Rudy Wiebe Magical Realism Analysis

The analysis of the two stories will attempt to generalize what elements of real and fantastic are in most, if not all of “lo real maravilloso.” Before we analyse how magical and real elements are used in short stories, we first need to point out the definition of this literary style. Magical realism was first coined by German Franz Roh in 1925 to refer to a style of painting. Later, Alejo Carpentier took the term and expanded on it thanks to his early influences of surrealism. Carpentier was in fact was not satisfied by his poor contribution to surrealism, so he took ideas from the literary approach. The South American termed the new literary style as “lo real maravilloso.” Even up to now, there is still no agreement on a clear definition of what exactly defines a story as magical realism.

Subsequently, the reader can make different predictions on what will occur throughout Don’t Get Caught, and the ability to predict and analyze uniquely is one of the principal ideals of Postmodernist literature. Ultimately, the central purpose of an author’s novel is to engross the reader, by writing in a genre and movement that is appropriate the book. Appropriately, Kurt Dinan engages the reader with both a Mystery genre and Postmodernist elements in his novel, Don’t Get Caught. Postmodernists believe that traditional authority is false and corrupt, and the central theme of Don’t Get Caught is that the powerful students play pranks and humiliate the less influential students. There exists a social elite club known as the Chaos Club that plays pranks on the school and faculty, and nobody can figure out the leader of the club is or who the members’ are.

Surrealism is defined by Breton in his book ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’ (1924). Within this book, he states that the movement’s defining principle was “psychic automatism” meaning that thought derived from “any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” Overall, the main intention of ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’ is to escape both the past and everyday reality. Breton’s ideas and theories have influenced artists within the modern arts to incorporate his work within their own art, expanding and defining new ideas of

French designer Philippe Starck once claims: “I like to open the doors to people’s brain.” Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” reflects this principle in which the author advertently creates ambiguities and opens the possibilities of interpretation to the readers. Nathaniel Hawthorne employs commonplace symbols to present the ambiguity of sin and secrecy through a psychological lens in “The Minister’s Black Veil”. This short story also reflected the principle of Puritanism as well, such as the idea of manifest destiny represented by Mr. Hooper in the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. It is also worth to notice that John Hawthorne, one of the Salem Witch Trial Judges, was his great grandfather (Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography).

The nineteenth century was a breeding ground for many literary movements, including realism, romanticism and naturalism. Realism consists of literature that is consistent, predictable, and sticks to the “simple truth” of how regular people live and talk. Romanticism is literature that contains things of intellect, strangeness and remoteness and tries to make the familiar unfamiliar. Finally, naturalism is literature that has regular people in extraordinary circumstances; the hero is at the mercy of larger social and natural forces, which are cruelly indifferent; traces of social Darwinism can be found in the literature and there is generally a brutal struggle for survival. Realism can be seen in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

Timothy Brook, wrote the book “Vermeer’s Hat” to construct history through the examination of paintings, or objects within paintings. Brook quotes James Elkins who argues that paintings are like puzzles. The puzzle needs to be solved to satisfy the world’s confusion. He also conceders a painting to be a window into the past, that shows differences and similarities. He points out the mechanical discoveries such as the magnetic compass, paper and gunpowder has changed the world.

Light and Dark in Frankenstein Throughout Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the reader is torn between the forces of good and evil, as well as which characters represent which force. Perhaps the most masterful element of this novel is conveying how an individual can not be judged as wholly good or evil, and how having elements of both traits greatly forms the human experience. By using the motifs of light and dark to represent the positives and negatives of humanity, Mary Shelley is able to effectively convey character traits, depict transitions of good and evil within characters, and employ haunting symbolism and imagery into the novel and transform it into a literary masterpiece. The use of light and dark as imagery in the novel could not be

The theme of the novel is battling superstitions. In the story, Hank Morgan works out foolishness, when he fools the people to believe he is capable of magic. Hank also works modernize the sixth century by introducing nineteenth century inventions, which the people refuse to use. And finally, Mark Twain uses many kinds of examples of supernaturalism, along the lines of magic, witchcraft, and Devils. To conclude, the main theme of the classical, fantasy, story, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain is battling superstitions, while Hank Morgan works with foolishness, modernization, and

Magic realism or magical realism is a genre where magic elements play a natural part in an otherwise mundane environment .Magic Realism is used in the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold to show how usual occurrences seem mystical through the addition of illusory details. Although it is most commonly used as a literary genre, magic realism also applies to film and the visual arts . Marquez cleverly employs magic realism in his works (One Hundred Years of Solitude) to mix magic and reality so that the divergence between the two strikes out. This technique is utilized by Marquez through the addition of magical elements to humour, superstition, and dreams. Chronicle is defined as a factual written account of important events in the order of their occurrence .

One interesting factor about this novel is the fact that it incorporates magic realism. This is because the book provides an exaggerated representation of real life. The effect of magic realism has an interesting effect on the readers, as it exaggerates the reality. Using magic realism makes the novel timeless, an exaggerated version of the past, that is still applicable to the future. These two techniques are evidently seen in the different relationships in the story.