Comparing A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, And Luis Borges '

Magical Realism is a genre of fictional literature and art. According to Zamora and Faris, Magical Realism is a fictional world in which the magic "is no longer quixotic madness, but normative and normalizing." The irreducible element in every Magical Realist story is natural yet not explainable by logic or common knowledge. The lack of explanation of what is considered, by the readers, an implausible happening is often hard to swallow. To mitigate the reader's common reaction of distrust of the narrator, Magical Realist writers employ certain literary tactics to help quell the reader's incredulity. Two stories that exhibit these characteristics are Gabriel Gracia Marquez's, "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings," and Jorges Luis Borges' "The

Like Borges' linking of the changing of the sun and railcar, in "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings," a doctor examining the winged man is surprised by the rationality of the wings. The doctor claimed, "What surprised him most, however, was the logic of [the old man's] wings. They seemed so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn't understand why other men didn't have them too" (Marquez 461). In this example, the doctor thinks of the old man as a human and that the wings are a rational addition to the old man. Marquez's mixing of winged humans and rationality, humanity, and the natural trust put in doctors, makes the unthinkable existence of the old man seem more credible. Borges also uses this tactic when he describes the dream that Dahlmann is insinuated to be living out. The story ends with him claiming, "if he had been able to choose, then, or to dream his death, this would have been the death he would have chosen or dreamt" (Borges 302). After Dahlmann supposedly leaves the sanitarium, it is often hinted at that he never truly left and that he is merely dreaming up an end for himself, rather than accept one from the sanitarium. The dream is told in such real detail and exactness that it seems as though it is truly happening. The realness of the dream almost overshadows the magical elements of it. The mixing of the two allow the reader accept both because

Usually, an angel is a beautiful, strong being cloaked in an ethereal white; this is not what comes to mind when imagining the old man. Similarly, the way that the townspeople treat him does not befit an angel, or even a human. They throw stones at him, burn him, cage him and pluck his feathers. This contradiction between what the people believe him to be and his image and the way that people treat him changes the reader's perspective of his existence. The townspeople's actions and his image manipulate the reader into seeing the old man not as an angel, or a human, but as an animal. An example of literary contradiction is when "they looked at him so long and so closely that [they] very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar" (Marquez 458). Marquez uses the words, "so long," "very soon," and "in the end" to create a written contradiction about time, not to mention that the old man became familiar, although he was unfamiliar. This contradiction makes time seem unreliable and less important. In Borges' work, the character's identity is what is called into question. The story opens up with Dahlmann telling the reader that he believes himself to be extremely Argentinian, despite his German heritage. This sets the readers up to seeing Dahlmann as a character that values the romanticism of reality. Also, Borges has set up the character for multiple or contrasting identities. This is seen