A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, By Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

In an extensive world of literature, with over 20 unique styles of fiction, it can be easy to forget what makes a genre what it is. Especially with minor genres, it is not uncommon for one to be reading what one thinks is a specific genre, but ends up being a completely different one. Magical realism, a genre that resembles many other genres of fiction, is commonly misunderstood because it has such different elements that may be overlooked as other genres. Magical realism separates itself from other styles of fictions by having metamorphosis, magical elements without fantasy, and does not follow the typical constructs of western time. All this occurs with the characters in the story treating these with normality. Magical realism is distinguished from other genres of fiction, such as fantasy, because animals or humans can metamorphosize, and when this transformation occurs, the characters view the event as normal. For example, in the novel Bless Me

For instance, in the short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, in the beginning of the tale, after an old man with wings is found, a citizen identifies him as “an angel.”(¶3) Indeed, the author left out aspects of fantasy, such as the entering of a portal to signify a new realm, to clearly illustrate that an angel is magic that is accepted in the story. Likewise, in the short story “The Moths,” by Helena Maria Viramontes, toward the end, as the narrator is performing a procedure to free the spirit of her dead grandmother, she places her body into water and “Then the moths came. Small gray ones that came from her soul and out through her mouth...”(¶16) The moths are the magical element that are included and smoothly integrated into the story, without fantasy components. The narrator never questions the moths and creates the reality for