Final Reflection

Marquez and Allende use the element of magical realism throughout their novels for several evident reasons. Of course magical realism seems to fit into the society both the authors live and write in: the Latin American culture. The use of magical realism represents the attitudes and personalities of the characters, the set beliefs and traditions, gender roles, and settings in both novels. Additionally, I believe the authors use magical realism in order to support their choices to write their novels as fictional. To a degree, both of these novels could be written as nonfictional books. Allende’s novel becomes evidentially at least partially true, following historical records for the most part, and in that there is an incorporation of Allende and her family’s true experiences. Marquez’s story line could follow a general sense of truth, as this book is written in the form of recorded information from one individual based on many different interpretations of a murder. Had this story been true, or a story following such a story line, Marquez could have easily translated it to nonfiction. The authors chose to write these novels in the form of fiction however, and the use of magical realism is crucial to their stories. Because both authors have story lines which could be labeled realistic, they need to use magical realism to make it obvious that the novels are in fact fictitious. For example, in an interview of Allende, she stated her grandmother (whom Clara is inspired from), could in fact predict certain future occurrences, just as Clara is able to throughout the novel. In an American culture, the book would have been regarded as unbelievable had Allende incorporated this characterization in a non fictitious novel. Allende chose to make the novel fictitious, and thus was able to over exaggerate the magical element in other circumstances so the novel would successfully represent the Latin American culture and the characteristics of her family. In the case of Marquez, he is able to represent the belief system of the town in his novel. The reader may focus more on the pure significance of honor in the town (hence an important theme throughout the book), rather than the odd magical elements. The book is fictitious and so the magical realism was needed in order for the reader to view the novels true significance and not question certain unfamiliar aspects.