtle use of a magical realism element, it still connected the reader to Marquez's storyline. In The House of The Spirits, Allende uses more obvious elements of magic such as Clara's ability to see into the future, which is an element of foreshadowing. Allende uses this element especially to connect the reader further into her novel, like Marquez.

Sophie's Response

Response to Final Blog Question, Sophie Keller
The fact that we are asking this question suggests that Marquez and Allende use magical realism to make their readers question the world around them. Many people prefer read without dissecting the book they are reading. However, Allende and Marquez want none of that. When Clara is speechless, Nivea tells her outrageous, magical stories. “She [nourishes] the hope that if she [keeps] putting ideas into Clara’s head, sooner or later [Clara will] ask a question and regain her speech” (Allende 79). Similarly, Allende and Marquez put strange and magical ideas into their readers’ heads so that their readers will regain their speech, and actively question and dissect their books. By creating obvious un-truths and straying far from the path of reality, the authors hope to draw attention to the many strange occurrences which happen outside the pages of their novels. However, this creates a conflict. If they want the reader to notice the oddities in their stories (and hence, be aware of the oddities in their own world), why do Allende and Marquez slip surreal elements into their stories so seamlessly? Each author creates a novel in which magic is such a part of the characters’ universe that half the time the reader must make an effort to even notice its inclusion. Allende and Marquez are making the point that extraordinary and unusual events exist in peoples’ everyday lives more often than they are aware of. Perhaps many are unaware of this fact because these events are often so seamlessly integrated, and on a much smaller scale than the happenings in House of the Spirits and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Therefore, Allende and Marquez include magic in their novels on a much grander scale. When made large, the reader sees and questions and perhaps becomes aware of eccentricities in their own lives.

Is it still magic?

The creation of a alternate universe by both authors is used to establish a truth that would otherwise be lost. Much like Tim O'brian made stories to provoke emotion and therefor a truth in his book, Allende and Marquez use magical realism to provoke a emotion that would be lost or less effective if they were to use rational in their stories. the magical realism allows for the stories to take up new levels, and new explanations. in house of spirits the character of Barabas would not be as memorable and significant without his size of a horse, he would not be as important to the readers. without Esteban shrinking would his fate truly be portrayed as effectively to the reader, and of course what would the house on the corner be without the spirits whispering into Clara's ear? and as for Chronicle of a death foretold, although the magical realism is less blatant it is through the beautiful detail and attention to ordinary events, the events then take on a more significant value to them. these descriptions are seen through the descriptions of Bayanardo and his activities in the church as well as raising the best swimmers in the village also when the poor widower dies of a broken heart. conclusively, the creation of a universe with magic is to illustrate all those things in life that logic cannot fully account for. Allende and Marquez are acknowledging that humans have a capacity to believe in the simple beauty in things and sometimes thats all it takes. and because of this truth that is seen in both novels, the magic ceases to become magic but instead, the simple reality.

Final Reflection

I think in the case of Isabel Allende's novel, elements of magical realism, like Clara's clairvoyance and Pedro Garcia's ant-eliminating strategy, are used because Allende herself lives in a magical world herself. In the interview that we listened to, she admits that Clara was based on her own grandmother. Allende believes that her grandmother had a sixth sense, and she was used to the presence of "spirits" in her household, although they were not necessarily the types of spirits that we usually think of - ghosts. Rather, they were shades of events and emotions past, remnants of the memories of past generations that remained with the household, like the spirits in the Big House on the Corner. For Allende, magical realism is simply realism.

I think Marquez uses elements of magical realism to distract from the supposedly journalistic style that an account of a murder case should be written in. For example, the interpretation of his dream in the beginning of the book seems like it should have some significance later in the book, but it really doesn't, except for Placido Linero's statement that she misinterpreted the symbols in his dream to be lucky, instead of unlucky. Let's face it, it wouldn't have mattered if she interpreted the symbols as unlucky. It wouldn't have prevented his death, or altered his course of action on the day of the murder. Magical realism is used to further cloud the memory of the day of the murder to an extent that not one of witness's or narrator's account can be trusted. Faulty memory, I think, can also attribute to images that resemble magical realism in retrospect.