Linking Magical Realism and the Sublime in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" links Magical Realism and Sublime literature to one another in such a way that Magical Realism seems to be a genre of the Sublime. This short story was published with a collection of other stories entitled Leaf Storm and Other Stories in 1955. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a native Columbian, has accomplished a great deal in the field of Magical Realism. This particular short story fulfills the requirements for Magical Realism and, at the same time, the Sublime. This fact leads one to believe that Magical Realism is, in fact, a genre of the Sublime instead of the Fantastic. The characteristics of Magical Realism match those of the Sublime much more extensively than those of Fantastical literature.
"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" includes many aspects, which may be described as magical. In the story, an old man with a very poor set of wings is found and kept as a pet for several years. These wings were described by the doctor in the story as "...so natural on that completely human organism that he couldn't understand why other men didn't have them, too" (528).
The fact that the old man had wings in the first place seems very acceptable to the characters, and this nonchalance is conveyed to the reader. To take an idea or an object that one is familiar with and distorting that image into something unfamiliar is called defamiliarization (Simkins 150). This use of defamiliarization is a very important characteristic of both Magical Realism as well as the Sublime. An angel is something with which most are somewhat familiar; however, Marquez's angel is a completely different type of angel. One e...
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...between Magical Realism and Sublime literature seems very obvious when one examines the criteria for each. Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" links Magical Realism and Sublime literature to one another in such a way that Magical Realism seems to be a genre of the Sublime. This short story fulfills the requirements of each. However, the requirements are the very same ideas and principles. Thus Magical Realism should be classified as a type of the Sublime.
Works Cited
Loginus. On the Sublime. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995.
Sandner, David. The Fantastic Sublime. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. 51-55.
Simpkins, Scott. "Sources of Magical Realism/ Supplements to Realism in Contemporary Latin American Literature." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 145-159.
...elements. I did not notice many realist elements in the story Like Water for Chocolate. However, the realist elements did not relate to the sublime as well as the magical elements did. That the sublime is not used as much in writing. I feel that the sublime needs to be more fulfilled for people to understand it better. There are many articles that a person can find on the sublime, and it would be a new, enjoyable experience to learn some information on something new in life.
Leal, Luis. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 119-123.
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”:Gabriel Garcia- Marquez story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, written in 1955, is about a family harboring what is thought to be a fallen old “angel man”, initially thought to be on his way to take their ailing child away. The angel must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down (Marquez, 1955). The family not knowing how to treat the situation embarks on a journey of mixed emotions of whether the man is good or evil, strange creature or angel. We will journey down the road of evaluation of the magical realism within this story.
Giants and Angels roam the pages of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, and “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World”, creating the perfect scene for magical realism. Many of the elements within these stories coincide with each other; this has everything to do with the overall component of magical realism, which binds together similarities and sets apart differences. The theme of each story can be found within the other and can stand by itself to represent the story it belongs to, the settings are similar in location and the ability to change but different in their downsides and the writing style is so similar it is complicated to find any differences. Marquez is a master story-teller whose works of art can only be compared with each other.
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Flores, Angel. "Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction." Magical Realism. Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham, N.C.: Duke UP, 1995: 109-116.
Tilburg, Elizabeth Van, and Kelly Goodall. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Magical Realism." Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Magical Realism. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
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